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Milestones and Turning Points in Film History The Year 2023 |
 Timeline of Greatest Film History Milestones and Turning Points (by decade and year) Introduction | Pre-1900s | 1900s | 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
| Event and Significance | |
| Iconic director Steven Spielberg delivered a firm statement about the current trend, through pressures by so-called 'woke cultural forces', to revise, censor, edit, alter or modify films, or other works of art or literature that were made decades earlier. At the time, calls were regularly being made for censorship to bring cultural products of the past up to current perceived standards and/or to mollify modern sensitivities. In particular, he was referring to his infamous decision in 2002, on the 20th anniversary edition of one of his most popular films E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), to digitally switch the theatrical cut from guns to walkie talkies in the hands of federal government agents who were tracking down the alien creature. He was quoted as saying that he had made a major mistake, and does not now believe in that kind of censorship: "I never should have done that because E.T. is a product of its era. No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through....I should never have messed with the archives of my own work, and I don't recommend anybody really do that. All our movies are a kind of measuring, sort of a signpost of where we were when we made them, and what the world was like, what the world was receiving when we got those stories out there. So I really regret having done that." | |
| Variety Magazine predicted that the year 2023 would be extremely "bumpy" economically, due to a number of factors that included recessionary trends, inflation, and cutbacks and layoffs in many sectors including major media, tech, and the entertainment industry. It discussed a number of volatile subject areas, such as the unfolding drama at Disney (a shake-up at the top) and Warner Bros. Discovery (after a merger), the financial viability of streaming for legacy media companies including historic subscriber losses at Netflix, and the question of whether the economy could return to pre-pandemic levels of activity. Disney was plagued with multiple rounds of cost-saving layoffs, and streaming services were trying out ad-supported options or tiers to increase revenues. | |
| Hollywood 'sex symbol' and acting star Raquel Welch died at the age of 82 on February 15, 2023. Her most notable roles were numerous: prehistoric fisherwoman Loana wearing a fur-lined bikini in One Million Years BC (1966), technical assistant Cora Peterson in the Cold War adventure sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage (1966), the trans-gendered title character in Gore Vidal's controversial X-rated Myra Breckinridge (1970), the vengeful, gunslinging frontier woman title character in Hannie Caulder (1971), Austrian dressmaker Constance Bonacieux in director Richard Lester's Alexandre Dumas classic The Three Musketeers (1973), and billionaire widow Celeste Birch being seduced in How to Be a Latin Lover (2017). | |
| Harry Belafonte passed away at the age of 96 on April 24th, 2023. The singer known as "The King of Calypso" was brought to fame with his recording in the mid-1950s of his signature song 'Day-O' ('The Banana Boat Song') (humorously paid homage to in the movie Beetlejuice (1988)). His greatest acting role was as Cpl. Joe in Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones (1954) playing opposite Best Actress-nominated Dorothy Dandridge as the title character. He also starred in director Robert Rossen's torrid political and family drama Island in the Sun (1957) as David Boyeur - a popular, "upstart" black, politically-ambitious labor union official and activist. Another role was in director Robert Wise's film noir Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) as nightclub entertainer Johnny Ingram recruited to rob a bank. | |
| Other notable major stars or film figures that died in 2023 included: 95 year old Italian actress Gina Lollobrigda, 75 year-old actress Cindy Williams, 94 year-old composer Burt Bacarach, 86 year-old English director Hugh Hudson, 84 year-old actress Stella Stevens, 100 year-old producer/director/writer Bert Gordon, 89 year-old actor Robert Blake, 87 year-old actor and sports figure Jim Brown, 83 year-old actress and singer Tina Turner, 87 year-old English actress Glenda Jackson, 89 year-old actor/director Alan Arkin, 70 year-old actor-comedian Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), 87 year-old US director/screenwriter William Friedkin, 83 year-old actor Burt Young, 91 year-old actress Piper Laurie, 76 year-old actress Suzanne Somers, 81 year-old actor Richard Roundtree, and 54 year-old actor Matthew Perry. | |
| A film and TV production slowdown in
Hollywood was accelerated when the Writers Guild of America or WGA
(with 20,000 members) began a work stoppage on May 2nd of 2023,
against the Hollywood studios represented by the Alliance of Motion
Picture and Television Producers. The fallout was made worse when they
were joined in mid-July by SAG-AFTRA (representing 160,000 performers).
