Biggest cinema hits of 2023
Universal finishes ahead of Disney at the box office
Universal Pictures was able to hold its own against Disney at the box office in 2023.
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In a comparison of the largest film studios and companies, Disney narrowly had to admit defeat to Universal in 2023.
Hollywood has a new king at the box office! For the first time since 2015, Disney no longer topped the list last year, but Universal Pictures. That reports the US industry magazine “Variety”.
A podium without Disney
Universal Pictures was able to earn a total of just over 4.9 billion US dollars at the international box office with 24 films, including mega-hits such as “Oppenheimer” and “The Super Mario Bros. Film”. With 17 films such as “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny,” Disney came in second with just under $4.83 billion.
According to a statement, Disney sees the reason for this as the fact that it released seven fewer films than Universal last year. However, most of the films were able to be placed in the top ten.
At the same time, however, no film from the Mickey Mouse company was able to secure a place on the podium. The three most successful films of last year came from Warner Bros. and Universal. The absolute frontrunner in 2023 was “Barbie” (Warner) with Margot Robbie (33) and Ryan Gosling (43) and international box office revenue of more than $ 1.4 billion. The aforementioned “The Super Mario Bros. Film” and “Oppenheimer” follow with more than 1.3 billion and around 950 million US dollars respectively.
According to “Variety”, it is also the first time since 2014, excluding the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, that no Disney film was able to break the billion mark. The latest “Indiana Jones” film was just as unimpressive at the box office by Disney standards as the Marvel film “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”. While it’s the superhero action by numbers from “Box Office Mojo” brought at least around 476 million dollars, Indy’s was just under 384 million. “The Marvels” was only able to gross around $205 million.
The remaining places
Despite the mega success “Barbie,” Warner was only able to secure third place in the comparison with $3.84 billion. Paramount and Sony have not yet announced any final results for 2023. According to further reports, it is estimated that it is a little more than two billion dollars each – and thus ranks fourth (Sony, 2.09 billion) and fifth (Paramount, 2.03 billion).