Every Warner Bros. Movie Of 2023 So Far, Ranked By Box Office

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros., one of the oldest and longest-running American movie studios. It's a momentous occasion that speaks to how well Warner Bros. has managed to navigate a wide range of cinematic trends over the years, and just how many classics the studio has produced during its storied history. Fascinatingly, though, the 2023 domestic box office scene has been anything but a never-ending party for the studio. In this particular year, Warner Bros. has experienced some of its biggest highs as a studio, but also endured some notable box office bombs that will go down in history for all the wrong reasons.

Examining the lowest-to-highest-grossing Warner Bros. movies of 2023 at the domestic box office, it's clear the studio is capable of churning out successes that shape the culture, or at least solid box office returns that provide fleeting entertainment for the masses. However, the most disappointing financial performers for the studio this year (particularly its trio of DC Comics blockbusters) also demonstrate that even a studio with as impressive a legacy as Warner Bros. can make grave mistakes. As the folks at Warner Bros. continue to celebrate the studio's 100th anniversary, let's stay firmly in the here and now by examining the highs and lows of its 2023 domestic box office haul. 

If the movie "Mummies" sounds like something totally new to you, that's understandable. "Mummies" is an animated feature hailing from Spain with a tiny budget of just $12 million. The project emerged as a result of the Spanish arm of Warner Bros. opting to get involved more in homegrown projects in the country. While initial forays into Spanish-language Warner Bros. cinema, such as "Father There Is Only 2," barely received any kind of North American release, "Mummies" managed to debut in 225 theaters domestically. Presumably, the American branch of Warner Bros. opted to give "Mummies" a bit more of a push due to it being produced with English-language performances and containing the perceived universal appeal of animated family movies.

While "Mummies" is handily the lowest-grossing Warner Bros. movie of 2023 domestically, its performance in this territory was still nothing to sniff at. After opening to $422,183 in North America, "Mummies" showed impressive resilience into March 2023, thanks to a severe drought of other animated family movies in the marketplace. It eventually grossed $4.2 million domestically despite never playing in more than 328 theaters. Such figures make "Mummies," as of this writing, one of the biggest limited releases of 2023, animated or otherwise. With those kinds of solid North American box office numbers, "Mummies" indicates that the expansion of Warner Bros. into globally appealing features may prove to be very lucrative.

The 2023 remake of the classic comedy "House Party" was not originally set to be released in theaters. This feature was long scheduled for an HBO Max premiere at the end of July 2022, though those plans were scrapped at the last minute. Eventually, it was decided that "House Party" would instead launch as a theatrical event in January 2023. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema executives imagined this new comedy replicating the solid numbers posted by the first three "House Party" installments back in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, the new "House Party" failed to live up to the box office legacy of a franchise that previously never featured an installment that surpassed $26.3 million domestically.

Grossing just $9 million domestically, "House Party" got totally wiped out in North America and couldn't make up ground internationally with a meager $202,484 overseas haul. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a master partyer to figure out why audiences opted to stay home instead of seeing "House Party." Nothing in the film's marketing suggested antics that could either live up to the legacy of the original movies or capture the anarchic spirit of modern party movie hits like "Project X." It all just looked too safe and stale, which is the last vibe you want a party to give off. Perhaps "House Party" would've been better off just settling for an HBO Max drop.

While the first "Magic Mike" was a massive hit back in 2012, neither of the film's two sequels came anywhere close to replicating the box office success of that initial installment. The appeal of Channing Tatum stripping just wasn't enough to get people coming back to the theater ... or perhaps the world of "Magic Mike" was just not something moviegoers were especially eager to see serialized. This lack of interest was solidified with the box office run of "Magic Mike's Last Dance," the second sequel to "Magic Mike" that made only $26 million domestically, less than the North American opening weekend of the original "Magic Mike." 

Even with the box office precedent of "Magic Mike XXL" failing to meet financial expectations, it was still a bit shocking that "Magic Mike's Last Dance" couldn't do better thanks to its leading man, Channing Tatum, scoring two major hits just a year earlier in 2022. Tatum clearly still holds a lot of appeal to people, but the sight of him inhabiting the Mike Lane character once more clearly didn't entice audiences to hit the theaters. The eight-year gap between the second and third "Magic Mike" movies undoubtedly hurt the financial chances of "Last Dance," and one could argue that failing to bring back more supporting characters from the previous films made this threequel feel too detached from the rest of the franchise. Above all, though, "Magic Mike's Last Dance" suggested that audiences simply were never interested in further "Magic Mike" adventures.

