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Universal beats Disney as 2023's most successful production house, thanks to Oppenheimer, Super Mario Bros Movie
With the success of films such as The Super Mario Bros Movie and Oppenheimer, Universal raked in almost $5 billion in 2023.
For the first time in eight years, another film studio has beaten Disney in the game. In 2023, Universal surpassed the movie-making giant as the most successful film studio, amassed over $4.907 billion!
As per a report in Variety, the studios released as many as 24 movies and a few of them went on to become blockbusters. These include Christopher Nolan's World War II epic, Oppenheimer, horror film M3GAN, and the The Super Mario Bros. Movie. (Also read: Oppenheimer review: Christopher Nolan’s least accessible and bravest film to date)
Who took which spot?
Disney still secured the second spot with the releases of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Little Mermaid and 14 other movies, that's 10 less than Universal, which the studios pins as the reason behind their second position. Disney's 2023 total came up to $4.827 billion.
In a statement, Disney also mentioned that it still has the most titles in the top 10 list, four of the highest-grossing global releases and three of the biggest domestic releases.
The first three spots were taken by Warner Bros.’ Barbie ($1.4 billion) and Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.3 billion) and Oppenheimer ($950 million). With a lacklustre Marvel slate, no Star Wars entry, this is the first time since 2015 that a Disney movie is not on the top of the list. Their biggest money-minter of the year was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, bringing in $845 million.
Here's the lowdown of the top entries:
| Universal | $4.9 billion |
| Disney | $4.8 billion |
| Warner Bros | $3.84 billion |
| Sony | $2.09 billion |
| Paramount | $2.03 billion |
Barbie and Oppenheimer
The year's biggest movie was Greta Gerwig's Barbie that released on the same day as Nolan's Oppenheimer. The double feature, as it was termed the Barbenheimer, was the summer event of the year, with many watching back-to-back shows of the movies on the same day.
Barbie starred Margot Rabbie as the titular doll and Ryan Gosling as her constant companion, Ken. The film followed the adventures of Barbie and Ken as they leave Barbieland for the real world and learn some shocking truths about life.
Oppenheimer starred Cillian Murphy as the Father of the Atom Bomb, physicist J Robert Oppenheimer. It also starred Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh and others.
