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From big blockbusters to independent, shoestring-budget indies, the 2023 box office saw great improvements over last year.
Most industry analysts don’t expect a full return to pre-pandemic ticket sales until 2025, especially after months of production shutdowns due to Hollywood labor strikes.
Here’s a look at some of the most important theatrical releases of 2023 and why they worked.

Movie posters for “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” are pictured outside the Cinemark Somerdale 16 and XD in Somerdale, New Jersey, in 2023.
Hannah Beier | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Call 2023 an explosive comeback at the box office.
There were blonde bombshells in “Barbie,” actual bombs in “Oppenheimer” and small-budget blockbusters — each of them aiding the theatrical industry in bolstering ticket sales and drawing relapsed customers back to the big screen.

With one week left in the year, the 2023 box office has tallied $8.8 billion in ticket sales, about 20% down from the same period in 2019 but up 21% over last year.
Much of that haul was due to Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Barbie” and Universal’s “Oppenheimer” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Together, those three films contributed more than $1.5 billion to the domestic box office, according to data from Comscore. Globally, the films have generated more than $3.7 billion in ticket sales.
This year’s box office wasn’t just buoyed by big-budget content. Several lower-budget films sparked public interest, driving moviegoers away from their couches and toward cinemas. These films filled gaps in the calendar created by Hollywood labor strikes and challenged the status quo of how the industry operates.
There’s still room for improvement in 2024, and most industry analysts don’t expect a return to form until 2025 after months of production shutdowns.
But in the meantime, here’s a look at some of the most important theatrical releases of 2023 — and why they worked.

‘Barbenheimer’

The historic box office combination of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” dubbed “Barbenheimer” by the public, arrived at a time when even the most dependable franchise movies had failed to lure in audiences.
Their shared July 21 release date inspired double features, not direct competition. Together, the films generated $244.5 million during their first three days in theaters — $162 million for “Barbie” and $82.5 million for “Oppenheimer.” The two films accounted for nearly 80% of the total haul that weekend, which ended up being the highest grossing of the year with $311.3 million in ticket sales, Comscore reported.
What set “Barbenheimer” weekend apart was fresh storytelling, a fear of missing out on a cultural moment and a desire to experience movies on the biggest screen possible.
“Barbie” director Greta Gerwig recalled lines of audience members in New York dressed in Barbie’s signature pink to celebrate the film’s opening weekend.
“Men, women, kids — everyone dressing up in pink, and no one told them to do that. That was a spontaneous thing,” she told Variety in a taped interview published last week. “It was this overwhelming feeling of like, ‘Oh, it belongs to them. It doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to them. And they wanted to dress up.'”

A scene from “Barbie.”
Courtesy: Warner Bros.

Moviegoers who bought tickets to “Oppenheimer” donned suits and fedoras to see Christopher Nolan’s latest feature. The three-hour biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, was event cinema, boasting specialty screenings of the film in 70mm.
The meme-worthy trend of seeing both in the same day drove hundreds of thousands of people to cinemas over the opening weekend.
Domestically, “Barbie” tallied $636.2 million during its run in theaters and “Oppenheimer” snared $326 million. Globally, “Barbie” secured $1.44 billion, and “Oppenheimer” scored $952 million worldwide.

‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’

Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voice Mario and Luigi, respectively, in Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”

The success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which reached $574.9 million domestically, is part of an impressive streak of animated box-office hits for Universal. Last year, “Minions: The Rise of Gru” generated nearly $940 million globally and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” snared nearly $500 million worldwide.
Meanwhile, Disney has seen its animated content lag at the box office in the wake of the pandemic. Neither Pixar nor Walt Disney Animation has seen a film top $480 million globally since 2019’s “Frozen 2.”
Some analysts have blamed the sluggish ticket sales on confusion in the marketplace over which Disney films were streaming exclusives and which had wider theatrical releases. Others said Disney has done a poor job of marketing its animated films to the public.
Meanwhile, Universal is looking to capitalize on its goodwill with parents and kids as “Migration” continues to play in theaters and ahead of the 2024 debuts of “Kung Fu Panda 4” and “Despicable Me 4.”

The Taylor Swift effect

Taylor Swift changed the music industry — and then she came for cinemas.
In October, the multi-hyphenate pop star debuted her filmed Eras Tour concert in theaters. The nearly three-hour event drove millions to theaters at a time when the actors strike forced many would-be blockbusters to flee the calendar.
The opening broke records for a theatrical concert release and became the second-highest film opening in the month of October.
In the excitement, movie theaters designed specialty popcorn buckets, crafted boutique cocktails and even set up friendship bracelet-making tables for Swift fans, recreating a staple experience of attending the live concerts.
In total, Swift’s film generated nearly $180 million domestically and nearly $250 million worldwide. That global figure is just shy of the record $262.5 million that Michael Jackson’s concert documentary “This Is It” secured back in 2009.

