The biggest winners and losers of summer 2023
From the highs of Barbenheimer to the lows of The Idol, here's everything that worked and everything that didn't this summer
Aux Features Hasbro
With Hot Labor Summer in full force, it’s been understandably hard to focus on anything else. The historic writers’ and actors’ strikes have rightly drawn much of the media attention, and the public is fully on the unions’ side, too, even though it’s disrupted release dates for many new shows and films. So while the studios continue to block fair contracts, the solidarity from the public and the empathy for the people on strike has been heartening.
There have been some other triumphant moments amid the darkness, too: Keke Palmer got some deliciously public revenge on her (maybe ex?) boyfriend after he made some dumb comments about her outfit choices, San Diego Comic-Con got back to its roots with a fan-focused event after most of the major studios pulled out, and Taylor Swift and Beyoncé both had career-defining tours. And, of course, Barbenheimer might be the most fun anyone’s had at the movies in years. Here, then, are the biggest winners and losers from summer 2023.
48 Comments
Calling the AMPTP the “losers” in the strike for not budging is one hell of a stretch.
We saw Oppenheimer over the weekend. It was long…and…loud.
Somebody really thought having music screaming over whispered dialogue was a . . . bold creative choice?
I love Christopher Nolan but he seems to like sound-mixing his films like an early REM album.
I’m sure there’s some freshman audio students could do a better job and would probably work pretty cheap. (I’m sure because I used to be one.)
Have you seen a Christopher Nolan film before? No snark. That’s his thing.
I’m not sure if I have.
I’m sorry. That’s quite the shocker for a first timer, especially this film.
Too bad the guy still hasn’t figured out how to create characters or a story… Instead, his schtick is expositionfests, bad audio mixes and time puzzles.
ironically it’s probably the clearest nolan’s dialogue has ever been in a movie.
yikes.
That’s Nolan’s thing he does, the constant score through out every movie. I noticed it while watching The Dark Knight for the first time found it so distracting once it caught my ear.
well then, mission accomplished, I guess.
Doja Cat can take solace from the ignominy of being on the Loser list from the knowledge that she has won my heart.
I think it’s pretty obvious the biggest winner of the summer was Sound of Freedom ($182 million made against a $14 million budget) and yet it didn’t even make AV’s list. That seems to validate some of the claims of media & hollywood bias against the film.
It appeared under Winners-Movie Theaters.
Why are people like you so hellbent on being the victim… to the point of lying about the content of silly listicles?
RE: The Witcher, Henry Cavill In the past, he’d also been extremely enthusiastic about the show, so fans were left wondering what changed, and it’s still not entirely clear why he left. I haven’t followed this closely, but hasn’t Cavill been pretty open that he was unhappy with the show’s interpretation of the books?
I feel like this is a narrative that’s been pushed more by certain people on social media than it’s something Cavill has expressed himself. Whether because it’s not true or because he just has some sense of professional conduct, who can say.
I’ve read a few theories, one that he thought he was coming back as Superman after his cameo in Black Adam before Gunn shook the Etchi-sketch. But also, it could be because Season 3 of The Witcher was dog shit.
No, he was in fact not “open” about that. It’s all conjecture from people reading between the lines precisely because he hasn’t said anything concrete. It makes for good clickbait in the nerdy corner of the whole culture war nonsense so that’s why you see it spread around as gospel so much.Could it be true? Sure. But it could also be that he just wanted to play Superman again and as a result renegotiations fell through (commitment/time/money you have when filming a tv show vs a bunch of films).In any case, his statements were very gracious towards the production and he clearly doesn’t want to throw his colleagues under the bus while the show is still running. Maybe something more will come out when the show is done.
Gotta disagree on Doja Cat. Her new singles, especially PTTR have been pretty successful. I feel like if anything she showed that if you can produce hits, no one really cares what nonsense you post on Instagram. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the actual album is received.
Ooof Secret Invasion was bad. Why did it cost 212 million dollars but often look like a knock-off? Why did Emilia Clarke have such a terrible, two-dimensional role? Why was Maria Hill killed off like a redshirt? Why was Juliet Stephenson’s time wasted?The only saving grace was Olivia Coleman, proving once again that she can’t put in a bad performance.
San Diego ComicCon … I used to go every year, and I would mostly hang out in the independent publishers row and artist alley, seeing what new stuff was being done on the edges of the comic world. It was an annual creative rejuvenation for me.I stopped going almost twenty years ago. It got ridiculously expensive to travel, at best you got stuck in a hotel two miles from the convention center because the big studios had gobbled up all the convenient hotels for their people, all of downtown was crowded out by people gawking to catch the celebrity cast of the latest big-budget movie or TV series coming out. And the giant movie and TV studio displays in the convention hall had squeezed out all those indie comics publishers and artists, so there wasn’t even much there for me to see anymore.Now I really really really wish I’d made plans to go this year. Even tho I would have had no way to predict an extended WGA/SAG strike changing everything at the last minute. C’est la vie.
Sorry… can you elaborate further on Suits? It’s not clear why this show was “the show of the summer.” Your description was a little vague, and while the show would sometimes filter into my periphery whilst online, I want to know more of your reasoning because I’m not seeing it right now.
