2023 in review

January 25, 2024

In the January issue of The Numbers Business Report we look back at the domestic box office for 2023, and look ahead to what will drive the industry in 2024. Here are some key takeaways from our lead article…

If 2023 is remembered for one thing, it might be that it was the year when the studios lost control of the narrative. When the comfortable certainties of Marvel, DC, Indiana Jones, and Mission: Impossible were overtaken by the chaos Barbenheimer, Sound of Freedom, Taylor Swift and Godzilla.

2023 was brutal for the big super hero franchises, Marvel and DC, which had nine live-action films in theaters during 2023, the same number as 2022, but managed to generate a billion fewer dollars at the box office.

If those movies had generated the kind of business we saw in 2022, we’d have just inched over $10 billion at the domestic box office in 2023. Instead, we ended just a rounding error short of $9 billion (our tally as of today is $8.96 billion, but that will be subject to a few further adjustments and additions).

But, for all the woes of the big franchises, the break-through movies weren’t entirely original: Barbie is based on a toy, Oppenheimer and Sound of Freedom based on true stories, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour was a concert film, Godzilla will celebrate his (her? their?) 70th birthday this year, and so on.

When you add up the combined box office for all non-sequel films based on original screenplays—truly original films, in other words—their earnings in 2023 were $1.36 billion. That’s up 23% from 2022, but only a fraction more of the market as a whole, with a share of 15.2% for the year. The low point for “true originals” was the Marvel-saturated year of 2018, when they made up 14.5% of the market. Before then, they were regularly the source of about 25% of the total box office. Now they hover around a market share of 15% or so. That 10% drop represents a loss of around $1 billion a year in ticket sales.

True originals just don’t seem to make the same impact they did ten years ago. For example, can you name the top-grossing non-sequel film based on an original screenplay last year? Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, name the top five?

For the answer to that question and our full review of the year, click here to subscribe to The Numbers Business Report. We also look at the top 10 distributors for the year and break down where their revenue came from, including production partners like Illumination Entertainment and Blumhouse. And we look at the genres, production methods, creative types and ratings that are driving growth (or holding the market back).

Also in this month’s edition, we reveal the current top stars at the box office, look at theatrical window trends, provide our detailed international theatrical release schedules, give our full set of predictions for wide releases in 2024 and more.

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The Numbers Business Report —

Filed under: Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Extended Universe