Taylor Swift singing at her The Eras Tour.
Buda Mendes/tas23 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Perhaps the most shocking part of Swift’s trip to movie theaters was her distribution partner: cinema chain AMC.
Swift bypassed Hollywood studios, many of which had tried to bid on the rights to release the film under their banner, and inked a rare deal. The singer reportedly split 57% of ticket sales with AMC, while 43% remained with theaters. Still, Swift is expected to have kept a large chunk of that share, according to industry insiders.
The deal is likely what led Beyoncé to work with AMC to distribute the documentary of her “Renaissance” album and tour.
The theater industry is no stranger to alternative content. Cinemas often show taped concerts, plays and musicals, as well as live sports from organizations such as the National Football League and Ultimate Fighting Championship. Then there are showings of classic films, anime screenings and live-broadcast Dungeons and Dragons games.
But none have ever come close to generating the fervor of Swift’s Eras Tour film.

A new Hollywood model

“Sound of Freedom” also broke the Hollywood mold this summer.
The film came from a relative Hollywood newcomer called Angel Studios, which uses a Kickstarter-style method of generating funds. In this case, the studio raised $5 million to distribute the film after 20th Century Fox, which previously held the rights to it, was bought by Disney and shelved its release. “Sound of Freedom” wrapped filming in 2018 and tells the story of Tim Ballard, a character inspired by a real-life government agent who quits his job to rescue a young girl from sex traffickers in Colombia.
The Jim Caviezel-led thriller shook up norms in an industry still trying to find its footing after Covid lockdowns. It snared more than $180 million at the domestic box office during its run, outpacing big studio films such as Warner Bros.’ “The Flash,” on a budget of just $14.5 million. It made nearly $250 million worldwide.
Part of the film’s box-office success was the result of a unique campaign by filmmakers to encourage ticket sales: Moviegoers could pay for and essentially donate tickets to be claimed online by those who may not be able to afford them. Angel Studios calls the model “pay it forward.”
The studio rose to prominence in 2019 when, under the name VidAngel, it crowdfunded and released the hit biblical series “The Chosen.” However, the July release of “Sound of Freedom” raised the studio’s profile even further.

Jim Caviezel stars in Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom.”
Angel Studios

“Sound of Freedom” isn’t the only Angel Studios title to exponentially overperform its budget. “His Only Son,” a biblical drama released in early 2023, cost $250,000 to make and generated $12.4 million at the box office. A crowdfunding campaign in partnership with Angel Studios raised more than $1.2 million for prints and advertising costs. The small-budget-big-returns formula is reminiscent of what Blumhouse is doing for the horror genre.
Coming in 2024 from Angel Studios is “Cabrini,” a film about the Roman Catholic missionary and future Saint Francesca Cabrini, and “Bonhoeffer,” which tells the true story of German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who stood up to the Nazis during the Third Reich.

Universal-Blumhouse tag team

The combined efforts of horror studio Blumhouse and Universal were in full swing in 2023, starting with the January release of “M3GAN.”
With a modest budget of $12 million, not including marketing costs, the flick about a fashionable, murderous doll powered by artificial intelligence snared $180.7 million at the global box office. It’s the latest success in a string of lucrative theatrical runs for the horror genre.
While Hollywood’s big-budget blockbusters typically get the most attention, the consistently strong performance of scary movies at theaters is good news for the cinema industry.

A lifelike doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally turns murderous in Universal Studios and Blumhouse’s “M3GAN.”

The horror genre continues to be a major driver of foot traffic for cinemas, as its fans aren’t as preoccupied with the star power behind the films, but rather how scary and bloody — and fun — they are.
The tag-team of Blumhouse and Universal also released a film based on the horror video game “Five Nights at Freddy’s” in late October, just in time for Halloween.
While the film followed the same distribution path as the last two installments in the Halloween franchise and was made available on Comcast-owned streaming platform Peacock the same day it arrived in theaters, it still generated significant buzz and ticket sales.
With a budget of $20 million, not including marketing costs, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” tallied $137.2 million domestically and $289.3 million worldwide.
Both “M3GAN” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s” also had the distinct honor of becoming cultural memes. A particular dance sequence in “M3GAN” was spoofed across social media as well as on “Saturday Night Live.” Meanwhile, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” saw video and audio clips go viral on TikTok.
Blumhouse has four films slated for release in 2024 and three so far for 2025, including sequels to “M3GAN” and 2021’s breakout hit “The Black Phone.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

With $18.15 million in box office receipts, Warner Bros. Discovery’s “The Color Purple” had the highest Christmas Day opening since 2009.
It is also the second-largest Christmas Day opening of all time.
Adding ticket sales from “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and “Wonka,” the studio held the top three spots at the box office over the holiday.

Taraji P. Henson stars in Warner Bros. “The Color Purple.”
Warner Bros. Discovery

It was a very Merry Christmas for Warner Bros. Discovery.
With $18.15 million in box office receipts, the studio’s newest film “The Color Purple” had the highest Christmas Day opening since 2009 and the second-largest Christmas Day opening of all time.

The film outpaced 2012’s “Les Misérables,” which snagged $18.1 million on its Christmas debut, and fell just short of the 2009 holiday opening of “Sherlock Holmes” at $24.6 million, according to data from Comscore.

