Rueben's Ramblings

It was an interesting year at the movieplex this year with a very wide array of movies available, especially the juggernaut movies Barbie and Oppenheimer that caused quite the sensation this summer.

The Little Mermaid was finally released, bringing with it a great and different version of Ariel (that caused, in my opinion, unnecessary criticism from certain factions within the world). The faith-based movie Sound of Freedom made a lot of headway in terms of hitting the top 10, but also caused controversy for misleading and sensationalized depictions as well as sexual misconduct allegations.

Both Beyonce and Taylor Swift had concert films released during the latter part of the year with the Taylor Swift hitting the top 15. And, while it’s been 8 years since the last The Hunger Games movie in the franchise was released, the prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes really packed a punch at the box office.

Also, one of the best moments in film was the revelation monologue in Barbie given by America Ferrera’s character Gloria, as you can see below:

Due to my work schedule, I didn’t get to see as many movies this year as I would have liked, but I truly enjoyed Barbie, The Marvels, Fast X, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One and the special release of Waitress The Musical, but I have to admit I was disappointed by Shazam! Gods of Fury.

Now let’s take a look at the top 30 box office winners from this year (up through Saturday, December 16 that is):

1. Barbie – 636 million
2. The Super Mario Bros. Movie – 575 million
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – 381 million
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – 359 million
5. Oppenheimer – 326 million
6. The Little Mermaid – 298 million
7. Avatar: The Way of Water – 283 million
8. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – 215 million
9. John Wick: Chapter 4 – 187 million
10. Sound of Freedom – 184 million
11. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour – 179 million
12. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – 175 million
13. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – 172 million
14. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – 157 million
15. Creed III – 156 million
16. Elemental – 154 million
17. Fast X – 146 million
18. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes – 139 million
19. Five Nights at Freddy’s – 137 million
20. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish – 130 million
21. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem – 119 million
22. Scream VI – 108 million
23. The Flash – 108 million
24. M3GAN – 95 million
25. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – 93 million
26. The Equalizer 3 – 92 million
27. The Nun II – 86 million
28. Trolls Band Together – 84 million
29. The Marvels – 83 million
30. Meg 2: The Trench – 82 million

On the other spectrum are the movies that were either a disappointment in the box office due to poor ticket sales or, more importantly, had a horrible trailer that made me completely uninterested in seeing them. While several of the below were in the top 30 for ticket sales, they still weren’t very good (at least to me).

They appear in alphabetical order below:

Asteroid City
Cocaine Bear
Dream Scenario
Evil Dead Rise
Exorcist: Believer
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Insidious: The Red Door
Knock at the Cabin
Meg 2: The Trench
M3GAN
No Hard Feelings
Poor Things
Renfield
Saltburn
Saw X
Shotgun Wedding (from Amazon Prime)
Sympathy for the Devil
Thanksgiving
The Boogeyman
The Flash
The Last Voyage of Demeter
The Nun II
The Retirement Plan
Vacation Friends 2

What movies did you most enjoy seeing this year? Which movies were disappointments to you? Please share your thoughts and comments.

TOMORROW: Awards of 2023

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!