Box office winners and losers of 2023, from Super Mario Bros Movie to Hypnotic

Chris Pratt and Jason Momoa’s films enjoyed success but DC and Marvel's superheroes lost their powers

Left, Ben Affleck's Hypnotic was a box office flop; while Vin Diesel proved family never gets old in the hit Fast X. Photo: Relativity Media, Universal Pictures

This year's box office hits The Super Mario Bros Movie and Fast X are bookended by flops including The Flash and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

With the hugely anticipated releases of both Barbie and Oppenheimer likely to push both onto the winners' list, here's what they will join according to IMDb (and those they probably won't rank next to).

The hits

The Super Mario Bros Movie, $1.3 billion

Nintendo's famous Italian plumber brothers moved from game consoles to the big screen. AP

The film from Universal grossed $1.3 billion at global box offices, taking $146 million on the opening weekend.

ScreenRant estimates the movie cost more than $100 million to make. The Super Mario Bros Movie, which has characters voiced by Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy and Jack Black, remains at the top of the charts.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, $843 million

Chris Pratt returned as Star-Lord for his third outing leading this ragtag bunch of guardians on their final adventure.

Despite being the 32nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, audiences showed no signs of fatigue, propelling the film to the number two spot.

Fast X, $718 million

Jason Momoa joined the franchise for the tenth film, starring as the villainous Dante who is foolish enough to take on Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his “family”.

The A-list cast includes cameos by Oscar winners Brie Larson, Dame Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron.

Full River Red, $673 million

The Chinese film starring Teng Shen, Jackson Yee and Yi Zhang is the fourth highest-grossing film.

The historical comedy thriller was a huge hit in China, where it was released on Chinese New Year, becoming the country’s sixth highest-grossing box office entry of all time, according to The New York Times.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: $667 million

The sequel to 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse has shown there’s still a big fan appetite for all things Spidey.

This animated film is voiced by Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld and Tyree Henry and is set in a shared multiverse called the Spider-Verse.

The misses

The Flash, lost $200 million

Ezra Miller in The Flash reboot. Photo: Warner Bros

The box office failure of The Flash was blamed on a number of factors, not least the allegations of abuse, harassment and grooming which have been levied against its lead Ezra Miller.

Despite the promise of Michael Keaton’s return as Batman (and that other shock Batman cameo at the end), the film is the biggest flop of the year so far.

The film took in around $268 million from the box office. However, with a production budget of up to $220 million, not including marketing and promotional costs in the run-up, which can often double the film's total cost, the studio's dreams of recouping its costs were gone in a flash, too.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods, lost $166 million

The film was expected to follow in the footsteps of 2019’s successful Shazam! as a new part of the DC Universe.

However, it had to make $250 million to break even, without factoring in marketing and promotional costs, and only raked in $133 million at the global box office.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, lost $100 million

As part of the popular MCU, on paper the film did well at the global box office, pulling in more than $467 million.

However, after factoring in the huge marketing and promotion costs, Variety reported that the film “is expected to fall short of the roughly $600 million needed to break even in its theatrical run".

Renfield, lost $60 million

With Nicolas Cage in fine scenery-chewing form as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as his weary assistant Renfield, hopes were high for a funny, occasionally scary guilty pleasure.

However, the film, which cost more than $86 million to make, grossed less than one third at the global box office.

Screenrant.com listed reasons why they believed the film failed, insisting: “While Nicolas Cage has amassed a cult following in the last few decades, it remains the case that the actor is not a huge box office draw for general audiences.”

Hypnotic, lost $58 million

Despite starring one of Hollywood’s biggest names Ben Affleck and being directed by Robert Rodriguez, the talent behind From Dusk Till Dawn and the successful Spy Kids franchise, Hypnotic flopped badly, bringing in merely 10 per cent of its $65 million budget.