Top Christmas day openers at the domestic box office

“Sherlock Holmes” (2009) — $24.6 million
“The Color Purple” (2023) — $18.15 million
“Les Misérables” (2012) — $18.1 million
“Daddy’s Home” (2015) — $15.7 million
“Unbroken” (2014) — $15.4 million
“Into the Woods” (2014) — $15.08 million
“Django Unchained” (2012) — $15.01 million
“Marley and Me” (2008) — $14.3 million

Source: Comscore

Adding ticket sales from “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and “Wonka,” Warner Bros. Discovery held the top three spots at the box office over the holiday.
Warner Bros.’ collection of December releases runs the spectrum of genres and demographics, offering a diverse slate of entertainment for almost every moviegoing audience.
“The lineup … reflects a perfectly orchestrated staggered release of these titles over the course [of] the all-important holiday frame, and the results are most impressive,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

“The Color Purple,” whose producers include Oprah and Steven Spielberg, is based on the Broadway musical adaptation of the book-turned-movie of the same name.
The film caters to an older audience, who have been reluctant to return to cinemas in the wake of the pandemic. More

Home prices rose 4.8% nationally in October compared with October 2022, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index.
That’s a jump from the 4% annual increase in September and marks the strongest annual gain seen in 2023.
Among the top 20 cities, Detroit reported the largest year-over-year gain in home prices at 8.1% in October.

A “sale pending” sign is posted in front of a home for sale on November 30, 2023 in San Anselmo, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Home prices rose 4.8% nationally in October compared with October 2022, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index. That’s a jump from the 4% annual increase in September and marks the strongest annual gain seen in 2023.
The 10-city composite rose 5.7%, up from a 4.8% increase in the previous month. The 20-city composite rose 4.9%, up from a 3.9% advance in September.

The strength in home prices came despite a sharp rise in mortgage interest rates in October. The average rate on the 30-year fixed loan crossed 8% on Oct. 19, according to Mortgage News Daily. That was the highest level in more than two decades. Rates, however, dropped steadily through November and more sharply in December, with the 30-year fixed rate now hovering around 6.7%.
“Home prices leaned into the highest mortgage rates recorded in this market cycle and continued to push higher,” said Brian Luke, head of commodities, real & digital assets at S&P DJI, in a release. “With mortgage rates easing and the Federal Reserve guiding toward a slightly more accommodative stance, homeowners may be poised to see more appreciation.”
Among the top 20 cities, Detroit reported the largest year-over-year gain in home prices at 8.1% in October. San Diego followed with a 7.2% increase and then New York with a 7.1% gain. Home prices in Portland, Oregon, fell 0.6%, the only city in the index showing lower prices in October versus a year ago.
“Home price gains in the CoreLogic S&P Case-Shiller Index have increased by 7% since the beginning of the year and are 1% higher than at the peak in 2022, recovering all losses recorded in the second half of 2022,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. “Given the stronger seasonal gains seen in early 2023, annual home price appreciation should accelerate this winter before slowing again next year.”
Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Media companies re-embraced the bundle this year as pay TV weathered the storm of cord cutting.
Deals such as Disney and Charter’s could set a framework for bundles in the next year, and media executives predict 2024 could be the year of the bundle.
Streaming-cable TV bundles are a win-win for both parties, says analyst.

The atmosphere at the Disney Bundle Celebrating National Streaming Day at The Row in Los Angeles on May 19, 2022.
Presley Ann | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

This year proved to be yet another tough one for pay TV, as more people cut the cable cord.
But it wasn’t exactly kind to streaming services, either, as platforms dealt with subscriber declines, slumping ad revenue and stubborn losses while Netflix continued to assert its dominance.

Still, the age of the cable bundle is giving way to the era of a new kind of bundle that could give both streamers and cable providers a path forward. Media executives told CNBC this month that 2024 could finally be the year that media companies get serious about the bundle.
“The Charter-Disney deal was a sign of the times,” said Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen.
Disney and cable giant Charter Communications battled over fees during the lead-up to the National Football League season, with Charter CEO Chris Winfrey saying it wasn’t “a typical carriage dispute.” Disney-owned channels, including ESPN, ceased broadcast for millions of customers of Charter’s Spectrum service for nearly two weeks.
The blackout ended in September, hours before “Monday Night Football” was set to kick off on ESPN, with a deal that gave Spectrum TV Select Plus subscribers access to the ad-supported tier of Disney+, as well as ESPN+.
Similar arrangements could well emerge in 2024, given the broad subscriber bases and positive revenue implications for pay TV and broadband companies, Nollen added. Liberty Media Chairman and cable TV pioneer John Malone, who’s also on the board of Warner Bros. Discovery, earlier this year predicted more integration of streaming services into cable bundles.

Mergers and acquisitions would also lead to more bundling. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met last week to discuss a possible merger of the two companies, although talks are in early stages.
Despite the demand for a streaming bundle, top players have historically been apprehensive to make such a deal. Companies would have to navigate the calculus of average revenue per user, or ARPU, and subscriber growth when offering their services at a discount.

