2023 hasn’t been the best ever year for superhero films. We’ve had a grand total of 6 with one of those animated. Today, I’ll rank these films from worst to best based on their box office performance.
6. Blue Beetle
- $120,817,917
It’s no secret that DC has performed poorly this year. Although Blue Beetle comes in at 6th on this list, it’s not nearly as surprising as the other 2. Although Blue Beetle is a brilliant film and did very well on the audience scores with Rotten Tomatoes, the box office doesn’t reflect that and ends up at the bottom of this list. There are some positives to take from that amount. This film was actually meant to be a straight-to-stream but instead got a theatrical release. I still can’t see that being a huge positive for WB though.
5. Shazam: Fury of the Gods
- $133,838,006
I’m not going to lie, I forgot this film even came out. I feel like the 1st film did alright considering how close to Endgame it released. The same however can’t be said about the second movie. It was just the beginning of DC’s downfall this year and it’s a shame to see it perform so poorly. They’ve got an amazing cast but the second film just felt too generic. It had nothing to shout home about and even though the film came out all the way back in March, I haven’t heard a single person mention it since then.
4. The Flash
- $268,533,313
The Flash did have a better time than the other 2 DC films but it still didn’t do great. It is difficult for superhero movies because the benchmark is so high from pre-Covid. I feel like The Flash would’ve done better if it wasn’t for the controversy surrounding Ezra Miller’s legal issues. People clearly had an issue with some of the allegations and charges he was hit with and the film’s box office took a hit. It’s understandable. The Flash is a household name so any film with that name attached would likely always do well unless there was a reason. It’s a shame again because the film was fun, it wasn’t perfect – but it was fun.
3. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
- $476,071,180
Quantumania is the worst-performing film in the trilogy but it’s still an okay feat. It isn’t phenomenal given it’s an MCU movie but I feel like a lot of people have moved on after Endgame and that’s fair enough. I liked Quantumania, I thought it was an entertaining film with a good plot introducing the next big bad of the MCU. This may be controversial but for me, this was the best film in the trilogy.
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse
- $689,810,862
A huge feat for this. It didn’t do too far away from doubling the amount the first film made at the box office and with good reason too. The first film is loved and is among many people’s top 3 Spider-Man films, period. It only makes sense due to the high ratings the first one got that the second would do much better at the box office. It fully deserves it too. The second film was absolutely fantastic.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- $845,555,777
The end of the Guardians but easily the best film in the entire trilogy. I was at the edge of my seat for most of this and it delivered in a huge way. There was good-timed humor, sad moments, epic fights, edge of the edge-of-the-seat stuff. Guardians 3 easily fits in the top 10 of the MCU movies and deserves such a good number at the box office. I remember the moment this became available to rent on Sky in the UK, I didn’t care about the cost – I paid for it and I still have no regrets about paying for this at the cinema and rent it.
