Today In Good News: The 2023 Box Office Has Already Surpassed The Entire Total For 2022
Hollywood chatter has been dominated by the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes in recent months, and understandably so. But with those strikes settled, we can turn our collective attention elsewhere. In this case, we're looking at the annual box office and there's some very good news on that front. Midway through November 2023, we've already eclipsed the entire domestic box office total for 2022. That means the pandemic recovery is still going strong and movie theaters continue to be on the mend after 2020 brought them to what felt like the brink of extinction.
As of this writing, the domestic box office total for 2023 stands at $7.78 billion, per Box Office Mojo. 2022, meanwhile, topped out at $7.36 billion. So we're already pacing well above that number and, roughly speaking, we can expect to finish the year with $9 billion or more in ticket sales in North America for the year. The good news is that we've trended upward every year since 2020, when sales fell to an abysmal $2.1 billion due to the pandemic.
The somewhat bad news is that we're still a far cry from the record levels of box office that were achieved in 2019 when the market topped out at $11.36 billion, led by massive Disney hits like "Avengers: Endgame" ($858 million domestic/$2.8 billion worldwide) and "The Lion King" ($543 million domestic/$1.65 billion worldwide). The annual box office has totaled at least $10 billion since 2009, so we've still got a long way to go before we reach pre-pandemic levels again. The big difference though is the number of movies released in theaters annually. In 2019, it was 910 movies. This year, we've had 491 so far. Still, the recovery has remained steady, even if it's been slower than many hoped.
The good news, the bad news
2023 has improved on 2022 in other regards too. For one, this year has seen 22 movies make at least $100 million domestically, whereas 2022 only saw 18. In addition, the love is being spread around a bit more. We've also had massive hits like "Barbie" ($636 million domestic/$1.44 billion worldwide), "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" ($575 million domestic/$1.36 billion worldwide), and "Oppenheimer" ($325 million domestic/$949 million worldwide) that were not part of pre-established film franchises. That's key, as it sets up future success, rather than just milking old cows dry.
The bad news here is that the outlook for 2024 is not great, to say the least of it. The aforementioned strikes shut down Hollywood for months on end. That had a big impact this year, with a lack of press tours affecting the box office and messing up TV schedules for major networks. However, the bigger issue is the 2024 release calendar, which is now incredibly screwed up since major projects that would've been released in the first half of next year had to stop filming for a long time (like "Deadpool 3"). Not only that, but many movies have vacated 2024 entirely, including Marvel's "Captain America: New World Order" and "Thunderbolts."
Unfortunately, 2024 is now poised to be a down year that the industry can ill-afford, commercially speaking. Without a reliable slate of big, audience-friendly movies, the odds that the domestic box office will continue to trek upward next year are much lower than they should be.