GOTG VOL. 3 Is The Only 2023 Movie With A $200 Million+ Budget To Turn A Profit

GOTG VOL. 3 Is The Only 2023 Movie With A $200 Million+ Budget To Turn A Profit

Though it may seem hard to believe, only one movie with a budget of over $200 million has managed to turn a profit this year (so far), and it's Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3...

By MarkCassidy - Nov 27, 2023 07:11 PM EST
Filed Under: Vol. 3
Source: Indie Wire

This has not been a great year for major studio tentpoles (probably an understatement), but it may still surprise you to learn that only one movie with a budget of $200 million+ has managed to earn a profit in 2023: Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Disney's latest animated feature Wish and Ridley Scott's historical epic Napoleon both opened last week, bringing the number of $200M-budgeted films to 13 for 2023 so far, and while it's obviously early days, box office estimates don't bode well for either of them busting any blocks.

Next month sees the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but long-range box office forecasts are not good (more here), so James Gunn's threequel will most likely remain the only $200M movie to turn a profit for its respective studio. 

This doesn't mean 2023 hasn't had its share of successes, with the likes of Barbie and Oppenheimer massively exceeding expectations at the box office - but those budgets didn't pass the $150 million mark. 

Will this lead to studios pumping less money into their biggest projects going forward? Disney's Bob Iger has already indicated that the Mouse House/Marvel will be doing just that, but at the end of the day, these huge superhero event films are going to cost what they cost, so it might be a better strategy to focus on quality over quantity and try to entice more people into the theater!

"In Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But it isn’t long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket’s turbulent past." "Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket’s life—a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them."

James Gunn writes and directs Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, and Maria Bakalova. Kevin Feige is the producer and Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Nikolas Korda, Simon Hatt, and Sara Smith serve as executive producers.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now available on Digital platforms, and on Disney+, as well as DVD and Blu-ray.

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harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 11/27/2023, 7:19 PM
well, when they paint it like that, "current year" Disney marvel sounds like it's doing great
BLEECH
BLEECH - 11/27/2023, 8:26 PM
@harryba11zack - What movie is that from?
bobevanz
bobevanz - 11/27/2023, 9:22 PM
@BLEECH - The Frighteners, one of Peter Jackson's early gems
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 11/27/2023, 9:32 PM
@BLEECH -
The Frighteners
Itwasme
Itwasme - 11/27/2023, 7:24 PM
The industry is going to go through a huge transformation and I think theaters are going to feel is significantly. It might be brutal. Or it might be that audiences start coming back next year and it was a blip. But for now it's not looking good for the future of theaters.
TheLobster
TheLobster - 11/27/2023, 7:30 PM
@Itwasme - I really believe it’s coming down to quality and Marketing. Barbie was marketed fantastically and while that’s not the only reason why it crossed a bil - it’s a big part of it. I personally thought the movie was just okay.

Regardless; if Marvel keeps putting out meh projects - they’re going to have diminishing returns.
ReverseFlasher
ReverseFlasher - 11/27/2023, 7:57 PM
@TheLobster - I feel its got to also be the turn around to streaming… if movies were in theaters for more than three weeks, and also NOT available for home viewing 45 days later, people would be going to theaters more.
Itwasme
Itwasme - 11/27/2023, 8:15 PM
@TheLobster - the point of this article is that every blockbuster struggled - Marvel actually has an exception. Does quality explain why MI failed to turn a profit?

Barbie was an outlier and it shouldn't take outliers to turn a profit. Global BO is down significantly from the pandemic and it shows no sign of returning. Theaters can't live on outliers.
Taonrey
Taonrey - 11/27/2023, 8:19 PM
@ReverseFlasher - this is Definitely part of it. They need to go back to 90 days than another 30-45 days for streaming. Humans always prefer doing something that's quicker. It's why we made cars and airplanes. The industry literally killed itself with that 30 day window.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/27/2023, 8:27 PM
@TheLobster - Ironically, I felt the same way about the 1st aquaman. Made over a billion but I thought it was just ok.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 11/27/2023, 11:20 PM
@Itwasme - you should have sold your streaming stock, yesterday

No amount of bully spin is going to reverse that narrative

Theater cumes are bad because the economynis currently atrocious, thereby forcing massive constriction of the disposable, entertainment dollar