A discounted bundle could shrink ARPU, but if subscribers grow leaps and bounds due to the bundle, it could offset that loss. Media companies that also house cable networks could be concerned that a streaming bundle would cannibalize their cable plans.
Top streaming platforms already made some big moves in 2023. Disney agreed to buy Comcast’s remaining one-third stake in Hulu in a long-expected move. Disney also began rolling out its combined Disney+ and Hulu platform earlier this month, with a full release coming in March 2024. Disney already offers a three-way bundle of Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu.
Paramount Global and Apple earlier this month were reported to be considering a bundle of Apple TV+ and Paramount+. Verizon, which offers cellphone and home internet plans, was reportedly gearing up to offer a bundle of the ad-supported tiers of Max and Netflix to Verizon customers for $10 a month, $7 less than subscribing separately.
The integration of streaming into the pay TV bundle could shape up to provide some much-needed upside for the industry. Ad revenue has slipped considerably for pay TV and is on pace to face an 18% decline this year, according to media investment firm GroupM. The ad-supported tiers of streaming platforms, which are often included in bundles, drive higher ARPU for cable companies due to the ad revenue generated, Nollen said.

Much similar to pay TV providers, streaming platforms have had to contend with subscriber losses over the past year, albeit at a slower pace. Streaming leader Netflix, for example, has pivoted to raise the price of its plans while also rolling out ad-supported tiers to offset subscriber losses.
Zaslav warned last month of a “generational disruption” and pointed to the company’s streaming service Max, which he said at one point was “losing billions of dollars.” Warner Bros. Discovery did, however, turn a profit in its streaming segment, according to the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report.
The Disney-Charter deal offered a framework for cable companies to transition their business models into the streaming era and stabilize subscriber trajectories, according to Ampere Analysis.
“Charter gets to protect and hopefully grow pricing on its subscriber base,” Nollen said. “Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have the most potential upside” from the bundling trend “given the breadth of content on their combination of services and the fact that they’re beginning to bundle those together already.”
Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Netflix and Apple didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
— CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

