Bad times for superheroes. Masters of the box office throughout the previous decade, the vigilantes of Marvel and DC Comics are now struggling to attract audiences to cinemas. Nevertheless, an unexpected film has become the greatest success of its genre in 2023, proving that the recipe can still be a hit.
Spider-Man, The Marvels, Blue Beetle…this film was the most successful in 2023
In 2023, like every year for almost 20 years, several superhero films have followed one another in dark rooms. At Marvel, these are Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Ant-Man and the Hunt: Quantumania And The Marvels which more or less (especially less) met the fans’ expectations. On the DC Comics side, the failures continued, between Shazam! The Rage of the Gods, The Flash And Blue Beetlebefore a Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ends the year on a slightly more positive note. Do these flops corroborate the popular thesis that audiences are tired of superhero films? Not sure, sincea film stands out, and in style: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseFollowing Spider-Man: New Generationreleased in 2018.
According to our colleagues at Deadline, known for the reliability of their figures, this animated film signed Sony and co-produced by Marvel is the big winner of 2023. Initially scheduled for October 2022, the theatrical release was delayed due to the post-production traffic jam caused by the Covid-19 crisis. This sequel to the adventures of Miles Morales, also directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, was unanimously praised by the press and the publicand achieved a good score at the global box office. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse recorded the second best start of 2023 in the USA with 120.6 million dollars (behind the 162 million dollars of barbie), or 3.4 times more than the $35.3 million of the first film. Produced in complete independence from the MCUit made a profit of $328 million : Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse exceeds $200 million in profits, coming close to $339 million in net profits Spider-Man: Far From Home.
And you, what do you think of this success?
