2023 Domestic Box Offices Tops $9 Billion

Warner Bros. had the golden ticket over the holiday moviegoing season. The studio's trifecta of Wonka, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and the musical version of The Color Purple earned a combined $700 million in December, pushing the total domestic 2023 box office to more than $9 billion, according to Comscore. Warners — which also unboxed the highest-grossing movie of the year with Barbie at $1.44 billion — may have won the Christmas movie season, but Universal Pictures took the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office for the first time since 2015.

Universal's domestic total for the year was a combined $1.93 billion from Nintendo/Illumination's Super Mario Bros. Movie ($574.9m), Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer ($326m), Fast X ($150.1m), and Five Nights at Freddy's ($137.2m). That beats Disney at No. 2 with $1.89 billion, which counts Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($214.5m), the musical live-action re-imagining of The Little Mermaid ($298.1m), Pixar's leggy Elemental ($154.4m), Haunted Mansion ($67.6m), and The Marvels ($84.4m).

In third is Warner Bros. at $1.4 billion from Barbie ($636.2m), Wonka ($140.1m), The Nun II ($86.2m), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (estimated $84 million), and including DC disappointments Shazam! Fury of the Gods ($57.6m), The Flash ($108.1m), and Blue Beetle ($72.4m).

Also on the domestic top 10 list for 2023 are Sony's animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($381.1m), Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($358.9m), Lionsgate's John Wick: Chapter 4 ($187.1m), Angel Studios' Sound of Freedom ($184.1m), and AMC Theatres Distribution's Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film ($179.6m).

"Hitting $9 billion is more than just about dollars and cents, it's about the lessons learned in what was arguably one of the most significant and challenging years for the movie business," Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Deadline, referring to the months-long double strikes that hit Hollywood earlier this year. "Moviegoers are the most powerful players in Hollywood and are providing actionable intelligence on a weekly basis to studios and creatives who can learn much from the unexpected success of films that were not even on the radar at the beginning of the year."

He added: "As a historic box office year comes to a close amidst the tumultuous backdrop of strikes, streaming and shifting audience tastes, the bottom line is that the theatrical experience remains an essential part of the entertainment ecosystem."