Hollywood Lessons 2023: Audiences Seeked Solace, Skipped Spectacles

By Liam On Dec 25, 2023

Hollywood's film factories run on conventional wisdom: deeply held ideas, based on experience, about what types of films are likely to hit the global box office.

This year the public has turned many of those so-called rules on their heads.

Superheroes have long been seen as the most reliable way to fill seats. But characters like Captain Marvel, the Flash, Ant-Man, Shazam and Blue Beetle failed to captivate moviegoers. Last weekend, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which cost more than $200 million to make and tens of millions more to market, grossed a disastrous $28 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada. Foreign moviegoers donated another $80 million.

Meanwhile, Barbie, the year's biggest movie at the box office, with $1.44 billion in worldwide ticket sales, was directed by a woman, based on a very feminine toy and pink-sprayed ingredients long known to most studios. because it limits audience appeal. An old maxim from the film industry states that women will go to a 'men's film', but not the other way around.

The Super Mario Bros. film grossed $1.36 billion, a second-place result that also surprised Hollywood; studios have a checkered history with game adaptations. Oppenheimer, a three-hour period drama about a physicist, rounded out the top three, grossing $952 million and contradicting the prevailing belief that adult films are not viable in theaters in the streaming age.

“The biggest box office surprises of the year fell into the 'spoken to' category.

Sound of Freedom, a crime drama that cost $15 million to make, targeted the far right, an audience largely ignored by Hollywood, and generated $248 million in ticket sales, comparable to The Eras Tour, which targeted Taylor Swift- fans and also cost approximately $15 million.

Sound of Freedom came from Angel Studios, an independent company in Provo, Utah, which supported the film with an unorthodox “Pay It Forward” program, allowing supporters to purchase tickets online for those who might not otherwise see the film.

In a major break from Hollywood norms, Swift cut out the middle company (a studio) and signed a distribution deal directly with AMC Entertainment, the world's largest theater operator. Sophisticated dramas with modest budgets and aimed at an older audience are showing signs of life after two years in intensive care.

First print: December 25, 2023 | 11:38 PM IST