China faces a problem familiar to dictatorships throughout history: how to strike a balance between growth-boosting innovation, which thrives in a free society, and the paranoia of an authoritarian state. Its leader, Xi Jinping, wants the country to become a hyper-advanced economy. His government is aggressively promoting the commercialisation of high technologies it likes, from electric vehicles to quantum computing.At the same time, it is tightening the screws on those it disapproves of. In 2021 it regulated a booming online-tutoring industry into oblivion almost overnight, apparently out of fear that high tuition fees were making children’s education so expensive that Chinese were put off the idea of parenthood. On December 22nd the government took a wrench to the video-gaming industry, introducing rules to, among other things, limit how much players can spend on in-game purchases—and so how much developers can make. The market value of Tencent, one of China’s most innovative firms that also has a big gaming business, tumbled by 12%.Nowhere is this tension clearer than in the hottest technology of 2023—artificial intelligence (AI). In many countries, command of AI is seen as both economically and strategically important. Politicians everywhere fret about machines going rogue or, more realistically, being harnessed by human mischief-makers. In Beijing the added worry is that the technology, which thrives on unlimited data and, at its current stage of development, in unregulated spaces, could prove subversive if not kept in check. It is therefore busily shoring up its “great firewall” for the AI age.In 2000 Bill Clinton, then America’s president, likened China’s attempt to control the internet to “trying to nail Jell-O to the wall”. Today the jello seems firmly in place. Western internet services, from Facebook and Google search to Netflix are unavailable to most Chinese (apart from those willing to run the risk of using illegal “virtual private networks”). On local platforms, any undesirable content is deleted, either pre-emptively by the platforms themselves, using algorithms and armies of moderators, or afterwards, as soon as it is spotted by government censors. A tech crackdown in 2020 brought China’s powerful tech giants, such Tencent and Alibaba, to heel—and closer to the government, which has been taking small stakes in the firms, and a big interest in their day-to-day operations.The result is a digital economy that is sanitised but nevertheless thriving. Tencent’s super-app, WeChat, which combines messaging, social media, e-commerce and payments, alone generates hundreds of billions of dollars in yearly transactions. Mr Xi now hopes to pull off a similar balancing act with AI. Once again, some foreign experts predict a jello situation. And once again, the Communist Party is building tools to prove them wrong.The party’s efforts begin with the world’s toughest rules for Chinese equivalents of ChatGPT (which is, predictably, banned in China) and other consumer-facing “generative” AI. Since March companies have had to register with officials any algorithms that make recommendations or can influence people’s decisions. In practice, that means basically any such software aimed at consumers. In July the government issued rules requiring all AI-generated content to “uphold socialist values”—in other words, no bawdy songs, anti-party slogans or, heaven forbid, poking fun at Mr Xi. In September it published a list of 110 registered services. Only their developers and the government know all the ins and outs of the registration process and the precise criteria involved.In October a standards committee for national information security published a list of safety guidelines requiring detailed self-assessment of the data used to train generative-AI models. One rule requires the manual testing of at least 4,000 subsets of the total training data; at least 96% of these must qualify as “acceptable”, according to a list of 31 vaguely worded safety risks. The first criterion for unacceptable content is anything that “incites subversion of state power or the overthrowing of the socialist system”. Chatbots must decline to answer 95% of queries that would elicit unacceptable content (any that do get through would, presumably, be censored ex post). They must also reject no more than 5% of harmless questions.Anything produced by unregistered algorithms is to be blocked and its creators punished. In May a man in Gansu province was arrested after he used ChatGPT to produce text and images of a fake train crash and publish them on social media. He may have been the first Chinese to be detained for spreading AI-generated misinformation. He will not be the last.This heavy-handed strategy has slowed the uptake of consumer-facing generative AI in the country. Ernie Bot, built by Baidu, another tech firm, was ready around the same time of ChatGPT’s launch but only released nine months later, in August—aeons given how fast the technology is evolving. It is still clumsy when it comes to expressing its devotion to the party. When asked sensitive questions about Mr Xi, it dutifully censors, offering no answer and deleting the query.Model socialistsWith more work the party may be able to make AI models into not merely good communists, but fluent ones. That would obviate the need for ex post censorship, says Luciano Floridi of Yale University. Yet the authorities seem in no rush to get there. Instead, they are promoting the technology’s business applications.In contrast to consumer AI, enterprise AI faces few constraints on development, notes Mimi Zou of the Oxford Martin School, a research institute. As Steven Rolf of the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, a British think-tank, explains, this has the effect of channelling capital and labour away from things like consumer chatbots and towards machine learning for business. This, the government seems to be betting, will allow China to catch up and even overtake America in AI without the hassle of dealing with potentially subversive AI-generated content.In May the southern city of Shenzhen announced it would launch a 100bn-yuan ($14bn) AI-focused investment fund, the largest of its kind in the world. A number of city governments have launched similar investment funds. A lot of this money is going to firms such as Qi An Xin, which offers generative AI that manages data-security risks for companies. The company claims that the bot can do the work of 60 security experts, 24 hours a day. Before going public in 2020, it received big investments from state companies, like many similar startups.For this strategy to work, the enterprise-AI firms need the right sort of raw material. Consumer chatbots use AI models trained on swathes of the public internet. Corporate applications need corporate data, a lot of which is squirrelled away inside companies. So the other plank of China’s strategy is to turn corporate data into a public good. The state does not want to own the data but—as with the other factors—to control the channels through which it flows.To that end, the government is promoting data exchanges. These are meant to let businesses trade information, packaged into standardised products, about all areas of commercial life, from activity at individual factories to sales data at individual shops. Small firms will gain access to knowledge once reserved for the tech giants. Banks and brokers will get a real-time picture of the economy.Chinese cities began launching data exchanges about a decade ago. Now there are around 50 around China. And they are finally gaining speed. The Shanghai Data Exchange (SDE), which was launched in 2021, has started dealing in a number of new data products. In one of its first transactions, ICBC, a bank, bought information from the energy sector. This can be used to assess companies’ power consumption and, because it reflects real levels of activity, to create alternative credit profiles for companies. SDE sells satellite-derived data on steel output in China’s heartland and environmental violations by mining companies. Another product gives real-time data on doctors, nurses and hospital beds across the country in order to help medical firms make business decisions. The SDE is also experimenting with using data as collateral for loans.At scale, the datafication of industry could deliver a significant economic boost, says Tom Nunlist of Trivium, a consultancy in Beijing. And more data may be coming to the exchanges soon. In August the central government tasked state-owned firms with thinking about how to value their data. In the past few months teams of auditors have been trying to come up with ways to do this, with a view of adding such data to companies’ balance-sheets as intangible assets. They are meant to report back by January 1st (though the deadline looks likely to be missed, given the unprecedented nature of the task).The government’s gamble on enterprise AI is not without problems, however. The car industry is a case in point. In 2022 about 185m vehicles on Chinese road had an internet connection, and a national plan envisages mass production of semi-autonomous cars by 2025. For that to happen, companies devising self-driving algorithms need lots of data on which to train their systems. A company called WICV is building a platform for the data that is beginning to trickle out of cars.For now, WICV returns a car’s data to the carmaker that built it, so BYD gets data from BYDs, Nio from Nios and so on. But the plan is eventually for the data to be traded on exchanges, where it could be bought by other developers of self-driving systems. For that to happen, though, driving data must first be “desensitised”, explains Chu Wenfu, WICV’s founder, by stripping out biometric and geolocation details that could help bad actors track the movements of specific people.The potential for such tracking spooks Chinese authorities. A big reason why they cracked down on Didi Global days after the ride-hailing firm’s initial public offering in New York in 2021 was, it later transpired, a fear that data on Didi’s 25m daily rides, including geolocation information linked to passengers, could fall into the hands of the American authorities. The Chinese government is pre-emptively mapping out vast areas of China where data collection could potentially pose a national-security threat.Many carmakers, including Western ones such as BMW, have little choice but to team up with state-backed companies to handle driving information and ensure that local data-compliance rules are followed. Just in case, some car companies are ditching certain features, such as allowing drivers to watch live footage of inside and outside their car on their phones. Some of that footage could, after all, inadvertently capture something sensitive.Such trade-offs between innovation and security are unlikely to be limited to cars. Other industrial and corporate data, too, will probably need desensitising before it can be traded at scale on exchanges. That will slow the development of enterprise AI, even if algorithms remain unshackled. It is a price that the party appears willing to pay for its paranoia. ■ More

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” collected an estimated $28.1 million during its domestic opening, the fourth-lowest debut for a DC Extended Universe film.
Only one film from the franchise has debuted with more than $60 million in ticket sales since 2018’s “Aquaman” — “Black Adam” took in $67 million in early 2022.
Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that the entire franchise would be rebooted in 2025 by the newly minted heads of DC Studios, James Gunn and Peter Safran.

