In 2023, studios across the board had a good amount of their blockbusters tank or have underwhelming results at the global box office. At this point, the phrase “franchise fatigue” is maybe the more accurate term we should start using here over “superhero fatigue.” Mainly, because it’s not just comic book movies that are struggling to make an impact at the box office, earn as much as the last installment, or turn a profit. In this piece, we’re going to spotlight many of these box office hiccups from last year. 

Disney saw a massive ding to their 2023 slate with “Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny,” with a $300 million budget and the fifth installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, which didn’t click with audiences in the way that Lucasfilm/Disney had hoped earning a less than stellar $383.9 million. Speaking of Lucasfilm, a studio built on the juggernaut “Star Wars” franchise hasn’t shot a feature film since 2019 with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Their pause on the feature division comes after “Solo: A Star Wars Story” had a weak box office take that scared Lucasfilm from pursuing other spinoff films and pivoted to focusing on their streaming series division at Disney+ instead. There have been endless promises of new films by Lucasfilm from filmmakers such as Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi, Dave Filoni, James Mangold, Shawn Levy, and a mystery trilogy from Rian Johnson. However, we’ll believe all these “Star Wars” movies are happening when the trailers drop considering how many films were turned into series or never happened at all like “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron” that had a release date of December 22,2023 and then the Patty Jenkins-directed pic just vanished. 

It’s not just Disney and Warner Bros. undergoing a stress test other studios saw some of their popular franchises taking dings in 2023. Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise of The Beasts” had a somewhat difficult time attracting audiences to the point that it made even less than 2018’s “Bumblebee” with $438.9 million and $166.5 million less than “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Another big stumble for Paramount was “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and one nobody really saw coming after “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” earned Paramount a whopping $791.6 million back in 2018. The most recent outing led by Tom Cruise only managed to make $395.4 million over the summer which is nearly half of what “Fallout” did. The studio is now abandoning the “Dead Reckoning Part Two” title for “Mission: Impossible 8” entirely.

While I think folks at Lionsgate are happy that their “Hunger Games” prequel has made $322.6 million, yet, that would still be a drop of $338.8 million from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.” The fourth installment of “The Expendables” distributed by Lionsgate ended up putting up some of the worst numbers with an embarrassing $21.2 million compared to the last pic’s $214.6 million. “Expendables 4” wasn’t the only disappointing Jason Statham film either as Ben Wheatley’s “Meg 2: The Trench” dropped down by $134.3 million.

Universal has many plans for expanding its Universal Monsters franchise with various features tackling different horror characters. However, in 2023 the studio struggled to get folks to watch either of their high-profile Dracula films with both the comedy “Renfield” ($26.4 million global earnings vs $65 million budget) and the grittier “The Last Voyage of The Demeter” ($21.7 million global earnings vs $45 million budget) which took decades to make it to the big screen failed to scare up an audience outside of the Halloween season. Some of the few horror films that struggled.

Meanwhile, on the superhero front, there were indeed signs of audience apathy. Both “The Marvels” ($46.1 million domestic opening weekend) and “Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom” ($27.7 million domestic opening weekend) were follow-ups to billion-dollar successes that failed to make a big splash by not covering their production/marketing costs.

Of course, the headaches that Marvel Studios experienced in 2023 are obvious with “The Marvels” dipping a massive $925.8 million compared to “Captain Marvel” and “Ant-Man 3” saw a significant drop of $146.6 million in contrast to “Ant-Man & The Wasp.” Although, it wasn’t all bad for the MCU since “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3” topped the superhero releases at $845.5 million with a minor slip of $18.2 million.

The final installment of the DCEU, “Aquaman & The Last Kingdom,” had a soft opening weekend as mentioned above, and has only mustered $258.2 million which is another colossal hiccup. A difference of $893.8 million when put up against the original. Ultimately, the “Shazam!” sequel ended up with one of the worst turnouts for major superhero blockbusters. At $133.8 million (Made a fraction of what the original did when it earned $367.7 million in 2019) and given its hefty budget of $300 million, “The Flash” was another catastrophe for WB at $270.6 million. With the DCU set for a big reboot in July 2025, starting with “Superman: Legacy,” there are some expectations that the reset could help with the studio’s rebranding post-Snyderverse. Then again, “Blue Beetle” (Not technically a sequel/follow-up) was retroactively added to the DCU by DC Studios around its release despite a weak $129.2 million at the box office. 

Then again, it’s not all bad since there were a handful of upticks in 2023, and some of these include “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” hitting $690.5 million, a big jump from the Oscar-winning first installment’s global box office of $384.2 million from 2018. “Creed III” saw a $61 million boost which sounds good for the prospect of a fourth film. When it comes to more mature franchises, “John Wick: Chapter 4” also handed Lionsgate their best numbers over four feature films at $440.1 million. “Saw X” and “Scream VI” did well compared to their last installments too. 

Every movie is as different as the reasons for them not becoming massive earners.

We can’t really expect studios to pump the breaks completely on the superhero movies given that it’s still a lucrative venture. There is an overload of sequels on the horizon at Marvel with “Deadpool 3,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” and director Destin Daniel Cretton exiting “Avengers 5” to focus on “Shangi-Chi 2.” “Deadpool 3,” an R-rated sequel, is expected to be the only MCU feature film released this year and gives the studios a bit of a cooling-off period.

