We are almost at the end of the first quarter of 2023, but so far, we have not been lucky enough to see any record-breaking Hollywood blockbusters take global audiences by surprise. And who can blame the producers in L.A.? The previous year, 2022, set the bar just a bit too high.
After all, in addition to being full of critically acclaimed cinematic masterpieces like The Whale, Everything Everywhere all at once and German entries like Tár and All Quiet on the Western Front, the year ended with two of the highest-grossing movies in the history of cinema.
Yes, of course, I am talking about Top Cruise’s comeback hit, Top Gun: Maverick, and James Cameroon’s imaginative masterpiece Avatar the Way of the Water. The former ruled the box office for weeks, earning well over a Billion Dollars around the globe only to be whipped off the charts by the unprecedented success of the latter which crossed the Billion and a Half Dollar earning mark to become the highest earner in cinematic history.
Compared to the stellar success of Hollywood in the past year, the current year feels almost like a disappointment. But despite this poor performance, the charts are still up, the position lists are live and the revenues race is still ongoing.
And where there are positions there are position holders, even if we think that none of them deserve to be there, they still are.
So, let’s try to move beyond the nostalgia of the previous year and talk a bit about the top three earners of this year, so far.
But before we hop onto our main topic let’s take a little breather and talk about something extremely important. It does not matter which movie grosses at which position if you are not able to watch it right? And being an avid cinema lover and binge-watcher, I want to assure you that it’s impossible to enjoy a movie, no matter how good it is, under the constant threat of the buffer sign.
So, before jumping into the binge take a moment to figure your internet situation out. Those of you who live in urban areas should, without wasting a second, upgrade to one of the many fiber-based internet service providers out there.
And those of you who live on the edges, rural and sparsely populated areas, should not have to rely on slug-paced Dial-Up Lines (DSL) connections either especially when state-of-the art satellite internet providers like HughesNet are beaming highspeed satellite broadband to your doorstep, or better yet your rooftop.
Now, let’s talk about the biggest winners, no matter how undeserving, in Hollywood this year, so far.
Here is the ordered list.
ANT MAN AND THE WASP QUANTAMANIA
No surprise here, right? Whenever you talk about top-grossing movies Marvel Production somehow magically manages to make the list. And this year is no different. Despite disappointing Marvel fans all across the world with its glaring and somewhat lazy plot holes, Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantomania has somehow managed to grab and hold the top-grossing spot for the first quarter of 2023.
The movie made an impressive, Four hundred sixty-four million one hundred fifty-eight thousand two hundred fifty-four dollars in revenues. Out of this surprising figure, over 44 percent was earned domestically while the rest was contributed by foreign audiences worldwide.
And though I am sure that each Dollar is now being regretted, Marvel was able to get rich from it anyway.
CREED III
The latest rendition of the long-running Creed, now, Trilogy was not as big a disappointment to its fan as this list’s top runner. The builds on its already strong plot foundations and does not try to stray away, experiment or take unnecessary risks.
The movie made an impressive, two hundred twenty-six million seven hundred forty-four thousand four hundred three Dollars at the box office with 57.5 percent of this figure coming from the domestic market while the rest was raked in from foreign viewers.
SCREAM 4
Much like Creed III, scream 4 also relies heavily on the source material, because why change something if it works? The movie carries the same setting and space but the timeline is 16 years after the events of the original Scream movie which came out in 1996.
The movie is the third highest-grossing Hollywood production of the first quarter of 2023 and was able to earn One hundred twenty million three hundred eighty-nine thousand twenty-seven Dollars out of which over 66 percent came from domestic audiences while a mere 33 percent came from foreign viewers making it the least favorite for foreign viewers on this list.
WRAP UP
Hollywood’s performance at the end of the first quarter of 2023 has been disappointing, no movie was able to cross the 500 Million Dollar mark and with the possible exception of Creed III, no movie managed to live up to the hype.
But the year is not over yet, so do not lose hope in Hollywood, a long line of potential blockbusters is under production and may redeem the industry before the year ends.
REFERENCE
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/