US box office in 2023 passed $9 billion, the best total since before the pandemic

Originally Published: 02 JAN 24 16:56 ET

Updated: 02 JAN 24 20:42 ET

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — The 2023 domestic box office surpassed $9 billion, the highest since the pandemic, Comscore said. However, it’s still $2 billion short of the yearly movie ticket sales reached before the pandemic.

Despite a tepid fall season at the box office, the viral “Barbenheimer” phenomenon delivered a stunning boost to movie ticket sales this year. Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” brought in about $636 million domestically and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” raked in $326 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

Comscore estimates that, once the past weekend’s box office numbers are in – which was led by “Wonka” – 2023’s total will be just over $9 billion. Compared to 2019, the 2023 box office had 17 fewer wide release films, which makes its numbers “all the more impressive,” said Paul Dergarabedian, chief Comscore media analyst. “Wonka” and “Barbie” were both distributed by Warner Bros., which is owned by CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

“2023 was one of the most tumultuous, confounding and indeed exciting years for the industry with audiences enthusiastically interested the moviegoing experience and the films on offer at the multiplex while delivering insights into what is appealing and what is not from their perspective as reflected in the many unexpected hits and misses during the year,” Dergarabedian said.

However, it’s still 20% less than 2019 earnings, which brought in $11.4 billion. That year’s highlight was “Avengers: Endgame,” which earned $858.4 million in ticket sales.

But compared to 2020, the height of the pandemic, the domestic box office gross saw an almost 300% jump, according to data from Comscore.

By early August, “Barbie” had made history with $1 billion in ticket sales, making Gerwig the first solo female director to reach the milestone.

Barbenheimer brought AMC Theaters, the world’s largest movie chain, its largest single-week admissions revenue since the company’s founding in 1920. It was the busiest opening weekend since the pandemic forced movie theater to close in 2020, essentially halting the industry.

And let’s not forget the year of Taylor Swift. The pop singer’s concert film, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” was the highest grossing concert film domestically for an opening weekend, AMC said in October. As of January 2, it’s brought in more than $179 million to the domestic box office.

In the spring, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” delivered one of the first stellar box office performances of the year. Nearly one month after its impressive opening weekend, the movie yielded $1 billion at the global box office, the 10th animated film in history to do so.

– CNN’s Eva Rothenberg contributed to this report.

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