Happy 2024, everyone! With another year passed by, we thought it would be interesting to delve into what worked (or not) in the box office analysis of 2023, as there is an abundance to discuss and analyze. Studios were rewarded for bucking the familiar and embracing newer ingredients for the big screen. Not all was sound, though, as specific genres lost their luster while other films couldn’t get the chance to shine due to distribution mishandling or behind-the-scenes matters.

Overall, the domestic box office was over $8.5 billion, another step in the positive direction as we return to pre-pandemic levels. There was a dip in the number of movies that became shown in theaters (88 films) compared to 2019 levels (108 films) due to the strikes’ potency and requiring a weighty overhaul in further releases and projects getting initiated. 2024 has the ingredients to recover extensively, but 2025 might be the safer bet.

So, without further ado, let’s dissect how respective titles, IPs (intellectual properties), studios, and other matters faired at the box office in 2023. Let’s kick off with the groundbreaker:

Big Winner: “Barbenheimer” Rocks the Summer and Pop Culture Trends

The defining sensation of 2023 was packed all in one weekend, blowing numbers out of the water. The counterprogramming tactic, due to their significantly different presentations, made it equally alluring and sensational. Barbie and Oppenheimer intended to explore existentialism and humanity’s perspective on fantasy/reality while luring in all the numbers they could, as both dismantled all expectations.

Technically, yes, Greta Gerwig is no Christopher Nolan, but at this moment, you don’t care about legacies or film collections. On this one occasion on July 21st, fans could witness both films on the same weekend for weeks to come, and a new pop culture trend erupted. The originality and invention allowed these two features to stand out for several weekends, as each complimented one another in demographics and when recognizing their polar opposite tones.

Barbie took home a whopping $1.44 billion worldwide. It became the highest-grossing comedy feature ever, the largest opening for an original feature, and one directed by a woman. It became the highest-grossing Warners Brothers film, topping Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It’s also the highest-grossing domestic feature under Warner Brothers (beating out The Dark Knight) and the highest-grossing weekend for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

Oppenheimer attained $955.2 million worldwide. It is the highest-earning WW2 film in history (beating Nolan’s Dunkirk), the highest-grossing biographical film in history (ahead of Bohemian Rhapsody), and the 2nd-highest-grossing R-rated film behind Joker. Nolan’s latest work also accumulated $184 million in IMAX theaters, the fourth-highest ever, and became his highest-earning film in over fifty overseas markets.

The trend was a spectacular boon that’ll carry over into the 2024 awards season and a thrilling moment we’ll be talking about for years. “Barbenheimer” won’t be replicated, nor should it be attempted.

Loser: Tom Cruise, the 2022 Box Office Megastar, Loses to Respective Trend

Sorry, Mr. Cruise, but your timing with the latest Mission Impossible couldn’t beat this enormous trend. Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick was the leggy feature keeping the box office on its toes throughout 2022, certifying Cruise as a bona-fide box office star. With the seventh Mission Impossible on deck, everything indicated Cruise’s numbers would explode further.

However, two key factors set it up for a risky scenario from the start, with one being its heavy $291 million budget and the other being its release date regarding Barbie/Oppenheimer opening a weekend after. Add in a nearly three-hour runtime, and this had to be something fantastic to leg out.

And while Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is an excellent feature, it couldn’t hold up against the Barbenheimer double-headed phenomenon while losing IMAX theaters to Oppenheimer and Sound of Freedom quietly chipping away at its domestic numbers over the summer.

Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie crafted an ambitious, dense feature that would’ve probably benefitted from being released a few weeks earlier. With only $567.5 million worldwide, this is an unfortunate disappointment. Who knows where the eighth installment will take us regarding stunt work and spectacle in 2025, but it’ll have to cover up this one’s numbers.

Winner: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

It was inevitable, but we finally got Mario on the big screen. Taking a page out of Sonic the Hedgehog‘s book, The Super Mario Bros. Movie became poised for family-friendly success once marketed. The brothers jumped through the Warp Pipe, and Mario landed in the Mushroom Kingdom while Luigi landed in the Dark Lands. Mario must save Luigi from King Bowser and stop him and his friends from destroying the Mushroom Kingdom. Boasting a top-tier cast, a nostalgic IP, and a relatively acceptable product ensured it was on the path to passing $1 billion worldwide.

Here is a list of all the records it broke:

– Illumination’s highest earning feature with $1.361 billion

– Surpassed Frozen II for the highest-earning worldwide debut with $375.6 million and the biggest opening for Illumination

– First animated feature film to top $1 billion since COVID

– Highest-earning video game-based feature ever

– 2nd-biggest domestic opening for an animated feature (behind Incredibles 2)

– Highest earning feature in Mexico, beating out recent Spider-Man: No Way Home

Universal took the crown with this IP and never shied away from making the most of it for the rest of the year. Even when Barbie took its crown away, it still was an unwavering success, and now, they have a fully loaded cannon for future sequels and spinoffs at their disposal.

