The film industry in 2023 is suffering from Hollywood strikes, production delays, and behind-the-scenes events that have led to a generally weak year at the box office. However, some films have managed to achieve massive profits despite widespread criticism from critics, proving one thing for sure: a bad movie doesn’t necessarily mean people won’t see it.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”
The film “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was released by Universal Pictures in October 2023. Although it received a positive rating from only 31% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it achieved the best-ever performance during the Halloween weekend. With a total domestic box office of $137.1 million, “Five Nights” was the largest horror movie launch of the year and had the best opening for a Blumhouse Productions film.
On the other hand, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” received only 46% from critics, making it one of the worst-rated Marvel films ever. Nevertheless, the movie managed to attract audiences to the box office with a domestic revenue of $214 million, making it the eighth highest-grossing film of the year.
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Fast X”
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is the fourteenth most popular film in the domestic box office with revenues totaling $157 million, but it was only favored by 52% of critics. Meanwhile, “Fast X”, the tenth installment in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, grossed $145.9 million domestically to become the seventeenth highest-grossing film of 2023, although it received only a 56% rating from critics.
“Meg 2: The Trench” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”
The film “Meg 2: The Trench” managed to enter the top 30 films in terms of revenues for the year with earnings of $82.6 million, but this was not reflected in its ratings, as the film received only a 27% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. On the other hand, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” failed to satisfy some critics despite being one of only a few films to surpass $1 billion in global revenues this year, receiving a positive rating from only 59% of Rotten Tomatoes critics who described it as “a very weak story” and “an easily forgettable adventure”.
Films with Positive Ratings
Not all of the year’s highest-grossing films have poor ratings. The film “Barbie”, the highest-grossing film of the year, received near-universal acclaim from critics with an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and achieved a domestic gross of $636.2 million. Similarly, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” grossed $381.3 million domestically and was praised by 95% of critics, while “Oppenheimer” earned $325.8 million in the U.S. and received a rating of 93%.
Conclusion
Just as poor ratings do not always mean a movie will fail at the box office, the opposite is also true. Some films that received the best ratings from critics ended up leaving theaters with lower revenues, including the film “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” from Lions Gate Films.
For more information, you can read the following articles:
– “Mid-Year Report 2023: The Biggest, Best, and Worst Movies (So Far)”
– “The Biggest Movie of 2023 (So Far): The Super Mario Bros. Movie Outperforms Guardians of the Galaxy and The Little Mermaid”
–
“The Worst-Performing Movies of 2023 So Far: Bad News for George Foreman, Jane Fonda, and Priyanka Chopra”
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Mary Witwill Roeloffs
Editor at Forbes
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