It was the first time in 63 years (since 1960) that Hollywood actors
joined the writers on the picket lines. This second strike had a potentially
greater impact on production, halting shoots worldwide and derailing
plans by studios and networks to resume filming of TV series in the fall.
However, some network executives recently showcased fall schedules
led by reality TV and other nonscripted programming, and already were
cutting back on scripted series and the need for writers/actors. Previously, film and TV production had surged when COVID-pandemic restrictions were lifted, but the disruptive decline or slowdown in production now became widespread due to the two strikes, causing mass layoffs and restructuring. Many secondary, entertainment-related small businesses, who were still recovering from the earlier lockdowns, would now be grossly affected, including restaurateurs who relied on catering on studio sets, industry meetings, business lunches and private events. Negotiation sticking points for the WGA included: (1) the prevalence of the streaming model of distribution, and the residuals for shows that were distributed on streaming platforms, (2) better working conditions and fair pay given the cost of living and inflation, and growing wealth disparities in the U.S, (3) the increasing use and threat of artificial intelligence (AI), and (4) the immense pay gap between executives and union workers. The two sides - the studios vs. the industry workers - faced a difficult impasse. Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia Group and a former Hollywood studio chief, suggested that studio executives and top-earning actors take a 25% pay cut to bring a quick end to the strikes and help prevent "the collapse of the entire industry." The WGA's strike ended on September 27, 2023, while the SAG-AFTRA strike concluded on November 9, 2023. |
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Media companies began to demonstrate their solid support for SVOD (fee-based subscription to unlimited video-on-demand), and ad-supported VOD (video-on-demand), rather than legacy consumer electronics. It was estimated that streaming was now accounting for more than 80% of consumer home entertainment purchases. As a result, the retail giant Best Buy announced that it would discontinue selling packaged media movies on DVD, Blu-Ray Discs, and 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc in 2024. Best Buy's share of the disc business had shrunk to a meager 4%. It was estimated that consumers spent a little over $2 billion in 2022 on disc purchases, and it was continuing to shrink. Disc sales accounted for less than 5% of total home entertainment spending. This followed Netflix's decision to formally end its legacy by-mail DVD rental business on Sept. 29, 2023. On the flip side of home entertainment retailing, some tired of the transitory nature of streaming services. Streaming services, by their nature, are unable to provide the vast inventory of titles that were once available. If all major retailers discontinued their DVD and disc sales, the only options left would be to purchase-to-own discs from a studio website or Amazon.com. Some consumers started to re-embrace the idea of collecting and owning physical media/movie discs (similar to the resurgence in vinyl records). |
| Walt Disney Pictures' planned 2024 live-action remake of its 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was regarded as needing a 'make-over,' due to the culture's changing "woke" demands, causing considerable controversy. The seven dwarfs - Grumpy, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Happy and Doc - were judged as all-white fairytale beings and accused of perpetuating harmful stereotypes. The studio made the decision to replace the dwarfs with seven "magical creatures." The role of the iconic princess Snow White was played by Latina Rachel Zegler of Colombian and Polish descent rather than a white female. And the dwarfs were reimagined - to be played by multi-racial and multi-gender non-dwarfs (possibly one dwarf), including black actors and women, and in addition, the character of Prince Charming was eliminated. | |
| A surprise movie hit of the summer, Angel
Studios' small independent and crowd-funded film and Christian thriller Sound
of Freedom (2023) became a controversial film about child-trafficking.