Winner and Loser: The MCU is Showing Signs of Decay

Before we dive into the pros and cons, let’s set something straight: Disney has fatally mishandled its once S-tier franchise since the COVID days, as every other month is another bit of oversaturation regarding superhero content that becomes bloated and simultaneously quite vexing to keep up with.

Last year, they could “just” get by on the backbone of several sequels to Doctor Strange, Thor, and Black Panther, as folks were interested in seeing the following tales of fun and what was brewing since Avengers: Endgame. Regarding Black Panther, the stories of Wakanda had to plunge in a different direction due to the absence of the late Chadwick Boseman. Fatigue slaughtered some of their efforts in 2023, and it certainly reflected in two of the three live-action films produced at their end. Discounting the television series, only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 kept to its core and was the true triumph of all live-action superhero movies in 2023. Grossing $845.5 million worldwide, this was an unmitigated win for the MCU.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicked off 2023 in a depressing manner. Peyton Reed and the staff dismantled why we appreciated our tiny hero and his family. They resorted to the monotonous “new Avengers-level” threat by dropping us in a location with our next evil guy and stripping the juvenile stunts with tedious exposition and unengaging characterization. Jonathan Majors, one of the few bright spots, will not be in the role of Kang in the future due to legal troubles, and there’s no sense of wonder in trying to witness another Ant-Man feature after this stunt. Even with $476.1 million, it couldn’t break even.

And then, The Marvels got hit with every brick and floundered with $205.6 million, the lowest-earning entry in the franchise ever. While not a bad feature, it stood obstructed by overexposure to more superhero content, lack of marketing (due to the strikes), and not enough of a “requirement” to witness its existence (whereas its predecessor became sequestered between two Avengers films, and folks jumped at the opportunity to witness Brie Larson and her friends skyrocket to over $1 billion at the box office in 2019).

Marvel is at a critical time point because they can’t settle for the “meh” status any further, as folks have set higher expectations based on their track record. And any feature they toss out now is not a guaranteed hit (unless its brand is the Avengers, Spider-Man, or Black Panther). The X-Men and Deadpool won’t save them; the resolution lies in correcting the mapping of this shared universe and building upon the characters like they once did over a decade ago. We adored Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor because of their quiddities and shared chemistry; now it’s time to restart the clock and do it again to produce the winning combination, or the franchise will slowly wither away.

Winner: Animated Superheroes Delight

Ah, animation, a commendable story, and including a fun IP make a winning combination!

It was no different for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Both features performed well, particularly the former swinging into action with $690.5 million globally, and provided vibrant storytelling and plentiful fun. Oddly enough, both could defy the plaguing issues regarding almost every live-action superhero movie in 2023, but they remained at their core and gave families something to resonate with.

Across the Spider-Verse nabbed other records, such as becoming the highest-earning animated feature distributed by Sony and attaining the highest opening weekend for a Sony Pictures Animation film.

Overall, this section of the superhero genre held its own beautifully, which is more that can be said for…

Big Loser: Reboot or Not, DC Still Can’t Catch a Win

Oh boy.

Somehow, in a year where live-action superheroes couldn’t catch a break, Warner Brothers went 0-4 in terms of distributions, box office totals, and blockbusters that frustrated us all.

It’s inconceivable to think, as two of the four titles were sequels to keep tabs on after their predecessors proved their existence (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Shazam! Fury of the Gods), while one was calling into question whether a speedster could hold a feature on their own (The Flash). The unknown newcomer presented is to become a new figurehead to spear into DC’s universe (Blue Beetle).

And yet, not one could conjure up something to keep them in the race, bringing up diluted results thanks to egregious visuals, bland character development, and some preposterous writing choices. Much like Marvel’s case, DC neglected how to make their features indelible and entertaining. Now granted, we are being stark in lambasting much of DC’s faults as some good moments spread throughout the four films within 2023 (Michael Keaton’s return as Batman, Jason Momoa basking in juvenile silliness, and the Latino representation in Blue Beetle).

But, here’s the catch: Warner Brothers announced another reboot of their DC brand in October, dismantling any further developments with the once-fathered-in toxic Snyderverse fan base of the DCEU and rehauling every creative decision and character. Before the announcement, WB tossed Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max as cannon fodder, Batgirl got shelved after near-completion, Dwayne Johnson’s attempt to rehaul with Black Adam became an astute failure, and Ezra Miller leaped into behind-the-scenes drama repeatedly before his debut feature.