Billions and billions of streams four years after it ended. I’ve never seen it, but apparently it’s got legs, indicating that perhaps people have been underestimating conventional network fare (and their longass seasons).
Thank you! This was the context I needed!
You’re welcome!
I’m confused by Suits being on this list. It’s apparently the show of the summer, but I don’t think I’ve heard anyone mention it since 2018 or so? Was it actually big this summer for people outside of my circles?
Billions and billions of streams four years after it ended. I’ve never seen it, but apparently it’s got legs, indicating that perhaps people have been underestimating conventional network fare (and their longass seasons).
Real question: can someone explain the Secret Invasion hate to me? I get that there was a fair amount of wasted potential, but I thought overall it was fine? Like, not game-changing TV, but a decent way to spend a few evenings watching.
I thought it was fine too (at least until the finale) but I mean, I’d want a series about this particular adaptation to be a little better than just ‘fine’, yea? The wasted potential can’t be downplayed, because that is the whole thing of it. This should have been a much bigger, much more exciting event than it was. And that’s to say nothing of its other writing issues throughout the show, including the logic of the villain’s motivations, making Nick Fury boring, and a retcon to Col. Rhodes that retroactively hurts several prior movies now.
if it had come out 10 years ago it would probably have qualified as ‘good, even’, but in 2023 you’ve gotta do better than ‘fine’, especially considering this was marketed as a huge, unmissable deal that changes everything and recontextualizes things. sometimes generic/fine is worse than outright bad. at least bad can sometimes be interesting and funny.
it just wasn’t good, idk what else to tell you lol. and i’m someone who has generally enjoyed every mcu thing up to that point (even the “bad” things like Love & Thunder) so if my marvel zombie shill ass didn’t like it then it must have been that bad
BEATY
The AMPTP just offered the highest wage increase for the WGA in 35 years, which was rejected, so if we want to talk about negotiating “in bad faith”, things like this should be noted. As much as media outlets like this want to carry water for the unions, the strikes are making EVERYBODY look bad.
I’m respectfully skeptical of this wage increase claim without something substantiating it and providing a bit of context (i.e. if there was in fact a 35% offered, what does that look like in terms of salary? Does it bring it up to a living wage? etc)
I am for the writers and actors, but I do think that also people are not talking about how if they do 100% win, that can be the death of 90% of streaming. If the platforms have to start paying major residuals to all those old movies, TV shows and even series the platforms did years ago, it “might” cause streamers to just cut them from their platforms altogether and basically the huge content that many people are now used to will go “poof”. Will DVD’s make a comeback?
If there’s one positive benefit to the strikes, it’s exposing the fact that Bob Iger is just another businessman.
For the last decade I’ve had to read profile after profile about what a brilliant CEO Bob Iger was when his only notable skill was using Disney’s bottomless war chest to acquire other studios.
Since he’s taken over for Chapek, Disney has started to collapse under its own bloat and since it’s just an extension of things he’d put in place to begin with, he can’t blame it on his successor/predecessor no matter how much he’d like to.
CEOs are all the same.
it’s also worth noting that disney+ was his idea, and what he thought was going to be his legacy going into retirement.
I mean, any streaming service is going to be a money sink, but Disney Plus did stand a better chance than most. And I’m sure Iger presumed the other projects they had in the pipeline would offset the loss.
Considering everything Disney released this year under-performed, he thought wrong.
I thought the two part movie died a few years ago with the whole “Divergent” fiasco where one of the lessons that was supposedly learned was that the audience hates these kinds of studio money grabs. But here they are still doing it and people still hate it.
Here’s the thing about the SOF ticket bump. If certain concerns buy blocks of tickets to inflate the gross that’s one thing, but if customers don’t actually show up and BUY POPCORN the theatres still lose out. That’s where their profit is, not the box office.
This year will forever be known as the Summer of Barbie (and Taylor Swift).
And by forever, you mean for like two minutes.I couldn’t finish anything. I developed carpal tunnel after my 30th “next” click. Not sure what kind of sadists AV Club writers have become, but doing a 29-click slideshow with 5-10 words each slide reminds me of why I quit coming here over a decade ago.They must fancy most of their readers are monkeys who can’t go two seconds without clicking and only respond to images.
I went on the Galactic Starcruiser this year and it was absolutely amazing.It’s a shame it’s closing, but I applaud Disney for taking a big swing like this, as it was truly the first of its kind and I worry its failure will have a chilling effect on innovation.It also isn’t and never was the “Star Wars Hotel”, but unfortunately bad PR and misunderstanding about it sunk the thing arguably before it even opened. It’s like calling summer camp a hotel because you also sleep there.$6000 for a family of four was a very steep price. But it wasn’t really built for families, though. $1500 a piece for one of four adults to share a room together is actually not that bad at all when you consider the first rate experience that you get.
I wish I had the chance to go again, but boy am I glad I took the chance when I did.
I’m sorry. That is a well thought out and reasonable post. You clearly are on the wrong website. At the very minimum, please in all future posts unnecessarily go all-CAPs for at least a word or two.
WILL DO! THANKS! YOU BASTARD.
look i know we love dumping on Disney lately but this isn’t even their worst flop era they’ve had in their 100 year history. the 80s and the 00s were muuuuch worse for them than the 2020s have been if we’re being objective here