It's been a tough time for DC Comics blockbusters at the box office. Starting with "Red" in October 2010 through "Birds of Prey" in February 2020, every single live-action DC Comics adaptation (save for "Red 2") that went to theaters made at least $84 million domestically. By contrast, starting with "Wonder Woman 1984" in December 2020, DC blockbusters have regularly made under $84 million in North America, a trend that can be chalked up to many factors, including the controversial decision to release 2020 and 2021 Warner Bros. films in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously. However, it also appears to stem simply from growing fatigue with the various projects DC is associated with, as seen by the dismal North American box office total of "Shazam! Fury of the Gods."

While the first "Shazam!" cracked $140.3 million domestically, its sequel, "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," could only muster up $57.6 million domestically four years later. Barely outgrossing its predecessor's domestic opening in its entire North American run, "Fury of the Gods" was plagued by a marketing campaign that failed to make its story seem substantially different from the first film. Not only that, but releasing it just a week before "John Wick: Chapter 4" and only three weeks before "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" pretty much sealed the fate of "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," which kept the box office woes of modern DC features going without missing a beat.

The "Evil Dead" franchise is incredibly popular and influential in the world of horror cinema, but it hasn't always been a massive box office juggernaut. These incredibly unique horror titles often became massive cult hits long after they finished their theatrical runs, with no pre-2013 "Evil Dead" installment making more than $11.5 million domestically. The 2023 entry "Evil Dead Rise," then, was a massive counter to that norm, joining the 2013 "Evil Dead" remake in demonstrating just how popular this saga has become. In its domestic run, "Evil Dead Rise" gobbled up a remarkable $67.2 million. That's more than the domestic hauls of "Army of Darkness" and the 2013 "Evil Dead" combined! 

"Evil Dead Rise" being such a hit can be attributed in large part to the growing fanbase surrounding the "Evil Dead" franchise, but it also proved successful enough to extend its appeal far beyond Ash Williams devotees. Making this installment a standalone exercise focusing on a family in an apartment being terrorized by paranormal entities gave "Evil Dead Rise" a unique look compared to its predecessors and made it accessible to the general public. You didn't need to be an expert in "Evil Dead" lore to watch this movie. With these virtues by its side, "Evil Dead Rise" had no trouble becoming a hit that redefined just how successful "Evil Dead" movies could be at the North American box office.

In the months leading up to the theatrical release of "Blue Beetle," many comic book geeks on the internet began to notice something strange: There was no marketing whatsoever for this particular DC Extended Universe installment. Normally, you can't escape the promotional shenanigans for new DC blockbusters, such as when an early "Black Adam" release date was announced by way of countless Times Square billboards. By contrast, the dearth of marketing surrounding "Blue Beetle" inspired the writing of countless think pieces and even got fans to conjure up homemade ideas for what a major promotional push could look like.

The lack of marketing for "Blue Beetle" served as a bellwether for the film's eventual box office run, which currently sits at just $71.2 million domestically. That's an incredibly lackluster haul for a motion picture that cost a whopping $120 million to make, and in the realm of superhero movies, "Blue Beetle" managed to make slightly less than titles like "Morbius" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" domestically. A weak marketing campaign was only one of the many problems "Blue Beetle" faced in its domestic run, which also struggled thanks to the feature debuting in a year overrun with other DC Comics blockbusters. Even under the best of circumstances, it would've been difficult to make "Blue Beetle" stand out from the crowd.

While 2023 has seen Warner Bros. struggle to maintain the box office momentum of its DC Comics blockbusters, it also reminded the studio just how financially reliable the various titles in the "Conjuring" saga have been. Each of these films has made at least $65.6 million domestically (save for the spin-off title "The Curse of La Llorona") and has also proven incredibly popular internationally. None of them have come close to the $137.4 million North American box office haul of the first "Conjuring" title from 2013, but they've largely proven profitable nonetheless. 