James Gunn and Peter Safran will now helm the next “DC Universe” to reignite this brand. But at what cost? Time and hundreds of millions of dollars when Warner Brothers could’ve not attempted to become more like Disney’s commanding success with Marvel and focused on developing more miniature tales to build to a worthwhile crescendo.

Imagine a scenario where Batman vs. Superman could’ve dropped a decade after Man of Steel instead of hurtled into combat with Marvel at their highest point of character development and ambition. Or, the first Justice League film was proposed for 2025 to bolster every actor’s stock and persona onscreen.

Thus, with the DCEU collapsed after losing every case in 2023, and for a franchise that only had a few noteworthy hits (Wonder Woman, Shazam!, and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and its Peacemaker TV spinoff series) in its lifespan, this series flatlined a long time ago thanks to monotonous substandard products.

Winner: Knock at the Cabin Keeps M. Night Shyamalan Afloat as a Box Office Name

Ah, look, it’s a Shyamalan feature that’s not (terribly) substandard!

We’ve spoken about this before two years ago when Old came to life and dropped $90 million on Universal’s front step, another marquee win of Shyamalan when theaters were remaining optimistic for recovery since COVID. Even during a decade-long slump of features on his end, folks still turned up for his original, high-concept thrillers to see what ghoulish (or asinine) twist he’d pull off at the end. The irony is that his most commercially profitable whiffs weren’t horror films, so his name remains on the backbone of staying divorced from any IP involvement.

Knock at the Cabin, while having several faults in structuring and plot, does have a commanding performance from Dave Bautista and an old-school flair to its environment that makes it worthwhile. Yes, $54 million on a $20 million budget is his least successful total in years, even when Lady in the Water crumbled with $73 million on a $70 million budget. But, in a year where over-budgeted blockbusters couldn’t justify their earnings, Shyamalan certified that an anticipated and “good” film product could come when you lessen the fees. Speaking of heavy-budgeted films…

Big Loser: Every Over-Budgeted Feature That Lost Millions for Studios

No matter how it’s warranted, an unnecessary number of features in 2023 crashed or barely skipped over the finish line to “just” please investors.

We’re not solely talking about Marvel and DC here, even though several superhero features bombed left and right. Fast X, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Renfield, Haunted Mansion, The Creator, The Expend4bles, and several other notable features set up to attain as much of their loyalty points from folks that enjoyed a select IP, company, or someone portrayed as a “box office star.”

Unfortunately, fatigue or lack of excitement ensured these companies would lose earnings. And it’s even more preposterous when you consider other factors.

Vin Diesel and all inflated the tenth main installment of F&F for salaries; Haunted Mansion opened relatively too early for a Halloween-esque tentpole. Renfield affirmed that Nicholas Hoult is not a box office draw any further. Folks were skeptical of seeing Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones (again) due to the sour taste of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and another sign of Disney becoming frazzled in a desperate attempt to utilize an IP that didn’t age well in terms of box office nowadays. And Expendables is more of the same chaotic mess audiences got, only now with less violence and star power.

The unequivocal problem was not marketing or lack of box office stars. The studios overestimated these expectations and should’ve not dug themselves into a grave for nearly every blockbuster in 2023 that not all folks were clamoring for compared to times a decade ago. And, since some of these platforms have trained their audiences to wait until their release on PVOD/streaming, the element of “let’s witness this in the theater immediately” has become comparatively obsolete.

Will these folks learn for the next one? It depends, but it is best to lower expectations and perform better than the opposite.

Winner: The Other IP Sequels Folks Wanted

Ah, so here is the opposite side of the coin. Folks didn’t mind another Creed, John Wick, or Scream, as these brands have proven to earn audiences’ respect with their production value and enthusiasm. So much so that even Sylvester Stallone wasn’t “necessary” to be involved in the Adonis Creed storyline or Neve Campbell for the sixth installment of “Who’s Ghostface?”. And John Wick continues to give Keanu Reeves another diamond IP under his belt, even when we spectators wonder how the heck they’ll push in another chapter (no spoilers here).

Technically, we are giving a nod to the mediocre Meg 2: The Trench because it performed favorably overseas, but it’s still a win for another “shark attacks people” movie much like Jaws, The Shallows, 47 Meters Down, Deep Blue Sea, and Open Water.

Overall, these slews of sequels safely guarded their IPs and gave them further juice for another chapter/spinoff. Most importantly, it became a “wake-up call” that folks wanted to turn up to see them in some capacity, unlike a slew of mediocre blockbusters that left folks dwelling in bitterness.

Loser: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Should’ve Released Later

Hang on a second; Honor Among Thieves is one of the few blockbusters that was quite entertaining, and it was incredibly fun to witness some of the lore onscreen! But it bombed at the box office; why?

