Barbie
Warner Bros. | July 21
Domestic Total (2023): $636.2M
International Total (2023): $805.6M
Global Total (2023): $1.4 Billion
The whole world was in love with Barbie in 2023, with the Warner Bros. release notching the top spot on year-end lists in the U.K., Argentina, Spain, Italy, Poland, Australia, and Brazil. Barbie’s box office run made it Warner Bros.’ highest-grossing movie of all time globally and third highest-grossing both in all international markets combined and specifically in European markets; it was also the highest-grossing Warner Bros. title in a whopping 44 international markets, including the U.K., Italy, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Poland. Barbie ranks 14 on the Top Lifetime Grosses Worldwide.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Domestic Total (2023): $574.9M
International Total (2023): $787M
Global Total (2023): $1.36 billion
The Super Mario Bros. is the second-highest-grossing film of 2023 on both the domestic and international charts, with the animated video game adaptation outperforming Barbie in several key international markets, including Mexico, France (where it ranked second, behind the December 2022 release Avatar: The Way of Water), and Japan—where it became the biggest Universal animation release of all time. Other records include the biggest global opening for an animated film of all time (Mario’s $375.6M passing Frozen 2’s $358M), the biggest opening for animation studio Illumination of all time (no small feat, given the worldwide popularity of the Minions franchise), and the biggest opening of all time for a video game adaptation. In its first weekend alone–the weekend ending April 9, when it was released in North America and 70 international markets—the film’s international haul passed the total international grosses of several recent animated titles, including Encanto, Lightyear, and DC League of Super-Pets.
Oppenheimer
Domestic Total (2023): $326M
International Total (2023): $625.2M
Global Total (2023): $952M
Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie are the top two earners of the year, both domestically and globally; it’s only at spot number three that the two lists start to diverge, with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer coming in at number three on the global list and number five domestically. Globally, Nolan’s latest came in at just under a billion dollars–no small feat for a three-hour-long, dialogue-heavy biopic based on a historical figure. (Granted, Oppenheimer did have explosions.) Oppenheimer took in 65.7% of its global cume from international markets, with the U.K. ($74.2M), China ($61.6M), Germany ($51.4M), France ($42.5M), and Italy ($29.8M) as the film’s top five non-domestic markets.
Globally, as well as domestically, premium formats helped drive Oppenheimer’s success; Imax reports that the film was its highest global earner of the year, its $185M cume in the format going a long way to pushing Imax over the edge to achieve only the third $1B year in the company’s history. Oppenheimer‘s $35M first-weekend earnings on 740 IMAX screens worldwide represents IMAX’s biggest share ever of a film’s global opening weekend box office, with 20% of total receipts. In looking at Top Lifetime Grosses by the MPA Rating ‘R’, Oppenheimer holds the second spot globally, just behind 2019’s Joker.
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