Originally shot in 2018, it was bought by 21st Century Fox but shelved
when Fox was bought by Disney. It was then acquired by Utah-based Angel
Studios. Its grass-roots success as a small budgeted
film (at $14.5 million) was unexpected. According to box-office records,
there were only 10 wide-release movies in box office history that had
a second-weekend increase greater than 35 percent over their opening
weekend - and all of them achieved that milestone during Christmas. However,
Angel Studios was the only studio to accomplish this feat during the
summer blockbuster season - substantially increasing its box-office take
during its second weekend. Sound of Freedom went up against two major franchise films - the 7th film - Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and the last installment of the IJ films: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). Jim Caviezel starred as ex-Homeland Security Special Agent Tim Ballard, who was the real-life co-founder of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) - an anti-child-trafficking organization, to rescue children from exploitation in Colombia. Left-wing groups and interests targeted the film as factually misleading or misrepresentional, and associated the film with unproven, debunked and widespread QAnon conspiracy theories (that a group of international, Satan-worshipping political and media elites - paedophiles - were systematically abusing and exploiting children to harvest the chemical substance adrenochrome from their brains, and inject it to stay young). Angel Studios denied links to QAnon and distanced itself from the remarks of its star. Others claimed that technical issues at some major theatre chains (AMC theaters) during showings was clear evidence of disruptive suppression and sabotage of the film through deliberate means to hurt its performance. |
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| According to The Business Research Company's website, the global film and video market grew from $267.6 billion in 2022 to $283.5 billion in 2023. Mobile video viewing increased due to the growth in cellphone usage for the watching of films. It was estimated that adult Americans spent an average of 30 minutes a day watching videos on their phones. In place of a camera operator on a helicopter, lightweight and cost-effective autonomous drones have also become the most popular (and safest) way among filmmakers to capture aerial shots. | |
| Recently, the convenience and easy access of on-demand services have provided viewers with vast amounts of entertainment content. The rising success of streaming platforms and digital distribution services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney +, Paramount +, HBO Max, YouTube, etc.) has led most of them to start producing content themselves. Social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, have also become powerful marketing tools for filmmakers, to promote their projects, build excitement, to engage with their audiences, and also fundraise through crowd-funding. | |
| According to TheNumbers.com, the total box office gross (inflation-adjusted) in the domestic market in 2023 was $9.14 billion, a boost from $7.4 billion in 2022. In 2023, there were 868.2 million tickets sold (at an average price of $10.53). | |
| According to Media Play News, Netflix continued to expand its foray into video games, with plans to offer access to games beyond portable devices in 2024. By the end of 2023, the streamer had 86 games available, with 90 more games in development. | |
| Ryan O'Neal died at the age of 82 on December 8, 2023. His most memorable roles and films included Oliver in Love Story (1970), as Howard Bannister in What's Up, Doc? (1972), Moses Pray in Paper Moon (1973), and Barry Lyndon in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975). | |
| Co-writer/director Greta Gerwig's and Warners' Barbie (2023), the highest-grossing (domestic) film of the year, also became the highest-grossing comedy film of all time, surpassing Minions (2015). Its gross revenue was $636.2 million (domestic) and $1.44 billion (worldwide). It was also the highest-grossing domestic release in Warner Bros. history at over 600 million. In terms of overall worldwide box office success in 2023, Barbie (2023), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and Oppenheimer (2023) held the top three spots, while domestically, the top three films were Barbie (2023), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). | |
| Universal's The Super Mario Bros. (2023) became the highest-grossing video game film of all time, surpassing Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). Its gross revenue was $575 million (domestic) and $1.36 billion (worldwide). | |
| Director Christopher Nolan's and Universal's biopic Oppenheimer (2023) became the highest-grossing biographical (biopic) film of all time of an historical figure, surpassing the musical biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). It also became the highest-grossing World War II era film of all time, surpassing Dunkirk (2018), also directed by Christopher Nolan. It earned $325.8 million (domestic) and $951.2 million (worldwide). | |
| Many of the most notable
box-office bombs in 2023 came from various divisions of Disney: (1) Disney
Animation's Wish (2023), (2) Marvel Studios' The Marvels (2023), (3)
Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), (4) Disney's
Live Action Haunted Mansion (2023), (5) LucasFilm's Indiana
Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), and (6) Disney's Live Action
The Little Mermaid (2023). The media giant was responsible for
most of the largest box-office failures of the year. One non-Disney film
that tanked was Warners' The Flash (2023), with a budget of $200 million, and $270.6 million gross.
The budget figures are probably low estimates and don't include marketing
and other costs. And movie studios split earnings at the box office with
the movie theaters. In terms of Disney's losses: (1) Wish - $106.5 million gross, budget of $200 million, (2) The Marvels - $202 million gross, budget of $220 million, (3) Ant-Man Quantumania - $476 million gross, budget of $200 million, (4) Haunted Mansion - $117.4 million gross, budget of $150 million, (5) Indiana Jones - $384 million gross, budget of $295 million, and (6) The Little Mermaid - $570 million gross, budget of $250 million. |