No, it’s not that convincing for fans to backlash enough against Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro to bomb a feature this badly (although technically, we did have folks bully Sony about the egregious Morbius sufficient to put it back in theaters for it to collapse again). The answer is, surprisingly, the release date. Paramount took an audacious gamble by releasing this feature sandwiched between the releases of John Wick 4 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie; the latter attributed to another famous gaming IP.

It felt the brunt of that consequence, dipping over 60% in its sophomore weekend and never recovering while Mario legged out past $1 billion and John Wick 4 earned $440 million. Had this dropped in the fall, we’d assuredly have a better time recognizing Dungeons and Dragons’ fun and lore aspects.

It’s a great film reflecting the gaming IP but in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Winner: Sound of Freedom is Summer’s Dark Horse

Holy hell. What an intriguing thriller and an independent feature that can show Hollywood how simple proves to be the best case.

Angel Studios got a dark horse winner on their hands with a feature tied to the dealings of child trafficking and questioning of human moralities over the summer while “Barbenheimer” was stomping the world. Grossing $250 million worldwide on a miniature budget speaks volumes, and director Alejandro Monteverde has a certified feature under his waist.

Politically charged or not, this is instead an example of how Hollywood’s obsession has creatively harmed others’ aspirations within the arts. The whole ordeal of what’s the next lavish cartoon to toss onscreen has crippled the wonders and philosophy of simplicity and experimentation. Case in point, look at how Marvel and DC’s personified superhero genre started to hamper their characters and numbers; superhero fatigue notwithstanding, didn’t Martin Scorsese preach that these are not “films”?

Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible 7, another stellar outing, was another case of our temptation to use artificial intelligence. With an inordinate exposition and a dense runtime, folks may be less interested in witnessing it multiple times. Hence, it couldn’t bear the legs compared to the “Barbenheimer” summer trend and Sound of Freedom‘s enticing marketing.

So, Sound of Freedom earned its status in 2023 for doing something wholly different, reflected warmly in its numbers. And it got significant praise from select individuals for uncovering a dark side of humanity.

Loser: Guy Ritchie’s Film Distribution Numbers Don’t Match Up

We’ll keep this note cursory, as we’re not trying to scrutinize Mr. Guy Ritchie’s capacity as a director.

Of his two motion pictures helmed in 2023, one was a fine but forgettable spy action, and the other was a cleverly crafted war drama, and yet, neither couldn’t warrant their box office distributions as neither broke even. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and The Covenant couldn’t hold their own compared to hits like Creed 3, Scream 6, John Wick 4, or Mario and Co. Maybe it’s squeamish to target this director’s numbers when considering the variables, but lest we forget, Mr. Ritchie helmed the two Sherlock Holmes ($1.067 billion combined) and Disney’s live-action Aladdin ($1.054 billion).

Ritchie gained recognition for his gangster features, particularly Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, before jumping into mystery action with private detective Sherlock Holmes for two tales. And yours indeed is a sucker for The Man from UNCLE, despite bombing at the near end of summer in 2015 (Straight Outta Compton might’ve skewed its projections while M: I – Rogue Nation was legging out when Tom Cruise was another star in his league).

Perhaps Ritchie needs someone with undeniable star power to lead his next tale or another IP to bank on to take home further gold, but for now, he can focus on honing his craft for whatever comes next.

Winner: Disney Finally Learns to Let Pixar Films Stay in Theaters Again with Elemental

Talk about a turnaround for Disney’s once-prized family IP.

Elemental suffered the ignominy of distributing in theaters amid summer with $29.5 million, the second-lowest three-day opening for any Pixar feature. For the longest time (outside of Marvel in recent memory), Pixar was a reliable brand for pumping out beautifully crafted animation and some emotional tales from Toy Story to Monsters Inc. to Coco to WALL-E. Once the pandemic pushed people to their homesteads, Disney made the wrong call to decide to eradicate any measures of this IP sticking in cinemas and tossed well-regarded features on Disney+, such as Turning Red, Soul, and Luca.

Then Lightyear got the brunt of the damage ($226 million on a $200 million budget), and morale shot to fever lows. Elemental had to attempt to pick up the slack while facing stiff competition from a highly praised Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and DC’s The Flash imploding with a whimpering opening on the same weekend.

All signs pointed to another Pixar bust, but somehow, preserving the feature in theaters and allowing more positive word-of-mouth to get out across the globe got it to leg out to the correct measures. Disney has become oversaturated with Marvel content, but folks still want a family-friendly time. A worthwhile Pixar product should be allowed to shine in the multiplex, not sitting in an unknown abyss until someone decides to put it on PVOD.

