The Secret to This Year’s Box Office Successes: Directors

While the movie industry has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, there are signs that a recovery is taking place, with total 2023 domestic box-office grosses ($8,362,661,815) already significantly outpacing 2022’s tally ($7,369,505,492). This is particularly impressive, given that studios delayed several major films in response to the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes—work stoppages that will likely have greater ramifications for 2024—and many would-be blockbusters (The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, The Marvels) underperformed or outright flopped in their multiplex runs courtesy of middling interest and gargantuan budgets.

Despite hardships, the theatrical business seems stronger than it has since the emergence of COVID-19, and as the year winds down, there’s no escaping the easy one-word explanation for this upswing: Barbenheimer.

The July 21 dual premiere of Greta Gerwig’s pinkalicious Mattel fantasia Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s thrilling three-hour biopic Oppenheimer was 2023’s signature film phenomenon, inspiring countless memes, breathless media coverage and repeat moviegoing.

Read more at The Daily Beast.