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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.