Loser: Dune: Part Two Delaying Means the Fall Season Lacks a Star-Driven Blockbuster

Ah, the strikes crept with a colossal shadow over the potential performance of Denis Villeneuve’s follow-up chapter to Dune. Its predecessor opened in 2021 to a respectable $402 million, even though more in the tank could’ve been plausible as theaters were warming up after COVID-19 variables.

Only this time, postponing another blockbuster sequel hurt the momentum of the box office when Barbie/Oppenheimer reigned supreme for the summer, and nothing substantial became structured for the fall season. Horror features, which we’ll discuss more in a moment, held up their end of the bargain with Saw X, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and The Exorcist: Believer, while Expend4bles and The Creator crashed. It was an opportunistic time for the less-pertinent IPs and new projects to step up, but had Dune: Part Two been in the mix, we’d see a higher return and further domestic numbers to dazzle over.

Winner: The Horror Genre Remains Potent and Reliable

As always, the one genre that can remain vigorous and intriguing is what’ll drive folks to the cinema. Horror is a bankable area where the art of thrills and chills enrapture our mindsets, even if sometimes said product gets hastily thrown together to only focus on contrived jump scares.

M3GAN kicked off the year in spectacular fashion, providing America with another killer doll (think Child’s Play integrated with Skynet) and a cheekily fun thriller to have people subconsciously fear the next wave of AI dolls at the kids’ next birthday party. Earning $181 million on a $12 million budget was an outstanding performance.

The ball kept rolling for a cornucopia of other features such as Scream VI, The Pope’s Exorcist, Evil Dead Rise, Insidious: The Red Door, The Nun II, Saw X, The Exorcist: Believer, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Talk to Me, Thanksgiving, Infinity Pool, The Blackening, and many others.

Not every single one was a box office hit. Still, most of them brought refreshing products and relied on familiar brands to keep us strolling in the theaters when a raging blockbuster wasn’t the focal point every other weekend.

Middle of the Road: Giving Audiences What They Want in Five Nights at Freddy’s is Another Instance of IP Pro-Forma Yet Another Time of a Lethargic Execution

Now, this is a case of how an IP can benefit in guaranteeing numbers yet becoming another victim of the “video game curse” and its flaws. You know, writing on the pre-existing value of its source material and fanbase, but its cinematic value is appalling to sit through, and you’re better off playing the game. We’ve seen this in several features recently, such as Uncharted and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, and it’s another atrocious case for Five Nights at Freddy’s.

One of the reasons why the FNAF games worked was because of our nightmarish perspective of witnessing animatronics wonder in an abandoned children’s place, and you had to survive six (in-game) hours. The sounds amplified our fears and rattled our spines when the animatronics happened to stumble upon your player and shock the screen before the game was over. In the movie, you have none of this sensation, let alone a taste. The direction is woefully inconsistent, with almost several mini-movies stuffed into one. Yup, no reigning identity dispersed throughout, crumbling the intention of it being a “horror” movie.

This lackadaisical execution seems more of a chance to please die-hard fans than to make a worthwhile product and one to expand. Sure, it works, as it turned up $295 million, Blumhouse’s highest earning picture now. But in practicality, another pandering excuse to invoke IP instead of using it in spades to tell a worthwhile story blemishes its existence. Speaking of using an IP…

Loser: The Worst Film of 2023 is One of The Worst Films in Existence, and Somehow Tragically Spawned a Universe

To make this as transparent as possible without the slight intention of wailing in affliction, do not waste your time witnessing Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey.

The amateurish feature insults the premise of our fan-favorite childhood characters of Pooh and Co. by eradicating their core to convert them into torpid, rampaging murderers. It’s an exciting premise yet whacked out of left field due to every production technique collapsing upon execution. One would have a much better time picking up a violent video game and slashing whatever crosses their path.

Even more baffling, this motion picture (or whatever anyone wishes to call it) will get a sequel and spinoffs for more childhood-turned-horror tales for Peter Pan and Bambi and others. Great, this is another announcement that’ll have folks committing to trichotillomania if they wish to stick around in this universe.

(When yours indeed walked out of the theater after the viewing, a fellow soul said, “That is the worst movie I’ve ever seen.” If that isn’t a telltale sign to refrain from this feature, we’re unsure what else can.)

Winners: Chris Pratt and Margot Robbie Are Respective King and Queen of the 2023 Box Office

(We’ll give a quick shoutout to Cillian Murphy for his phenomenal performance and earnings from Oppenheimer.)

We’ve spoken about the successes already, so we’ll keep this concise.

