Cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike will all agree that 2023 in Hollywood was a hell of a roller coaster ride, one that culminated in a remarkable $9 billion box office bonanza. Between strikes and newly struggling studios that used to ride high, it definitely was a year to remember. Let's take a look, bit by bit.
Starting with Warner Bros. and its festive trio, Wonka, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and the musical spin on The Color Purple, raked in over $700 million in December alone. However, earlier in the year, it managed to hit a home run with arguably the year's most hyped film, Barbie, grossing a whopping $1.44 billion, and making it the highest-grossing film of the year.
Shockingly, Warner Bros. was not the biggest winner in 2023. That title goes to Universal Pictures, the dark horse that galloped past Warner Bros. to snatch the top spot at the domestic box office for the first time since 2015.
Its secret sauce was a recipe made up of Nintendo's video game adaptation Super Mario Bros. Movie, Christopher Nolan's epic biopic Oppenheimer, Fast X, and the supernatural horror film Five Nights at Freddy's. This all added up to an incredible $1.93 billion.