Jason Momoa stars as Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, in Warner Bros.’ “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”
Warner Bros. Discovery

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” dog-paddled to a $28.1 million domestic opening, the fourth-lowest in the history of the DC Extended Universe.
The film was expected to open between $32 million and $42 million. As it stands, the $28 million estimate from Warner Bros. Discovery is less than half of the $67.8 million the first “Aquaman” movie brought in during its 2018 debut weekend.

The film, likely Jason Momoa’s last turn at the titular aquatic hero, is expected to secure around $40 million in ticket sales over the four-day Christmas holiday weekend.
The weekend performance of “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is on par with Warner Bros.’ DC franchise in recent years. Only one film from the franchise has debuted with more than $60 million in ticket sales since 2018 — “Black Adam” took in $67 million in early 2022, according to data from Comscore.

DC Extended Universe film openings

“Wonder Woman 1984” (2020) — $16.7 million
“Blue Beetle” (2023) — $25 million
“The Suicide Squad” (2021) — $26.2 million
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” (2023) — $28.1 million
“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” (2023) — $30.1 million
“Birds of Prey” (2020) — $33 million
“Shazam!” (2019) — $53.5 million
“The Flash” (2023) — $55 million
“Black Adam” (2022) — $67 million
“Aquaman” (2018) — $67.8 million
“Justice League” (2017) — $93.8 million
“Wonder Woman” (2017) — $103.2 million
“Man of Steel” (2013) — $116.6 million
“Suicide Squad” (2016) — $133.6 million
“Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) — $166 million

Source: Comscore

The $28 million estimated opening haul is smaller than the $30.1 million “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” tallied earlier this year. Notably, the second “Shazam!” film only managed to collect $57.6 million domestically and $133 million globally during its run in theaters.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” added $80.1 million from international ticket sales Friday through Sunday, bringing its total expected global take to $120 million (including the domestic Christmas expectations for Monday).

The first “Aquaman” also benefited from international ticket sales back in 2018. More than 70% of its $1.15 billion box office came from markets outside the U.S. and Canada, according to Comscore data.
Notably, “Aquaman” is the highest-grossing film in the DC Extended Universe franchise and no DCEU film has generated more than $400 million at the global box office since that film was released.
The franchise has suffered from lackluster quality, as critics have balked at CGI-heavy action sequences and disjointed attempts at bringing heroes together for team-ups. Pandemic-era restrictions also led to smaller box office openings in 2020 and 2021.
Even as those restrictions have lifted and audiences have returned to theaters, the DCEU has struggled to lure back even its most ardent fans. This was exacerbated earlier this year when Warner Bros. Discovery announced that the entire franchise would be rebooted in 2025 by the newly minted heads of DC Studios, James Gunn and Peter Safran.
The planned reboot dismayed fans, who believe that “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “Blue Beetle,” “The Flash” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” — all released after the announcement — would have no connection to future DC projects and were not must-see theatrical experiences.
One bright spot for the “Aquaman” sequel is that it faces limited competition in theaters next week and could benefit from the upcoming holidays, as school vacations have parents seeking out-of-home entertainment.
“While so-called superhero fatigue may be in play for many films of the genre in 2023, resulting in lower-than-expected opening weekend results, films that open in late December such as ‘Aquaman 2’ often play the long game and draw their audiences throughout the holiday and into the new year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. More

Disney’s animation studios have struggled to generate box-office returns in the wake of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Universal’s Illumination and DreamWorks studios continue to deliver.
Universal’s “Migration,” from its Illumination studio, arrives in theaters Friday. Forecasters predict a $25 million opening.

Universal and Illuminations latest animated film centers on a family of ducks who decides to leave the safety of a New England pond for an adventurous trip to Jamaica. However, their well-laid plans quickly go awry when they get lost and wind up in New York City.

Disney dropped the animation crown. Universal has picked it up.
And, with “Migration” opening Friday, the studio is looking to strengthen its grip.

“Migration,” a comic tale about a family of New England ducks that leave their pond for Jamaica, but end up in New York City, is expected to tally $25 million during its domestic debut. Universal has more conservative expectations, forecasting between $10 million and $15 million in ticket sales for the film’s opening.
While that pales in comparison to the $100 million-plus debuts of Illumination/Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and the latest “Minions” film, it’s comparable to the studio and DreamWorks Animation’s “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which ran in theaters for several months, securing nearly $500 million globally.
“‘Migration,’ with solid word-of-mouth and strong reviews, will have to be judged more on its long-term results than the opening weekend splash,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
Disney’s most recent animated film “Wish” failed to connect with audiences. After generating $31.6 million domestically over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday, the film has grossed a total of $55.2 million in the U.S. and Canada. Globally, the film has reached $127.1 million. The film had a budget of $200 million, not including marketing costs.
For comparison, “Trolls Band Together,” which was released the week before Thanksgiving, secured $30 million for its three-day debut and nearly $180 million worldwide. The film had a budget of $95 million, not including marketing costs.

Representatives from Disney did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

How Disney lost the crown

Ariana DeBose stars as Asha in Disney’s new animated film “Wish.”

