Top Grossing Films of 2023 Odds
July slams movie-goers with one blockbuster after another.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie has grossed just under 574 million domestically and 1.34 billion worldwide to take an early lead as the highest-grossing film in 2023, but as the heart of Summer approaches the competition is coming.
This weekend, Christopher Nolan’s biological thriller Oppenheimer opens alongside the anticipated Barbie movie from director Greta Gerwig in her first executive producer role. Starting next week, we should see 2023 highest grossing movie odds put back on the board. Let’s go through some of the favorites to cash these tickets, along with a couple of under the radar films that may deserve your attention.
Avatar Sets Early Standard
Of the movies already released, Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One (83.8 million opening weekend gross) is the only film that has a small chance to challenge Avatar: The Way of Water (684.1 million) for the top spot when 2023 winds up, but that is a massive reach.
The advantage that decent family movies have over almost any other genre is that families will buy multiple tickets so everyone can go, rather than a thriller which is usually viewed by two adults on average. That’s why it’s going to be hard to overcome Avatar for the highest-grossing film of 2023, which has a $111 million advantage over the second place The Super Mario Bros. Movie as of July 19th.
The Avatar cast features Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation) along with Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Ghostbusters) and Zoe Saldana (Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy). With the next Avatar (2025) already in post-production and the fourth (2029) and fifth movies (2-31) filming now, you can bet that this series will be a solid highest-grossing bet for years to come.
Of the upcoming releases, which one has a shot? We’ll start with Oppenheimer, which, believe it or not, is not expected to be the biggest movie of the weekend. Some reports say that Oppenheimer is expected to make around $50 million this weekend. That pales in comparison to the $100 million the Barbie movie, starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie, is expected to bring in the opening weekend.
Again, the reason is, we’re not bringing our kids to a move about the atomic bomb. We anticipate the true standing of Oppenheimer will be known in the following weeks to months because the following week, Disney’s Haunted Mansion will be released.
The success of Oppenheimer will be a slow reveal. The budget for Barbie was $145 million while Oppenheimer was surprisingly made for around $100 million. We anticipate Barbie to settle in around number five (est $350 million) in 2023, in other words not close to Avatar. When the odds go back up, jump on Avatar to continue being the highest-grossing film of 2023.
All-Time Highest-Grossing Films
We thought it would be fun to revisit the highest-grossing films of all time, perhaps giving us an idea of future highest-grossing odds wagers. The first couple of films we think of in this category is 1997’s Titanic whose characters (Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson and Kate ‘There Isn’t Enough Room for Jack’ Winslet as Rose Dewitt Bukater) are embedded in American film history along with the Avengers cast that features Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk.
Both movies will be iconic forever, but it’s Star Wars: Episode VII-The Force Awakens (2015) that holds the record for highest worldwide gross earnings at 936.7 million. Avengers; End Game (858.3 million) is second, followed by Spider-Man No Way Home (814.1 million).
All totals are domestic. We still have to give massive props to Titanic which was the first billion-dollar movie worldwide in 1997. In 2009, Avatar surpassed Titanic in worldwide gross and is still fourth all-time, which is saying something when you think about how ticket prices have increased over the last 24 years.
We anticipate at least four more Star Wars films to pick up where 2019’s Episode IX-The Rise of Skywalker left off but they’re only in the development stage at this point. Look for a new Stars Wars film sometime in 2025. That does it for our look at 2023’s highest-grossing films along with a look back on cinematic history. We wish you all the best with your future movie wagers.
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