The 2023 Thanksgiving Box Office Gives The Film Industry Something To Be Thankful For

It was a bit of a mixed bag during Thanksgiving at the box office. "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" unexpectedly topped the charts for a second weekend, while Ridley Scott's "Napoleon" did better than expected. Meanwhile, Disney's latest original animated feature, "Wish," fell well short of expectations. Setting that aside, the holiday frame gave the industry at large reason to be optimistic as this year's Thanksgiving box office bounty was far bigger overall than it was in 2022.

In 2022, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" topped the charts with $45.5 million over Thanksgiving weekend, earning a whopping $63.8 million across the full five-day Wednesday to Sunday stretch despite being in its third weekend. The problem is that most of the other releases in theaters that weekend didn't do all that well, with movies like "Devotion" and "Bones and All" left to fight for relative scraps. While the "Hunger Games" prequel made far less — $42 million across the five-day stretch — the love was spread around a lot more fully this year, with movies like "Trolls Band Together" ($25.3 million) and Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving" ($11.1 million) also eating well in that Wednesday to Sunday window.

This, in turn, made for a much better situation overall. In 2022, the five-day Thanksgiving window brought in $134 million domestically, per Box Office Mojo. In 2023, that number ballooned to $167.2 million, representing a marked increase year-to-year. More movies were able to make more money, and that's a big reason why this year's total domestic box office has already surpassed 2022's. This is what recovery looks like, and this is exactly what movie theaters need to see in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Yes, it most certainly would have been better if "Wish" had performed closer to industry expectations as that would have represented a win for original cinema. Disney has had a rough go this year with several high-profile flops under its belt, including "The Marvels" very recently. But again, the overall picture is one of a healthier theatrical marketplace. That's the key.

Unfortunately, there is a little bit of doom and gloom on the horizon. The Screen Actors Guild strike was recently resolved after months of dispute. That, coupled with the months-long Writers Guild of America strike, resulted in a ton of movies being pushed back, leaving 2024 looking a lot more barren than it otherwise would have. (Marvel Studios' only movie on deck for next year is "Deadpool 3," for example.) This could result in a down year at the box office, which is something that the industry cannot afford right now. The good news, though, is that audiences have demonstrated that they are more than willing to go to theaters — Hollywood just needs to give them reasons to leave the house.

For more on this year's Thanksgiving box office, listen to today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast:

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