13 Movies Released in 2023 Have a Budget Over $200 Million; Only 1 Made Profit

Summary

• In the 11 months of 2023, 13 films with budgets of at least $200 million were released.
• With the exception of only one movie, every one of them either failed at the box office or struggled to break even, with critics and audiences panning them.
• All of this suggests that global audiences are tired of movies whose only merit is a big budget.

Putting exorbitant budgets into movies that are designed to make an equally exorbitant profit has long been standard practice for the major studios, who count on it as one of the main factors in attracting more attention and interest to the project.

Except that public sentiment is the opposite: in 2023 alone, a huge number of feature films were released with budgets of $200 million or more. What do we end up with? Total disappointment at the box office, scathing reviews from fans and critics (or just indifferent receptions), and huge financial losses for media giants already reeling from the Covid era and the recently concluded WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Only one of the following examples turned out to be profitable.

13. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Release date: February 17

Budget: $200 million

Global box-office: $476.1 million

Domestic rank: 7

Rotten Tomatoes score: 46%

12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Release date: May 5

Budget: $250 million

Global box-office: $845.6 million

Domestic rank: 4

Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%

11. Fast X

Release date: May 19

Budget: $340 million

Global box-office: $714.1 million

Domestic rank: 17

Rotten Tomatoes score: 56%

10. The Little Mermaid

Release date: May 26

Budget: $297 million

Global box-office: $569.6 million

Domestic rank: 6

Rotten Tomatoes score: 67%

9. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Release date: June 9

Budget: $195–200 million

Global box-office: $439 million

Domestic rank: 13

Rotten Tomatoes score: 52%

8. The Flash

Release date: June 16

Budget: $200–220 million

Global box-office: $270.6 million

Domestic rank: 20

Rotten Tomatoes score: 63%

7. Elemental

Release date: June 16

Budget: $200 million

Global box-office: $495.9 million

Domestic rank: 15

Rotten Tomatoes score: 74%

6. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Release date: June 30

Budget: $294.7–300 million

Global box-office: $384 million

Domestic rank: 11

Rotten Tomatoes score: 69%

5. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Release date: July 12

Budget: $291 million

Global box-office: $567.5 million

Domestic rank: 12

Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%

4. Killers of the Flower Moon

Release date: October 20

Budget: $200 million

Global box-office (projected): $160 million

Domestic rank (projected): 29

Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%

3. The Marvels

Release date: November 10

Budget: $220 million

Global box-office (projected): $220 million

Domestic rank (projected): 26

Rotten Tomatoes score: 61%

2. Wish

Release date: November 22

Budget: $175–200 million

Global box-office (so far): $49.7 million

Rotten Tomatoes score: 49%

1. Napoleon

Release date: November 22

Budget: $130–200 million

Global box-office (so far): $80.5 million

Rotten Tomatoes score: 59%

Why Most of These Movies Failed at the Box Office

As we can see, only one movie from the list managed to be profitable, James Gunn 's last project within the MCU, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. And even then, the second installment with a smaller budget paid off much better, not to mention the colossal success of Marvel movies of that time, easily earning more than a billion dollars. But the failure of all other MCU projects did not reverse Disney 's insane multi-budget pipeline, which exhausted both production teams and viewers: The Marvels promises to be an even bigger flop than WB's The Flash, nailing the studio's coffin shut.

Unfortunately, this is the result of an absolute loss of touch with the consumer, as critics and audiences don't care how much money executives throw around (and that's not counting marketing costs!), as long as the movie has a quality script and picture, decent acting and impressive ideas. A great example is this summer's Barbie and Oppenheimer, which had smaller budgets but still made a lot of money and was well-received. In contrast, the failed films, the vast majority of which are produced by Disney, are examples of ill-spent money hammering nails into the coffins of these studios.

Of course, the studios always make excuses for some external factor, denying the problematic nature of their dysfunctional business model that has turned pop culture into a bunch of money-driven flops with huge potential due to talent but terrible realization due to studio decisions.

The Marvels star Iman Vellani, for example, recently said that any complaints about the film's impending failure should be directed at Bob Iger's policies, not the actors. And while some are directing their hatred at the actors and blaming them, the first thing to consider is why big-budget projects are getting progressively worse. Because no matter how much money the studios spend, their approach to production, low quality, and unoriginal ideas (including endless remakes and the multiverse trope that almost everyone is sick of) will never justify such high costs.