“Barbie,” an original film written and directed by Greta Gerwig, had viewers decked out in pink clothing and showing up to opening night in a similar fashion to the film’s characters. The marketing machine around the Summer 2023 movie made viewing it more like an event than just a casual Friday night date flick.
The movie itself was more than what it led on to be.
Not just a comedy, but a commentary on modern society and the roles men and women are born into. It also represented a departure from Box Office strongholds of the past decade that saw Superheros dominating every big movie season.
Marvel movies hold four out of the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time: “Avengers: Endgame” holds second place behind James Cameron’s “Avatar” made in 2009.
Over the summer audiences switched.
Barbie earned $1.43 billion at the worldwide box office and stands as the highest grossing movie of the year.
“Oppenheimer,” written and directed by Christopher Nolan, was released the same weekend. “Oppenheimer” earned $942 million at the Box Office.
Collectively these two films earned $2.3 billion worldwide.
Compare those with the two Marvel movies that were released this year: “Antman and the Wasp: Quantomania” in February and “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3,” in May.
Combined, these Marvel films earned $1.31 billion worldwide.
Star-Lord couldn’t compete with the big marketing machine that combined summer hits “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” into “Barbenheimer” on X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Instagram.
“I do think that the combination of ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’ was something special … It does offer some hope for a different cinema to emerge, different from what’s been happening in the last 20 years,” said Oscar-Winning Director Martin Scorsese told Variety Magazine.
Lately, there has been a fallacy amongst the superhero film genre, known as, “superhero fatigue.”
“There is such a thing as Superhero fatigue, it has to do with the kind of stories being told … but I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story,” said James Gunn, director and writer of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” Trilogy, in an interview with Rolling Stones Magazine
Still, movies such as DC’s “Blue Beetle,” positively received by critics and audiences only made $128.6 million at the box office. Barely breaking even on its $106 million budget.
DC’s “The Flash” was released a month earlier than “Blue Beetle,” and was heavily criticized by audiences, earning $207.6 million worldwide before being pulled from 1,500 theaters early.
Given the controversy behind the film lead, Ezra Miller, over a year of reshoots, director changes and script editing during filming, “The Flash” was almost destined to fail.
Even after all this, somehow it managed to garner more success than “Blue Beetle.”
Marvel’s newest film “The Marvels,” starring Brie Larson, will be released Nov. 10, and is projected to earn between $121 and $189 million domestically.
Direct Magazine called the projections “Abysmal.”
“Captain Marvel,” Larson’s previous lead Marvel film, pulled $1.13 billion worldwide in 2019.
According to boxofficepro.com, Scorsese’s latest film (likely his last) “Killers of the Flower Moon,” releasing Oct. 20th is projected to earn between $90-$134 million domestically.