It’s that simple
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 11/28/2023, 1:36 AM
@Itwasme - I think the key to theaters being successful are operating on a Thursday-Sunday format. Theaters can only thrive on opening weekends and if companies are going right to streaming maybe making a movie a "weekend only" experience might be the best way to salvage the experience. Imagine if your only chance to see let's say Halloween (2018) was for one weekend only. It would be an event (as an example). Where as the FOMO amongst moviegoers would kick in. But I feel that model only works for low budget movies.
Itwasme
Itwasme - 11/28/2023, 2:01 AM
@SonOfAGif - the thing with places like that is your sunk costs are significant, especially because most of your staff are hourly. I ran a different type of place, but similar business structure. We had about 50 employees total and we calculated that if we closed 1 day a week we'd only save $900 all from payroll. That was less than 10% of our monthly nut. Between salaried employees, insurance, mortgage... the money saved from being closed wasn't enough. I have a feeling this might be similar.
dracula
dracula - 11/27/2023, 7:27 PM
Say it Balki
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/27/2023, 8:30 PM
@dracula - TGIF was the greatest 2 hours of television EVER
dracula
dracula - 11/27/2023, 8:41 PM
@lazlodaytona - mainly watched them on nick at night.

Although despite using this clip for a while, only recently watched Perfect Strangers
TheRationalNerd
TheRationalNerd - 11/27/2023, 7:28 PM
This film was definitely a step in the right direction from Vol.2 Rocket's characterization really shined to its fullest.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 11/27/2023, 11:23 PM
@TheRationalNerd - 💯

Vol 2 was Gunn running w carte blanche and it shows in the sloppiness and inconsistency
TheLobster
TheLobster - 11/27/2023, 7:28 PM
Pretty funny too considering that Gunn is officially done with the MCU and putting the next (at minimum) decade into DC. If only Marvel never parted ways with him over dumb tweets and fake outrage from the far right and had him take over the cosmic side of the MCU as originally intended.. oh well!

I’m cautiously excited to see what he’s going to do with DC.
dracula
dracula - 11/27/2023, 7:32 PM
@TheLobster - got to wonder how different the marvels would have been if he had been in charge of the cosmic stuff like planned

guardians 3 would also be different since he wouldnt just be wrappng up his story
DarthAlgar
DarthAlgar - 11/27/2023, 7:44 PM
@TheLobster - Pretty sure it was the far left that got butthurt. Far right gets butthurt about other things.
RolandD
RolandD - 11/27/2023, 8:04 PM
@DarthAlgar - The tweets were re-surfaced by Cernovich, a right wing conspiracy theorist, think pizzagate. He had a habit of doing this to try and silence progressive voices.
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 11/27/2023, 8:25 PM
@RolandD -

Perhaps he was exposing hypocrisy?
Lots of celebrities suddenly became woke when it was convenient but if you look back at the stuff they did and said, you’d see a completely different picture.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 11/27/2023, 8:52 PM
@TheLobster - Weak and/or fake far right outrage, weak and/or fake far left outrage, what's the difference?
dagenspear
dagenspear - 11/27/2023, 8:53 PM
@RolandD - So? Does this mean that the far right are the only ones doing things about and/or like this? Who cares what political side does it or why?
RolandD
RolandD - 11/27/2023, 10:56 PM
@dagenspear - i’m just replying with facts, that’s all.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 11/27/2023, 11:03 PM
@RolandD - LORD willing, fair enough.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 11/27/2023, 11:27 PM
@TheLobster - agree on a lot of this but, to be fair, Gunn brought it on himself when he very publicly injected his mouth into the Roseanne Barr debacle, at the time. His framing/justification made it VERY easy for the right to turn his own words, and his own moral benchmarks, against him
Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 11/28/2023, 7:16 AM
@dagenspear - Outrage from the left is typically in good faith.
TheLobster
TheLobster - 11/28/2023, 4:02 PM
@SauronthePower - I do agree with ya. Gunn is free to comment on his views like anyone, celebrity or not, are free to but he should have considered that his past tweets may be brought up.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 11/28/2023, 4:34 PM
@ClintThaHamster - Who decided that?
Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 11/28/2023, 4:57 PM
@dagenspear - Me. I did. But also The Nation, the New York Times, Current Affairs Magazine, Salon, and common sense.

And, to be clear, I do not believe that all conservatives are knowingly arguing in bad faith, but I am saying that most thought leaders on the right are, and that many folks on the right do nothing more than repeat the bad faith arguments of dicks like Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Steve Bannon, etc.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 11/28/2023, 9:06 PM
@ClintThaHamster - So, no one of moral authority on either political end all by themselves.
Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 11/29/2023, 7:33 AM
@dagenspear - Not sure what you mean by that (well, I do, but I'll also do what I can to keep this off the topic of religion) but it is objectively true that the right has a bigger problem with bad faith positions than the left.
MrDandy
MrDandy - 11/27/2023, 7:29 PM
Will be interesting to see how this effects the industry. We could see a big comeback of the mid-budget movie or we could see the fall of the multiplex and return of the Theater Palaces of the 1950s. Much less movies shown in theaters but the ones they do play to larger audiences over a more extended run.
Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 11/28/2023, 7:17 AM
@MrDandy - That's definitely the glass half full POV. Fingers crossed.
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