An Evaluation of August 2023
Thanks to the once-in-a-lifetime Barbenheimer phenomenon, along with the release of successful films like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and Talk to Me (2023), the box office reached a high of over $1.3 billion in July 2023. The month now holds the fourth spot on the list of the highest-grossing months ever, ranking below the month of July from previous years, according to data provided by Box Office Mojo. Funny enough, nowhere to be found in the first 50 spots on this list is the month that directly follows it.
When August arrives each year, a switch gets clicked in people’s minds, signaling that summer – the most freeing time of the year – is nearly over. For film fans, this can be an exciting prospect. As fall nears the horizon, so does the best time of the year for those who love movies: awards season. Awards season is typically the months-long period during which some of the year’s best films are released consecutively in theaters and on streaming.
In 2023, a year that has already been an exceptional moment for film, there is much to look forward to, including new films from auteurs like Martin Scorsese and David Fincher. However, before cinephiles get to enjoy the riches that the latter third of the year brings, they must first brave the month of August, one of the two major dump months for major studios.
A dump month is when studios choose to “dump” the films they are least faithful to into theaters, knowing that box office returns will likely not be favorable. The primary reason is that during the two major dump months, January and August, a core movie-going demographic is focused on returning to school rather than planning trips to theaters.
Although the month has been home to some historically awful movies such as Mac and Me (1988), Disaster Movie (2008), Nine Lives (2016), and many more, every so often, a movie gets released in August that is a hit among critics and general movie-goers alike. It may come as a surprise to some to find that August was also home to iconic and massively successful films like The Fly (1986), The Sixth Sense (1999), and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
Considering how the circumstances surrounding dump months revolve around expectations that younger audiences may not be going to theaters as frequently as they normally would, it’s interesting how some of the greatest high school movies have had their releases in August. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Superbad (2007), and The Spectacular Now (2013) are examples of teen films that have populated back-to-school month as a way of welcoming students back and giving them something they can relate to.
Paying attention to past trends like these, it wouldn’t come as a shock that the films released in August 2023 have a lot in common with some of the films released in August of years past. August 2023 was certainly a mixed bag. While there were some diamonds in the rough, a good amount of the options at the box office were unsurprisingly representative of a dump month.
Warner Brothers launched out of the gate, firing on all cylinders with Meg 2: The Trench (2023), scoring a thirty-percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes but maintaining a reasonably big opening weekend with a $30 million debut. Today, it has grossed over $350 million worldwide, thanks primarily to international audiences. Here in the states, it has made close to $74.5 million. As of now, it isn’t looking like the inconsistent sequel will outgross the original, which ended up raking in nearly $530 million in total when it was released in August 2018.
Paramount delivered one of the bright spots of the month with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023), a film that was extremely successful critically and even scored an “A” CinemaScore from audiences. Although it has done well so far with $135 million worldwide, it ranks below the two previous entries in the franchise from 2014 and 2016, which made significantly more in their respective runs. One might have expected it to be doing better in a month with very few other films that primarily cater to families. However, with audiences continuing to flock to see repeat viewings of Barbie (2023) along with the expectations that families attend the theater less frequently in August than they would in most other months, it is possible the refreshing franchise reboot could have benefitted from being released at a different point during the year.
The next major release came from Universal in the form of The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023), the studio’s second attempt at making an iconic Dracula adaptation this year after the dreadfully disappointing Renfield (2023) in April. With a reported budget of $45 million, the film appears to be the biggest flop of the month, raking in an abysmal $15 million in the two weeks since its release. Critics’ reactions to the film were middling at best, but audience members who have gone out to see the better-than-average monster film have been much more positive. Compared to the 49 percent it scored on Rotten Tomatoes, it received 76 percent from audiences and a “B-” CinemaScore.
Universal came back swinging the following week with the release of Strays (2023), the latest in a string of raunchy comedies, a genre that has been making a remarkable comeback in 2023. It’s too soon to tell whether Strays will go down as a flop, but things are not currently looking good for the unremarkable R-rated film about talking dogs. On a $46 million budget, the film has crossed a little over the $20 million mark at the worldwide box office.
Most of Strays’ thunder was stolen by Warner Brothers with Blue Beetle (2023), released on the same August 18 weekend. Compared to Strays’ $8.3 million opening, Blue Beetle opened with $25 million domestically. Although the heartfelt DC superhero film has barely managed to beat out expectations so far, it still has a long way to go before it can be considered profitable. On a budget of $125 million, the film has made nearly $82 million worldwide. Only time will tell whether it becomes just as big of a bomb as DC’s earlier 2023 release, The Flash (2023). Nonetheless, it is another example of the potential rise of superhero fatigue.
The following week saw the release of the pseudo-video-game-adaptation Gran Turismo (2023) from Sony and the Liam Neeson-led Retribution (2023) from Lionsgate. In its opening weekend, the critically panned latter only made $3.3 million. Gran Turismo, on the other hand, performed above expectations, burning rubber with nearly $54 million worldwide. Domestically, the lackluster film opened with $17.3 million when it was initially projected to earn between $12 million and $15 million.
Before receiving a wider release on September 1, Universal launched Bottoms (2023) in select cinemas on August 25. The raunchy high school comedy debuted at the March SXSW film festival, making $516 thousand. Regardless of its lack of presence on the box office top ten list for the most recent weekend when writing this article, it will likely progress once it launches its wide release.
Barbie and Oppenheimer (2023) continued to soar throughout the month, earning over $228 million and $118 million, respectively. Both films have already broken several box office records and will likely continue making history before their runs are over.
Overall, August 2023 did not do much to distinguish itself from previous dump months. Strays looks like it will end up being 2023’s The Happytime Murders (2018), Blue Beetle won’t come anywhere near scoring Guardians of the Galaxy numbers, and Retribution is standing in a corner by itself, wondering when Lionsgate will put it out of its misery and send it to streaming. If there is any major success story, it’s Mutant Mayhem’s to tell. However, with strong word of mouth, Gran Turismo and Bottoms both have fair shots of becoming more successful throughout September.
The month featured a diverse mix of genres but still couldn’t draw more audiences to theaters for its new releases. If there was any hope that a dump month would change the discourse about the term, August 2023 was, unfortunately, not that month.
Article Courtesy of Evan Miller
Feature Image Credit to Sony Pictures via Polygon
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