Universal Studios surpasses Disney, becomes most successful film studio of 2023
Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer backed by Universal Studios
This is historic. For the first time in eight years, Disney has been upstaged by another film studio. In 2023, Universal Studios became the most successful film studio amassing over $4.907 billion and surpassing Disney.
The studios released as many as 24 movies and a few of them went on to become blockbusters. The titles under Universal include Christopher Nolan's World War II epic, Oppenheimer, horror film M3GAN, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Leader in other years, Disney slipped to number 2 spot with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and 15 other movies. Disney in comparison to Universal had less releases in 2023. Disney earned a total of $4.827 billion in 2023.
In a statement, Disney also mentioned that it still has the most titles in the top 10 list, four of the highest-grossing global releases and three of the biggest domestic releases.
The first three spots were taken up by Barbie ($1.4 billion) backed by Warner Bros and Universal's The Super Mario Bros Movie ($1.3 billion) and Oppenheimer ($950 million). Disney's Marvel superhero films had a lackluster year in 2023 and hence the studio slipped to the second position.
Their biggest money-minter of the year was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, bringing in $845 million.
