2023 will likely become one of the most critical years in cinema and one of the most tumultuous. 2023 saw a major writer’s and director’s strike, the exponential rise of streaming, increasing average film length, the death of superhero movies, and a resurgence in enthusiasm for mid-budget and historical drama/epic films.
However, before we get into why certain movies failed and others triumphed, let’s look back at the films released last year. Disregarding superhero films for a moment, 2023 provided us with Cocaine Bear, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Creed III, John Wick 4, The Covenant, Evil Dead: Rise, Fast X, The Little Mermaid, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I, Equalizer 3, A Haunting in Venice, Saw X, Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Eras Tour, Renaissance Tour, Godzilla: Minus One, Wonka, Rebel Moon and who could forget Five Nights at Freddy’s.
By far, the most significant success of the year was the summer double-feature phenomenon that was Barbenheimer. Both highly anticipated movies had incredible financial and, to a degree, critical success. However, what makes this phenomenon most important is not necessarily the meme; it’s the fact that the two most popular movies of the year weren’t big-budget, corporate-produced, soulless, and safe superhero blockbusters. Both had larger budgets, sure, but neither was part of a cinematic universe; each was unique and new. Though Barbie was based on existing intellectual property, the film’s marketing and plotline made clear that the movie was trying to be something different, more complex than the traditional girl-doll narrative. So, too, in an even more extreme sense, was Oppenheimer (co-starring RDJ, who fled the MCU), a mature historical biopic, almost the exact opposite of the blockbusters that seemed to have dominated the 2010s and early 2020s.
This brings us to possibly the most significant impact that 2023 had on cinema: the ultimate death of the superhero film. Marvel didn’t come out swinging with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (the title alone says enough), which barely broke even with its budget. This trend only worsened throughout the year, with Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and The Marvels all losing millions for their respective studios. In the rush to capitalize on the MCU’s success, production companies prioritized quantity over quality, speeding up the law of diminishing returns that ultimately drove all of their franchises into the ground. The only two superhero exceptions were Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. However, both of these movies included highly appreciated characters and stood out as unique in their genre. That having been said, it is unlikely that this will be able to be recreated in the coming years. Given the sheer volume of superhero content, it’s likely that future superhero films – even those with well-crafted storylines and characters – will continue to drive audiences away. In short, the market has simply become too saturated with capes, and everybody has begun to move on.
And it wasn’t just superhero movies that suffered this fate. As can be seen with the failure of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, people aren’t interested in big-budget corporate projects that simply revive old characters. People want new and original ideas, and exciting movies that are actually enjoyable and make them feel something. When watching the latest Marvel/Disney/Big-budget corporate nightmare movies, I and many others felt an empty void. It’s like watching a shell of a movie that is so mediocre you forget about it immediately after watching it. However, with the aftershock of the writer’s strike, you can expect to see a lot less of these films, as many had to get their productions pushed back and, given the financial distress big production companies are in right now, it seems likely that many of these boring big-budget projects may never see the light of day. The DCEU is officially over, Marvel will likely end soon, and even Star Wars is on its dying breath.
In my personal opinion: this is for the better. A return to original, mid-budget, engaging, and thought-provoking filmmaking isn’t so bad at all, and with the success of these types of films this year, along with the success of many historical epics, you can expect to see many more of these on the horizon. Maybe historical dramas will become the new Marvel, the new fad of the 2020s, much like the Western era of the 50s and the thriller era of the 90s, and honestly, that’s just the fresh start movies need.
2023 is a year that will likely be remembered as one of the most important in film history, culminating in so many different events and phenomena that will shape the future of cinema for the foreseeable future. It will be fascinating to see its aftereffects in 2024, which promises a slate of creative, unique, and interesting films that will stand in stark contrast to the blockbusters of the 2010s.
