Thanks to Mario, J. Robert Oppenheimer and M3GAN, Universal Pictures was the top-grossing studio at the 2023 box office.
The company's slate — a slate of 24 films including “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Oppenheimer” and “M3GAN” — generated $4.907 billion in global ticket sales. Universal's win is notable because it is the first time since 2015 that Disney was not the global box office leader.
Disney slipped to second place in terms of market share as its 17 new films “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “The Little Mermaid” grossed $4.827 billion worldwide a. In a press release, the studio attributed the $80 million difference in part to the fact that Disney released seven fewer films than Universal in 2023. It also highlighted that Disney had the most titles in the top 10 of any studio this year. with four of the world's highest-grossing releases and three of the largest domestic releases.
But for the first time in a long time, Disney didn't have one of the top three films – those spots belong to Warner Bros.' “Barbie” ($1.4 billion) and Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.3 billion) and “Oppenheimer” ($950 million). It's also the first time since 2014 that none of the Disney films have surpassed the $1 billion mark.
Disney indeed remains a box office success, but the reality is that most of the studio's successes in 2023 have failed to live up to expectations. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($845 million) was the only clear triumph. Otherwise, a series of underperforming sequels and remakes (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “The Marvels,” and “Haunted Mansion,” to name a few) resulted in the studio ceding the box office crown to Universal.
It should be noted that many of Disney's modest victories or even outright failures are viewed as overwhelming successes for its rivals. The problem is that Disney films are enormously expensive – typically with production budgets of $200 million to $250 million – and therefore have high demands for profitability. Although Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was the 10th highest-grossing film of the year with $476 million, the studio still lost money in its theatrical release.
Universal also suffered a few misfires, but none were as painful. The vampire comedy “Renfield” fell to $26 million worldwide, “Book Club: The Next Chapter” failed to reach $30 million worldwide (the first film reached $100 million in 2018), and the animated film “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” only came in at $45 million. Although “Almost
While Universal and Disney were close to No. 1, they were far ahead of the rest. Warner Bros. came in a distant third with $3.84 billion worldwide – led by “Barbie,” “The Nun II” and ” Wonka.”
Sony and Paramount have not yet announced final 2023 revenue, but each studio reportedly brought in $2 billion worldwide to round out the top five.
With “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” Denzel Washington’s threequel “Equalizer 3” and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” in the 2023 schedule, Sony has a slight lead with an estimated $2.09 billion worldwide.
Paramount, whose major releases were “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” and “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” ended the year with an estimated $2.03 billion worldwide.