In 2023, "The Nun II" continued this phenomenon without a hitch thanks to a domestic haul that, as of this writing, has cleared $81 million. While that's below the $117.4 million North American gross of the original "Nun" film, it puts "The Nun II" right in the same spot as the original "Annabelle" film from 2014 and ahead of previous "Conjuring" entries like "Annabelle Comes Home." That titular nun of "The Nun II" has proven to be a resiliently frightening entity that audiences love to see, and combining that with the positive reputation of earlier "Conjuring" entries made "The Nun II" a must-see for horror fans. While other long-running Warner Bros. sagas have struggled in recent years, "The Nun II" proved that the various "Conjuring" adventures are something the studio can always rely on to pull in a mint.

In 2018, "The Meg" proved to be a surprise sleeper hit, grossing $145.4 million domestically alone. Combining Jason Statham and a comically oversized shark together into one action-packed movie captured the imagination of summertime moviegoers. Naturally, a sequel was commissioned, and five years later, "Meg 2: The Trench" was unleashed on the world. After so much time away, "Meg 2: The Trench" inevitably made much less than its predecessor in North America. This follow-up capped out its domestic run with $82.5 million – about a 42% decline from its predecessor's box office haul in the same territory.

When "The Meg" first came out, the idea of Statham tangling with a big underwater beastie had some novelty to it, since it hadn't been done before. Being a sequel, "Meg 2: The Trench" lost much of its predecessor's novelty factor and in the process also shed much of that film's domestic box office prowess. Plus, the marketing for this follow-up failed to emphasize many new elements that could set "The Trench" apart from what audiences were already quite familiar with. Still, "Meg 2: The Trench" didn't flame out entirely domestically and, much like the original "Meg," was an enormous success internationally. Maybe those feats will be enough to ensure that a third "Meg" swims its way into theaters sometime in the future.

Before the release of "The Flash," Warner Bros. attempted to drum up hype for this film by setting lofty expectations for how "The Flash" would compare to other superhero movies. Early news reports from major media outlets about "The Flash" breathlessly talked about the reportedly great test screening reports for the DC Extended Universe feature, while WarnerDisocvery CEO David Zazlav offered multiple public comments about how much he loved the movie. It was a bold gambit that put a lot of pressure on "The Flash" to live up to pre-release expectations. In the end, though, "The Flash" came nowhere close to meeting all that hype. On the contrary, this motion picture became one of the biggest superhero movie bombs in history.

Though it currently holds the title for the second biggest Warner Bros. movie of 2023 domestically,  "The Flash" only grossed $108.1 million in North America. That disastrous haul put "The Flash" behind "Green Lantern" in the history of DC Comics movies at the domestic box office and beneath the likes of "Ghost Rider" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer." Audiences weren't anywhere near enamored enough with Ezra Miller's Barry Allen/The Flash to want to spend an entire movie with this character, and a marketing campaign emphasizing confusing multiverse shenanigans heightened the apathy. No amount of pre-release hype over "The Flash's" quality could erase those glaring problems. And this is to say nothing of Ezra Miller's run-ins with the law leading up to the film's release, or the controversy over its decision to include gruesomely CGI-ed images of long-dead actors from DC history.

It took a while for "Barbie" to come to the silver screen. Despite being based on one of the most popular toys in history, "Barbie" went through multiple studios and creative teams before finding a home at Warner Bros. with writer and director Greta Gerwig. Sometimes, movies that spend so much time in development hell end up feeling like disjointed monsters, a mishmash of various creative visions quarreling to exist on the screen. In the case of "Barbie," though, the lengthy wait to see this blonde-haired doll in theaters turned out to be well worth it, especially for Warner Bros. executives. "Barbie" grossed $634.3 million domestically, an astonishing haul that ensured the feature did more than four times its $151 million budget at the domestic box office alone. 

Astonishingly, though, "Barbie" also became the biggest Warner Bros. movie in history at the domestic box office, dethroning the previous champ (the $533.7 million haul of "The Dark Knight" from 2008) by a little over $100 million. As a cherry on top, the motion picture currently stands as the highest-grossing movie of 2023 domestically by a considerable margin. The popularity of Barbie dolls always guaranteed "Barbie" some level of financial success, but this feature's outstanding box office run is largely due to the bold and entertaining creative risks Gerwig took in making the film. Such unique maneuvers grabbed the hearts and minds of moviegoers and ensured that "Barbie" would easily be the big Warner Bros. box office champion of 2023.