Margot Robbie took the queen of the box office for her commendable performance in Barbie, bringing in unwavering success for the doll’s success on the big screen this summer and catapulting its earnings to $1.44 billion, the highest-earning feature of 2023. Chris Pratt earned the king of the box office title due to his voicing role as Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (earning $1.36 billion) and his return as Star-Lord with James Gunn’s Guardians crew for one last ride in Vol. 3 (earning $845.5 million).

Both stars have come a long way since their rise to fame, and we’ll see where it catapults their energy for 2024 and beyond.

Loser: Jonathan Majors’s Rise to Stardom Gets Shelved

We do have to discuss it since Mr. Majors, a promising actor within the Hollywood spectrum, became embroiled in legal issues and has (probably) fallen off any good standings.

In 2023, Majors was climbing the ranks of Hollywood thanks to some stellar performances in Magazine Dreams (still not on PVOD yet) and Creed III and was one of the only good things of Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. His performance as Kang earned him high marks in the Loki TV show for two seasons, and he was poised to be the next big baddie for the subsequent two Avengers films.

Unfortunately, not all was good news. In March, he got arrested for alleged assault and harassment of his ex-girlfriend. After several tumultuous months of further allegations and court appearances, he was found guilty of one of the charges, and Marvel Studios fired him. The fallout bearing on his career will be significant proceeding forward.

In Disney’s case, it’s a skewed irony (for the present) regarding firing Majors, as his Kang character was poised to be the next Thanos of the MCU. However, the plan to initiate a new dynasty backfired when Ant-Man 3 collapsed in terms of box office distribution and storytelling. Loki Season 2 ended on a note that “might’ve” ended the run with Kang becoming portrayed as a “special attraction.” Majors’ legal troubles put his position with Marvel in a dicey spot because his stance became more radioactive.

Thus, the introduction of Kang the Conqueror for Marvel’s Multiverse saga landed with a thud. To be fair, much of Marvel’s Multiverse saga (outside of Guardians 3, Shang-Chi, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Black Panther 2) hasn’t clicked like it once did when all signs pointed to the massive showdown with Thanos back during Phases 1-3. Recasting Kang could be an option (much like how Mark Ruffalo took over Edward Norton’s role as Hulk), but it would become more perilous than a Band-Aid for Marvel’s current streak. If Majors was found not guilty, Marvel could’ve risked more to get the ball rolling, but who knows how much more they can bite after a year that ended on a mixed note. As Scott Mendelson from Substack mentioned, two wrongs made a right in this scenario regarding Majors getting knocked off Marvel’s future.

As for Majors, we’ll see what unfolds with his upcoming trial. Much like when Amber Heard lost her case against her ex-husband Johnny Depp last year, what happens next?

Middle of the Road: John Cena is Everywhere but Nowhere to be Seen

Pun-induced reference aside, this is chaotically bizarre for Mr. “You Can’t See Me” in 2023. Two years ago, yours indeed mentioned this gentleman would be moving along in a swell direction, not merely as another “WWE guy that jumps to Hollywood” to hope for unbridled success and not achieve any.

In 2023, Mr. Cena returned to WWE several times, pumping in numbers and gratitude for the wrestling company and doing the job for other rising stars. The critical issue is that his features have been wonky in representing his acting skills and trajectory as another potential “box office star” in Hollywood.

Yes, his subplot in Fast X was one of the sole entertaining aspects of the mediocre blockbuster, and he had a hilarious cameo as Merman Ken in Barbie and voiced Rocksteady in the well-designed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. But his heavily delayed Hidden Strike with Jackie Chan and Freelance films are sluggish, poorly-written features that compromised Cena’s renowned wacky persona. And Vacation Friends 2 is the epitome of why sequels crumble compared to their predecessors, even if Cena looks to be having the time of his life.

While not derivative of fellow peers like Dwayne Johnson or Dave Bautista, Cena still needs something astronomically significant to etch his name to certify he can be in the same league. Credit where it’s due, though, as The Franchise Player of WWE has an incredible work ethic to pump out multiple films/shows in a year and still returns to his wrestling roots to have fun. He may not be winning any awards yet, but this is one heck of a consolation prize.

Winner: Universal is The Studio Winner of the Year’s Box Office

Ladies and gentlemen, Universal Pictures is the clear-cut box office studio winner of 2023. Outside of the phenomenal performances of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer in the top-three highest-earning features of 2023, a multitude of other success stories came with M3GAN, Cocaine Bear, The Exorcist: Believer, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Trolls Band Together, and Knock at the Cabin. New, ambitious products and barely any IP follow-ups helped secure further numbers and attention from casual viewers. (Technically, Mario and FNAF did come directly from a familiar game IP, but it was their first time to take center stage, and both delivered staggering numbers.)

Yes, there were a few misfires here and there, from Fast X to Renfield to The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Still, those are minimal concerning the earnings conjured from a cornucopia of products folks wanted and continued to invest in under Universal’s umbrella.