Disney established its animated feature empire in the early 20th century with 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and continued to dominate, more or less, into the 1980s and 1990s with “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
Later, it acquired Pixar, which together with Walt Disney Animation, generated billions in box-office receipts for the company.
“The world of feature animation has been dominated for decades by Disney and for good reason,” said Dergarabedian. “They set the gold standard.”
Then came the Covid pandemic. While theaters closed, Disney sought to pad its fledgling streaming service Disney+ with content, stretching its creative teams thin, and sending theatrical movies during the pandemic straight to digital.
The decision trained parents to seek out new Disney titles on streaming, not theaters, even when Disney opted to return its films to the big screen. Compounding Disney’s woes was a general sense from audiences that the company’s content had grown overly existential and too concerned with social issues beyond the reach of children.
As a result, no Disney animated feature from Pixar or Walt Disney Animation has generated more than $480 million at the global box office since 2019.
“I think what’s changed is that Disney doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt,” said Josh Brown, CEO at Ritholtz Wealth Management and a CNBC contributor. “And people will not go to a movie just because it’s the latest Disney movie in the way that previous generations did.”

Universal appeal

Meanwhile, Universal’s two animation arms — Illumination and DreamWorks — have thrived.
Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which opened in 2022, tallied $942 million worldwide, DreamWorks’ “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” capped at $485 million after its holiday 2022 opening, and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” soared to more than $1.3 billion in 2023.
Even the Magic Kingdom was impressed with the box office of “Super Mario.” Disney CEO Bob Iger praised the rival studio back in May during the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call.

But as moviegoers have returned to cinemas in the wake of the pandemic, more are gravitating toward Universal’s fare.
“Simply put, Illumination Animation’s only agenda is entertainment,” said Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations. “Their animated films are sweet and simple and family audiences appreciate that. Disney sometimes attempts to pack too much into their animated features, and lately have been losing sight of the simplicity of the genre.”
Not to mention, Universal has been revisiting tried and true fan-favorite stories and characters. In fact, Illumination hasn’t released a nonfranchise film since 2016, and only three of the last 10 DreamWorks features have been original stories.
For comparison, of the last eight films released by a Disney animation studio, seven have been original films with just 2022’s “Lightyear,” a “Toy Story” spinoff, tied to an existing franchise. Previously, Disney has thrived bringing new animated material to audiences, but in the post-pandemic world, it has struggled.
It is the exact opposite strategy of Disney’s live-action theatrical releases, which have relied heavily on established franchises. Think “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “The Little Mermaid,” Marvel franchise films and “Haunted Mansion.”
Iger has said that Disney will continue to make sequels, without apology, but admitted that the company needs to be more selective in which franchises it revisits.
“I think there has to be a reason to make them, you have to have a good story,” Iger said during The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in late November.

“Minions: The Rise of Gru” is the sequel to the 2015 film, “Minions,” and spin-off/prequel to the main “Despicable Me” film series.

In animation, returning to popular characters and worlds is an easy way to capture the attention of parents and kids.
“Because they have seen these characters and related stories before, they have high confidence that they will be high quality, entertaining and ‘brand safe’ for their kids,” said Peter Csathy, founder and chair of advisory firm Creative Media. “And they may even anticipate franchise animated films as much as their kids.”
In developing consistent franchise content like Minions and Trolls, Universal is now able to introduce a new film like “Migration” with a sense of clout. Parents who see that the film is from the same studio that brought other fan favorites to the big screen are then more likely to come out to see it.
It’s what Pixar was able to do so well for nearly three decades.
“With ‘Minions,’ ‘Secret Life of Pets’ and ‘Sing,’ I think Illumination is a brand people are aware of by now,” said Bock. “And that awareness will boost ‘Migration’s’ flight pattern, likely extending its box-office run. That’s key. The long play.”
So far, “Migration” has generally favorable reviews from critics. If audiences respond well, and spread the word, the film could see a solid run, adding to the prestige of Universal’s animation brand.
“The kids animation market opportunity will never grow old, so those playing at the top of the game – as is Illumination – hold the promise and possibility of becoming the next go-to brand for quality animation after Pixar,” said Csathy.
Next year, Disney and Pixar are set to release “Inside Out 2” in June, while Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” is scheduled to hit theaters weeks later in July.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of Universal Pictures and CNBC. More

