2023 in film

2023 in film is an overview of events, including award ceremonies, festivals, a list of country- and genre-specific lists of films released, and notable deaths. This year, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. celebrate their 100th anniversaries.
Highest-grossing films
Box-office records
Barbie became the 53rd film overall to gross $1 billion worldwide.
It became the highest grossing comedy film.
It surpassed Jia Ling's Hi, Mom (2021) to become the highest-grossing movie with a solo female director.
It had the largest domestic opening weekend for a film that is not a sequel, remake, or superhero property, totaling $162 million.
It also achieved the largest opening weekend for a female-directed film, surpassing the record set by Captain Marvel (2019).
It had the highest opening weekend for a Margot Robbie film and a Ryan Gosling film, surpassing Suicide Squad (2016) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) simultaneously.
It became Gosling's highest-grossing film, surpassing La La Land (2016).
It surpassed The Secret Life of Pets (2016) to have the highest non-sequel July opening weekend.
It became the fastest Warner Bros. film to reach the $1 billion mark, doing so within 17 days of release, surpassing the previous 19-day record held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011).
Its second weekend domestic earnings of $92 million (a 43% drop) was the largest sophomore weekend ever for a Warner Bros. film and the seventh-largest ever.
It became the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film in the United States and Canada, surpassing The Dark Knight (2008).
It became Warner Bros. highest-grossing film ever, beating Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011).
The Super Mario Bros. Movie became the first film based on a video game, the eleventh animated film, and the 52nd film overall, to gross $1 billion worldwide.
It became Illumination's highest-grossing film, surpassing Minions (2015).
It surpassed 2019's Frozen II as having the highest-grossing opening worldwide for an animated film, grossing $375.6 million.
It achieved the highest-grossing opening for a video game adaptation worldwide, surpassing 2019's Detective Pikachu.
The film achieved the second-highest-grossing opening weekend in the US and Canada for an animated film behind Incredibles 2 (2018), earning $146 million in a 3-day frame and $204 million in a 5-day frame over Easter weekend.
It set the record for the biggest five-day opening weekend (for films opening on Wednesday) in North America, surpassing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009).
It set the record for Illumination's biggest opening, surpassing Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022).
It became the highest-grossing video game film of all time, surpassing Warcraft (2016) in nine days by April 13.
It became the first animated film to gross $1 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019. The last animated film to do so was Frozen II.
In Japan, its opening weekend gross of $14.3 million became the highest for a Hollywood animated film, as well as the highest for a film from Universal, surpassing Jurassic World Dominion (2022).
In Mexico, it became the highest-grossing film of all time with $82.4 million, surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) which made $81.16 million.
It became the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film of all time, surpassing Minions (2015).
Oppenheimer became the highest-grossing World War II film of all time, surpassing Dunkirk (2017), also directed by Christopher Nolan.
It became the highest-grossing biographical film of all time, surpassing Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).
It is the second-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time behind Joker (2019) and the highest-grossing opening weekend for an R-rated film since the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is the fifth-highest grossing IMAX release of all time, accumulating $179 million (20% of the film's total worldwide gross) through IMAX theaters alone, including $17 million from 30 IMAX 70 mm film screens around the world.
It became Nolan's highest-grossing film in over 50 overseas markets, including Germany, India, Brazil Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe became the first film franchise to gross $29 billion with the releases of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
The Fast & Furious franchise became the seventh film franchise to gross $7 billion with the release of Fast X.
The Spider-Man franchise became the third film franchise to gross $10 billion with the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse became the highest-grossing animated film distributed by Sony Pictures, surpassing Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018).
It also became Sony Pictures Animation's highest-grossing film, surpassing The Smurfs (2011).
It had the highest opening weekend for a Sony Pictures Animation film, surpassing Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015).
The Transformers franchise surpassed $5 billion with the release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
The Mission: Impossible franchise surpassed $4 billion with the release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
It also became the highest opening for a concert film of all time, and the second-highest opening in October of all time behind Joker.
Events
May 2–September 27 – The Writers Guild of America (WGA) commences a strike against film and television studios, its first labor stoppage since 2007 and the largest production stoppage for the American entertainment industry since 2020, after the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed to agree on a new contract by the WGA's May 1 renewal deadline. Other writers unions such as the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, Australian Writers' Guild, Writers Guild of Canada subsequently announce their support for the strike and instructed their members to refrain from working on American projects during the duration of the strike, impacted several film productions and releases. The WGA later declared the strike over on September 27, three days after the Guild and AMPTP reached a tentative agreement.
July 14 – SAG-AFTRA commences a strike against film and television studios, after the union and the AMPTP failed to agree on a new contract after their previous agreement expired on June 30. This marks the first time that actors have initiated a labor dispute since the 1980 actors strike. With the concurrent WGA strike, this becomes the first time that actors and writers have walked out simultaneously since 1960. Film projects produced by these American studios but made outside the U.S. may also be affected by the strike. However, actors represented by another union, such as Equity in the UK, may instead be required to continue working on projects.
July 21 – The Barbenheimer phenomenon occurs as Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer are released in theaters on the same day. The opening weekend box office was the first time two films opened with over $100m and $80m in the same weekend, the biggest box office weekend since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fourth-biggest weekend of all time.
Scheduled award ceremonies
Film festivals
2023 films
By country/region
List of American films of 2023
List of Australian films of 2023
List of Bangladeshi films of 2023
List of British films of 2023
List of Canadian films of 2023
List of French films of 2023
List of German films of 2023
List of Hong Kong films of 2023
List of Indian films of 2023
List of Japanese films of 2023
List of Mexican films of 2023
List of Pakistani films of 2023
List of Philippine films of 2023
List of Russian films of 2023
List of South Korean films of 2023
List of Spanish films of 2023
List of Turkish films of 2023
List of Yemeni films of 2023
By genre/medium
List of action films of 2023
List of animated feature films of 2023
List of avant-garde films of 2023
List of crime films of 2023
List of comedy films of 2023
List of drama films of 2023
List of horror films of 2023
List of science fiction films of 2023
List of thriller films of 2023
Deaths
Film debuts
Aria Bedmar – Sister Death
Myles Frost – Origin
Dua Lipa – Barbie
Sofía Otero – 20,000 Species of Bees
Notes
References
External links
List of 2023 films at IMDb
2023 Domestic Grosses at Box Office Mojo
List of 2023 deaths at IMDb
List of 2023 births at IMDb
2023
Film by year