Yahoo Finance entertainment reporter Allie Canal breaks down 2023 box office earnings and previews the most anticipated upcoming movies of summer 2023.

Video Transcript

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SEANA SMITH: The box office is off to a strong start this year, boosted by the success of the “Super Mario Brothers” movie. That’s on track to top a billion dollars at the box office. So what’s ahead here for this summer? We want to bring Yahoo Finance’s Alexandra Canal here to break it all down for us. Allie, I think a lot of the question here is whether or not this momentum is going to continue.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: And the thoughts that are on Wall Street, the thoughts that are with analysts say it’s going to continue through the summer. And we’re getting close to reaching those pre-pandemic levels. According to the latest data from Comscore, total domestic box office grosses have hit $2.4 billion so far this year. That’s just 16% below 2019.

And remember, at the end of 2022, we ended the year 30% below pre-pandemic levels. So we’re tracking well so far. The top film of 2023, as you mentioned, was that “Super Mario Brothers” movie, nabbing the highest year-to-date gross, more than 372 million domestically so far, with more room to run. With the summer right around the corner, it is expected, again, that that momentum will continue.

So Fandango was out with a new study. They surveyed 6,000 moviegoers between February and March. And here are the top most anticipated films of the summer, number one being an animated series, “Spider-Man– Across the Spider-Verse.” Number two, “Mission Impossible– Dead Reckoning Part 1.” I’m very excited about this. I’m a huge “Mission Impossible” fan. Can’t wait to see that. Followed by “The Flash,” “Transformers.” Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” though, only number five. I thought that would be a little bit higher considering–

SEANA SMITH: Just watching the–

ALEXANDRA CANAL: –all the buzz, you know?

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, I was watching the trailer for that.

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ALEXANDRA CANAL: And then if we round out the top 10, we have “Fast X” coming in at number six. “Barbie” movie, number seven, which I know Dave is very excited about.

DAVE BRIGGS: I am.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: “Oppenheimer,” “Haunted Mansion,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” So a wide range of films here, all different types of genres, but I think something for everyone this summer.

DAVE BRIGGS: “Barbie” is the only one I’ll see on that list. Quickly, all the buzz this weekend about Chris Evans and Ana de Armas big Apple TV flick kind of in that “Gray Man,” “Glass Onion” blockbuster streamer.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, we were just talking about it in the break, Dave, about how a lot of these streamers, it feels like their bread and butter is more so series, I think, when Apple TV+ is part of that conversation, with “Ted Lasso,” “Shrinking.” Those have sort of been their big success stories. But they’ve also been successful in movies. Remember, “CODA” won the Oscar not that long ago. We also had a movie starring Tom Hanks called “Greyhound.” So they do have this star power. Of course, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, they are this power duo.

DAVE BRIGGS: They’re heating it up, man.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, and they’ve starred in a few movies. So I think the hope is that they’ll attract people. And we know that Apple and Amazon too, they want to lean heavily into movies, investing 1 billion to produce movies for theaters. That’s easy to do when you’re a big tech giant.

DAVE BRIGGS: “Ted Lasso” has been a stinker, man. So they needed a winner–

SEANA SMITH: We’re all about “Barbie” this summer.

DAVE BRIGGS: That’s right, “Barbie” summer. Allie C, good to see you. Thank you.