Their slate in 2024 looks promising, with titles such as Night Swim, Argylle, Kung Fu Panda 4, The Fall Guy, Despicable Me 4, Gladiator 2, and Wicked: Part One earning our attention and commitment to jump in for pre-sale tickets. Let’s see if they can maintain this victory lap once 2024 concludes.

Big Loser: Disney Went from a Box Office King to a Footnote in 2023

This stings to write on, but the facts are prevalent: Disney has fallen off the top of the mountain and is desperately clawing every inch to keep its kingdom afloat. Disney has the tabs on market share, with the case being Avatar: The Way of Water grossing more in 2023 than most of their scheduled blockbusters.

But crack after crack in 2023, Disney’s invincible armor has busted open with severe casualties. The only bright spot under Disney’s banner was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the only unmitigated hit in the live-action superhero genre. The Little Mermaid live-action adaptation swam to an admirable $570 million, while Elemental became a sleeper hit after an underwhelming opening but legging out to $496 million.

Everything else for Disney crumbled. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania shattered the core narrative and development of our tiny hero and made a lousy attempt of trying to build up the next big bad guy (who now might never appear on the screen again due to legal matters). Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was an asinine attempt at over-expectations with a jarring $300 million budget and not entirely redeemable in terms of execution considering the bad taste the predecessor left in everyone’s mouths. The Haunted Mansion was overpriced and released in a perplexing time slot. Oh, and Pixar’s Wish needed much more support from word-of-mouth or marketing.

And The Marvels, while not a bad feature, got hit with a ton of bricks from superhero fatigue, Disney politics, and no marketing as the actor/writers’ strikes had wrapped up days before. Overexposure to content did not help, nor was inculpating director Nia DaCosta. Bob Iger may admit quantity purged quality, but the corporation will need a critical internal reckoning to recapture any sparkles.

The Mouse of the House dynasty will not be coming close to their streak in 2019 after a performance like this. Their Pixar slate did not deliver numbers anywhere close to a Toy Story or Incredibles feature. Whipping out old IPs because folks enjoyed them over a decade prior for the sake of it isn’t merely enough any further.

And it’s a new phenomenon for Marvel Studios since this once beloved brand is no longer an automatic S-tier cinematic destination. With any new characters coming to the screen, it becomes less appealing. The core notion of the MCU has dwindled, and even when relying on the Avengers, Black Panther, or Spider-Man brands for guarantees, the rest becomes questionable in terms of delivery. It is ironic how a villain in this universe once said, “If you could make God bleed, then people will cease to believe in Him. There will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come.”

Disney went from a titan to an abysmal choice in 2023, and only hope and preparation can be on their side come 2024. With a much more compact blockbuster slate, such as Inside Out 2, Deadpool 3, Alien: Romulus, Mufasa: The Lion King, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, they must perform exponentially to return to their status.

Winner: A24 Keeps The Ball Rolling

A24 definitively doesn’t have the workforce to combat the titans of the cinema industry, but they damn sure know how to put on a great product. Talk To Me, Priscilla, The Iron Claw, Past Lives, and You Hurt My Feelings are must-watches from a year filled with chaotic movies and unfortunate box office numbers. It’s an intelligent backbone of producing new, scintillating products that folks will venture out to see if they’ve burnt out from end-the-world shenanigans or another IP mediocrity. By the way, Talk To Me is A24’s highest-earning horror film and second-highest-earning feature (behind Everything Everywhere All At Once). It is another satisfactory record to add to their growing collection.

All in all, another glorious year for A24, so all the best to them with their following announcement of works for 2024.

Middle of the Road: Warner Brothers Get Big Wins Yet Simultaneously Suffers Massive Casualties

Warner Brothers deserves its flowers for pulling off the Barbie movement that became a monoculture, and the studio has been riding a winter snow of success with Wonka (passing $400 million sometime this week). They also get praise for The Nun 2, Meg 2: The Trench, Creed III, and Evil Dead Rise‘s numbers.

The problem, as mentioned, was the DCEU’s impending implosion, with all four of their titles on the superhero side in 2023 bombing left and right. Over $660 million was spent to bring the superheroes back to the screen when their collective amounts have barely surpassed $800 million (there will be more from Aquaman 2, but way more is needed to justify). And Air, a fun sports drama, had to rely on PVOD to make some difference in its underwhelming numbers.

2024 will allow them to flex their muscles more with Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Beetlejuice 2, and Joker: Folie a Deux. So, hopefully, they’ll have more success while keeping the superhero slate on the backseat to recuperate.

Winner: Lionsgate and Sony Pick Up Some Momentum

Both companies listed did their parts with some respectable features that held them up nicely for the 2023 calendar year.

