Estimates for global box office grosses across all major studios including The Walt Disney Company, Universal, Paramount, and others were worse than Netflix’s 2023 revenues.
ercentage comparisons for 2023 against 2022 and pre-pandemic years are based on like-for-like local currency numbers converted at current exchange rates for greater accuracy. © 2023 Nintendo and Universal Studios
Box office analytics company Gower Street Analytics recently shared their estimates for the global box office to be $33.9 billion as of December 31, 2023.
The analytics firm details that the plurality of box office grosses comes from the Asia Pacific region with the Chinese box office dominating that region. Specifically, China brought in 23% of all box office revenue worldwide. The second highest grossing box office in the region was Japan with just 4%.
The domestic box office grosses made up 27% of global grosses the same as the entire European, Middle East, and African regions combined. Latin America made up 8% of global box office grosses.
2023 World Box Office gross estimates via Gower Street Analytics
RELATED: Elon Musk Continues To Hammer Disney: “Disney Is Deeply Infected With The Woke Mind Virus”
The firm’s analysis specifically noted that of the $33.9 billion of worldwide grosses that the domestic market, which includes the United States and Canada brought in $9.07 billion.
Next, China brought in an estimated $7.71 billion. All other international markets combined delivered an estimated $17.1 billion.
Halle Bailey as Ariel in Disney’s live-action THE LITTLE MERMAID. Photo by Giles Keyte. © 2023 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Of note, the Chinese box office was not kind to American produced films. Looking at The-Numbers, much of the estimated $7.71 billion comes from Chinese films sold to Chinese audiences.
Mǎn Jiāng Hóng (满江红) grossed $673.5 million, The Wandering Earth 2 (流浪地球2) grossed $599.4 million, No More Bets (孤注一掷) grossed $540.4 million, Xiāo Shī De Tā (消失的她) grossed $485.3 million, Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (封神第一部) grossed $371.2 million, Bā Jiǎo Lóng Zhōng (八角笼中) grossed $304.2 million, Cháng Ān Sān Wàn Lǐ (长安三万里) grossed $250.1 million, and Xióng Chū Mò Bàn Wǒ Xióng Xīn (熊出没·伴我“熊芯”) grossed $221.9 million.
Rén Shēng Lù Bù Shú (人生路不熟) grossed $175.6 million, Ex File 4 (前任4：英年早婚) grossed $141 million, Wú Míng (无名) grossed $138.3 million and Shēn Hǎi (深海) grossed $136 million.
These 12 films which are among the top 50 grossing films of 2023 worldwide grossed over $4 billion alone. There are a number of other Chinese films in the Top 100 grossing film that likely boost that number to somewhere close to $5 billion.
That means that Hollywood productions from companies like Disney, Paramount, Sony, and Universal likely only grossed $28.9 billion worldwide.
Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. © Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
That number is far below the revenues of Netflix in 2022. The company reported that their revenue topped $14 billion in the United States and Canada. They added another $9.7 billion from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In Latin America their revenues hit $4 billion, and they added another $4.5 billion in the Asia-Pacific region.
If you add them together the company’s 2022 revenue totaled $31.4 billion.
(L-R): Karen Gillan as Nebula, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, and Dave Bautista as Drax in Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Photo by Jessica Miglio. © 2023 MARVEL.
Box Office analyst Luiz Fernando notes that the $33.9 overall estimate from Gower Street Analytics is also expected to be lower than Netflix’s 2023 revenue.
He shared on X, “The theatrical business barely could keep up with Netflix as the streamer alone has estimated 34B+ revenue (which won’t be shared with several studios, distributors, exhibitors…) over the same year!”
Even with a strong rebound, not even the whole 2023 Global #BoxOffice could beat #Netflix!
According to #GowerStreetAnalytics, Thanks to strong performance overseas, (Top 15 Markets below) 2023’s Global #BoxOffice total revenue ended up as 33.9B, crushing the 29B projection for… pic.twitter.com/uZUFa6cIm3
— Luiz Fernando (@Luiz_Fernando_J) January 4, 2024
Netflix reported that its revenue in the United States and Canada alone had hit $10.9 billion as of September 30th during its 3rd quarter financial report. It added another $7.7 billion from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In Latin America it earned $3.2 billion, and revenues hit $2.8 billion from the the Asia-Pacific region. That’s a total of $24.8 billion with still three months left in the year.
In 2022, fourth quarter revenue across all regions hit in$7.8 billion. If the fourth quarter of 2023 matches last year, Netflix’s revenue will hit $32.6 billion.
However, the fourth quarter is expected to exceed 2022’s. CNBC’s Sarah Whitten reported in October, “The company forecast that revenue will jump 11% in the fourth quarter, reaching $8.69 billion.” If it hits $8.69 billion that would mean total revenue for the year would hit $33.49 billion well above the $28.9 billion worldwide theatrical grosses that excludes China.
And as Fernando mentions, Netflix isn’t sharing its revenue with anyone. The theatrical grosses are shared with theaters. Studios like Disney, Paramount, Sony, and Universal are likely only seeing half of the grosses return to them.
EXTRACTION 2: Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake in Extraction 2. Cr. Jasin Boland/Netflix © 2023
While the report does appear to be rather negative, there was some optimism when looking at the domestic box office. Gower Street noted that the estimated $9.07 billion in the domestic market was up 21% compared to last year. However, they did note that it’s still down 21% compared to the 2017-2019 average.
Throwing a little bit of water on this, is the fact that the report does not factor in inflation.
The Mother. Jennifer Lopez as The Mother in The Mother. Cr. Ana Carballosa/Netflix © 2023.
What do you make of these global box office estimates and how they match up compared to Netflix?
NEXT: Box Office Analyst Claims The Walt Disney Company Has Lost Over $1 Billion In Just 2023