A CURIOUS LETTER sent on November 6th recently surfaced in Washington, DC. On that day, nearly a dozen American senators sent a stern note to Janet Yellen, America’s treasury secretary, Jennifer Granholm, its energy secretary, and John Podesta, the senior adviser to the White House on clean energy. It was about the legal guidance they expected from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on tax rules governing a generous new subsidy for “green” hydrogen. They insisted that the rules for this clean fuel, that can replace fossil fuels in hard-to-decarbonise industrial sectors like steel and chemicals, must be “a robust and flexible incentive that will catalyse and quickly scale a domestic hydrogen economy”.That was but one heavyweight salvo in a months-long war waged by technology companies, environmental groups, energy lobbyists and business chambers over this previously obscure topic. To influence the handful of tax nerds and their political masters making this decision, millions have been spent on full-page advertisements in the New York Times and Washington Post, on podcasts and—to the bewilderment of punters looking for a mindless rom-com—on mainstream streaming services like Hulu.Perhaps that was fitting, for the ruling looks to be a blockbuster. The long-delayed draft guidance on the 45V tax credit, as the proposal is formally known, was finally unveiled on December 22nd (the White House tried to bury the controversy in pre-Christmas distractions). Those senators calling for flexibility will not be pleased. There is always tension between growth and greenery in environmental regulation, and especially when it comes to writing rules for an industry that does not yet exist. The Biden administration has tilted strongly towards greenery in its proposals. In doing so it will probably kick up a hornet’s nest of industry protest.The stage was set for this battle royal by the passage last year of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), America’s landmark climate law that offers the world’s most generous subsidy ($3/kg) for making the greenest sort of hydrogen from renewable energy, as well as smaller subsidies for making low-carbon hydrogen in other ways. Because Congress declined to cap this subsidy, potentially hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake in the coming decade. Though Europe led the world in developing clean hydrogen, the Hydrogen Council, an industry association, has found that the IRA lured many potential investors to its side of the Atlantic with proposed investments in hydrogen as of January at $46bn, up from just $29bn in May 2022.The green trade-off arises because making the cleanest sort of hydrogen involves the use of electrolysers, fancy bits of kit that separate water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen using a lot of electricity. As an influential study done by Jesse Jenkins and colleagues at Princeton University has shown, if those machines use grid power burning coal or natural gas then the resulting hydrogen (though clean in its end use) could pollute more over its life cycle than the hydrogen produced using fossil fuels today.That is why it is vital to put in place three pillars as “guardrails” against greenwashing, argues Rachel Fakhry of the Natural Resources Defence Council, a prominent green group. One would require the renewable energy involved to be produced close to the point of use. Another, known as “additionality”, would require any clean power used to come from new, not currently operating, generation facilities. The final requirement is that the hydrogen produced be matched hour by hour with clean-energy production, rather than using annual matching of production. The IRS proposes strict criteria on all three fronts, earning praise from Ms Fakhry and other environmental advocates.Predictably, some industry advocates are up in arms. Jason Grumet, boss of the American Clean Power Association, a big lobby representing renewables, hydrogen, technology and transmission firms, argues the new proposal contains “a fatal but fixable flaw”. While accepting the three pillars, he argues that the hourly matching provision is being imposed too aggressively and so will “discourage a significant majority of clean-power companies from investing in green hydrogen”. Potential financiers will worry that hourly matching is not even possible in all parts of America, and the reforms needed for it will take several years to come into effect.Only a fifth of that $46bn in hydrogen projects identified by the Hydrogen Council has been firmly committed, in part because investors have been waiting for this tax ruling, and some of those will now be in jeopardy. Keith Martin, a 45V expert at Norton Rose Fulbright, a law firm, reckons “the Treasury has made it difficult to finance green-hydrogen projects” because it does not grandfather projects under construction before the introduction of the hourly-matching requirement in 2028. Bernd Heid of McKinsey, a consultancy, reckons the guidance could lead to an increase of $1/kg to $2.5/kg in the cost of producing green hydrogen compared with using annual time-matching and looser additionality standards, yielding a total cost of $2.7/kg to $4.5/kg depending on input costs. For comparison, the total cost of dirty hydrogen made from natural gas today is well under $2/kg.Revealingly, though, some powerful industry voices do support this ruling. One is Andrés Gluski, head of AES, a utility investing in a $4bn green-hydrogen facility in northern Texas. He is confident his mega-project, which will use bespoke renewable energy made on site, will meet the tough new 45V proposals. Air Products, the world’s largest manufacturer of hydrogen, has made a $15bn global bet on clean hydrogen including a stake in that Texas facility. Seifi Ghasemi, its boss, applauds what he calls the “strong three-pillar” proposal which he reckons will stimulate investments while reducing emissions.The schism suggests the trade-off between growth and greenery may not be as stark as it first seems. Guardrails are indeed needed to prevent greenwashing. This is especially true, notes Martin Tengler of BloombergNEF, an information firm, since making hydrogen with grid power is dirtier than, say, using grid power for electric vehicles (which are still cleaner than using petrol-fired engines). He argues that claims of a chilling effect on investment are overblown, and that although the pool of viable projects “is going to shrink, it is worth it”.As the enthusiasm of the aspiring green-hydrogen tycoons reveals, there can be opportunity here in leapfrogging too. A big source of future revenue will be exports of green ammonia (a hydrogen derivative used in making fertiliser) to environmentally minded overseas markets like Japan and Europe, so long as it is demonstrably clean. Maria Martinez of Breakthrough Energy, a climate-policy organisation, argues that the draft rules put America’s hydrogen sector in alignment with Europe’s green rules, which will help those (like Air Products) keen to export there.The new proposals are now open for public comment for two months. An almighty scrum will surely take place in the new year, involving fulmination from those senators whose advice was ignored. This will probably result in some modification of the strictest provisions. Even so, America looks likely to have pretty green rules for its nascent green-hydrogen sector. The open question is whether the resulting boost for leapfroggers will outweigh the loss from those laggards that drop out. ■ More