While these pics haven’t been given official release dates or announced by Marvel themselves, there is an expectation that we’ll be getting “Spider-Man 4,” “Doctor Strange 3,” “Thor 5,” “Captain America 5,” and possibly “Eternals 2.” There are also a bunch of reboots on the way with things like “Fantastic Four,” “Blade,” “X-Men,” James Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy” shooting in 2024, and a new Batman film with “The Brave & The Bold.” 

Sony’s adjacent Marvel films in 2024 include “Madame Web,” “Kraven The Hunter,” and the final solo outing for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock in “Venom 3.” We don’t know how much appetite audiences have for these movies without Tom Holland’s involvement and a disaster like “Morbius” harkening back to the era of the 2000s when studios were rushing half-cooked superhero films into theaters to meet the demand. 

A bunch of non-comic book blockbusters or follow-up installments coming later this year include “Dune: Part Two,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” “Gladiator 2,” “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “Kung Fu Panda 4,” “Inside Out 2,” “Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes,” “Alien: Romulus,” “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” “Mufasa: The King King,” “Sonic The Hedgehog 3,” “The Lord of The Rings: The War of The Rohirrim,” ‘Smile 2,” “Saw XI,” “Transformers One,” “Beetlejuice 2,” “Wolf Man,” “A Quiet Place: Day One,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Bad Boys 4,” “Ballerina,” “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” and Radio Silence’s Universal Monsters film. Hopefully, these do a lot better with audiences.

Solutions? Well, spending $200-300 million a pop for these films is simply going to be unsustainable, and trying to market every blockbuster as an event continues to be difficult for studios when their slate is mostly these kinds of films in an oversaturated market. Studios would likely benefit from seeking out filmmakers who can deliver genre films at lower costs and potentially scaling back the overreliance on VFX. An adjusted expectation for these movies could be closer to a cume of $300-500 million and studios would be smart to think about going back to budgets closer to/under $80-100 million. The bigger the movie the pricier reshoots and overhauls will be to fix hiccups in the editing/post process which has contributed to a lot of these bloated budgets making it tougher for studios to recoup their overall costs.

Some other factors include that COVID is still ongoing with people avoiding crowded theaters/malls and a lot of audiences don’t have to wait long for releases to drop on streaming services they’re already subscribing to. The latter seems a lot more damaging because the shortened theatrical windows mean studios have to deal with not only folks waiting out to get movies for “free” on streaming via subs and diminishes the importance of the theatrical experience. Warner Bros. during the early days of the pandemic attempted to do day-and-date releases which was detrimental to their film division it led AT&T’s John Stankey to bail on the company by handing over the reins to David Zaslav/Discovery (His tax write-off scheme leading to the erasure of films and shows is equally imbecilic). 

A good example of this was Disney, who dumped three straight Pixar films “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” on Disney+ and seemingly did large brand damage as they’re trying to fix in retrospect by releasing them all in theaters in 2024 (See teaser trailer above). This comes ahead of the release of “Inside Out 2” in June, a follow-up to a $858.8 million hit, that may aim to curb some of the weak box office that “Toy Story” semi-spinoff “Lightyear” saw in 2022.

It’s worth mentioning that things like “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Super Mario Bros.” surprised us all with their massive earnings as when these movies were first announced they weren’t slamdunks to the point we were expecting them to be the Top 3 films of 2023. Their theatrical windows gave those pics plenty of time to accumulate a bunch of cash. Also, doesn’t hurt that both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (Still playing at my local theater in December) came from visionary filmmakers, Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan respectively. Selecting creatives that can contribute to the script or elevate the material to make something appealing to an audience when a lot of genre projects can blend together or seem generic might help. Nolan and Denis Villeneuve have been extremely vocal on the importance of theatrical windows.

We shouldn’t be all doom-and-gloom about the situation. I’m mostly optimistic since there were plenty of good box office stories in 2023 and studios aren’t suddenly going to stop making these movies. Yet, potentially trimming the volume of releases, not trying to manufacture event status for all films, and using their abundant resources more carefully should be a good start. Marvel/Disney have already signaled they’re looking to pivot and make constructive changes. We’ll see if other studios make similar adjustments with their own franchises that are seeing dwindling interest.

Here is a rundown of franchise releases in 2023 to give you an idea of how lopsided the box office of 2023 actually was: 

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 ($845.5 million)

FAST X ($704.8 million)

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE ($690.5 million)

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE ($567.5 million)

ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA ($476 million)

TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS ($438.9 million)

THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES ($322.6 million)

MEG 2: THE TRENCH ($312.4 million)

CREED III ($275.2 million) 

THE FLASH ($270.6 million)

THE NUN II – ($268 millon)

AQUAMAN & THE LOST KINGDOM ($258.2 million) 

THE MARVELS ($205.6 million) 

PAW PATROL: THE MIGHTY MOVIE ($200.7 million)

TROLLS BAND TOGETHER ($198.7 million)

THE EQUALIZER 3 ($190 million)

INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR ($189 million)

SCREAM VI ($168.9 million)

SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS ($133.8 million)

GODZILLA MINUS ONE ($81 million)

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM ($61.9 million)

EXPENDABLES 4 ($21.2 million) 

*Global box office numbers were sourced from Box Office Mojo.