Sony blossomed with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($690.5 million) and Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer 3 ($191 million). To be considerate, Napoleon wasn’t a box office success, but Sony acted as the distributor-for-hire for Apple’s financed historical feature. Had they not released 65 starring Adam Driver, we’d be talking about Sony in higher regard for 2023. Their slate sees them dropping It Ends With Us, Madame Web, Ghostbusters: The Frozen Empire, The Garfield Movie, Bad Boys 4, Project Artemis, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Kraven the Hunter, Venom 3, and an untitled Karate Kid in 2024. Perhaps they’ll get to hold their end of the bargain while they duke it out against Universal and Warner Brothers for gold.

Lionsgate had a fair share of victories with John Wick: Chapter 4 ($440 million), Saw X ($109 million), Jesus Revolution ($54 million), and is still earning a bit more with The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (should wrap up with around $360-370 million globally). Kudos to them for keeping their budgets and expectations in check, as some minor misfires like Joy Ride and The Marsh King’s Daughter couldn’t pull them down. They’ll have some notable features on deck for 2024 with Ballerina, Borderlands, and Saw XI. Perhaps they can be the low-key hero once more?

Winner: Apple Gets Points for Jumping in as a Theatrical Distributor, Not for Numbers Yet

Yes, their numbers were not splendid for distributing Killers of the Flower Moon or having Sony as their hired distributor for Napoleon.

However, we must praise one of the tech giants for dropping directly to theaters instead of PVOD and attempting to lure talent with directors Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott. This gives them a sense of originality, something to put more names on expensive billboards to waive more awareness and numbers.

Could both features have been less in terms of budgetary measures? Unreservedly, but at least they’ll get some appearances at the awards season in 2024. And Apple will further test the waters by distributing Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle and Project Artemis and Wolfs this year.

Middle of the Road: More Work Needs to Get Done to Rally Box Office Numbers, but 2024 “Could” Have More Success

Overall, it was a good year in terms of distributions and numbers. The domestic box office total earned $8.6 billion, a gradual increase in the past two years since COVID measures upended the industry. Yes, the superhero genre has lost its Midas touch at the box office, but at least it allows other features and IPs to take the spotlight as Hollywood looks for the next “lightning in the bottle” phase.

The top three features in 2023 weren’t sequels or part of a pre-existing franchise, so that’s an unbelievable win for the future of filmmaking. The meme-inducing Barbenheimer trend made its stance in 2023, and we rode with it, much like how Mario and his buddies trampled the screen in the springtime. Horror remained in its league, and lesser-known international features got more steam.

2024 has the makings to be as good as 2023, if not better. Some titles to be on the lookout for are Argylle, Dune: Part Two, Kung Fu Panda 4, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, The Fall Guy, IF, Garfield, Bad Boys 4, Inside Out 2, A Quiet Place: Day One, Despicable Me 4, Deadpool 3, Beetlejuice 2, Saw XI, Joker: Folie a Deux, Venom 3, the untitled Karate Kid, Mufasa: The Lion King, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Not all will get cleared up, as more time and measures remain needed for a complete recovery. In the meantime, let’s see where it’ll take us as we get the ball rolling as we ride through 2024.

Last Note of Discussion: The Actor/Writer Strikes Hit All of Hollywood and the Future of Filmmaking

Yours indeed wanted to take one last moment to recognize the pivotal efforts of all involved in 2023 in ensuring that an artist’s creativity and direction stay recognized in the ever-evolving film and television production canon. No easy feat indubitably, but no one necessarily desired artificial intelligence to replace all the pertinent efforts.

The Writers Guild of America Strike and SAG-AFTRA Strike of 2023 were the most significant interruptions to film and television industries since the pandemic in 2020. The usage of artificial intelligence was one of the focal points, preventing such a beast from taking over thousands of jobs. A cornucopia of productions was affected, and most were stalled in the production stages or postponed to 2024/2025 to ensure completion.

When assessing, the industry has provided us with some behemoths, yet ensuring its success takes a fathomless amount of effort. From Louis Le Prince’s Roundhay Garden Scene to Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz to Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to the Wachowskis’ The Matrix, there will always be another feature to revolutionize our entertainment and astoundment. And every component of crafting a motion picture is as essential as the next. The people in front of the camera carry the same weight as those behind the camera.

The strikes taught us about the next phase of entering humanity, and we can utilize such tools to enhance our abilities. But people’s consideration and value cannot be lost, or the element of expressiveness and vision in our art can vanish in a heartbeat.

Could the strikes have wrapped up earlier to prevent such concerns? Potentially, but this remained a paramount event to ascertain that every talent can bring something to the table.

2024, let’s get the show on the road!