The Super Mario Bros. is the second-highest-grossing film of 2023 on both the domestic and international charts, with the animated video game adaptation outperforming Barbie in several key international markets, including Mexico, France (where it ranked second, behind the December 2022 release Avatar: The Way of Water), and Japan—where it became the biggest Universal animation release of all time. Other records include the biggest global opening for an animated film of all time (Mario’s $375.6M passing Frozen 2’s $358M), the biggest opening for animation studio Illumination of all time (no small feat, given the worldwide popularity of the Minions franchise), and the biggest opening of all time for a video game adaptation. In its first weekend alone–the weekend ending April 9, when it was released in North America and 70 international markets—the film’s international haul passed the total international grosses of several recent animated titles, including Encanto, Lightyear, and DC League of Super-Pets.

3. Oppenheimer

Domestic Total (2023): $326M

International Total (2023): $625.2M

Global Total (2023): $952M

Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie are the top two earners of the year, both domestically and globally; it’s only at spot number three that the two lists start to diverge, with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer coming in at number three on the global list and number five domestically. Globally, Nolan’s latest came in at just under a billion dollars–no small feat for a three-hour-long, dialogue-heavy biopic based on a historical figure. (Granted, Oppenheimer did have explosions.) Oppenheimer took in 65.7% of its global cume from international markets, with the U.K. ($74.2M), China ($61.6M), Germany ($51.4M), France ($42.5M), and Italy ($29.8M) as the film’s top five non-domestic markets. 

Globally, as well as domestically, premium formats helped drive Oppenheimer’s success; Imax reports that the film was its highest global earner of the year, its $185M cume in the format going a long way to pushing Imax over the edge to achieve only the third $1B year in the company’s history. Oppenheimer‘s $35M first-weekend earnings on 740 IMAX screens worldwide represents IMAX’s biggest share ever of a film’s global opening weekend box office, with 20% of total receipts. In looking at Top Lifetime Grosses by the MPA Rating ‘R’, Oppenheimer holds the second spot globally, just behind 2019’s Joker.  

4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Domestic Total (2023): $358.9M

International Total (2023): $486.5M

Global Total (2023): $845.5M

The final volume of James Gunn’s trilogy was the Marvel box office highlight of 2023, generating nearly $225M more internationally than Marvel Studios’ Q1 release, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which finished at $261.5M internationally and $476M global (and number ten on this list.) The third outing of the rag-tag Guardians team brought in more internationally than its predecessor, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($473.9M), and was just over 18M shy of the second volume’s total globally.    

5. Fast X

Domestic Total (2023): $145.9M

International Total (2023): $558.7M

Global Total (2023): $704.7M

The tenth film in the Fast & Furious saga launched at the beginning of the final chapters of the franchise. The tenth entry continued the franchise’s trend of international success, achieving 79.3% of its total gross overseas. Although the film overall didn’t find as much box office success as its predecessor F9 ($726.2M worldwide), it did manage to surpass the last film’s international take by over 3%. 

6. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Domestic Total (2023): $381.3M

International Total (2023): $309.2M

Global Total (2023): $690.5M

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson and based on the Marvel comic books, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opened to $88.1M internationally, earning 55% of its predecessor’s global total. At the time of release, IMAX reported a $20M debut and the second-biggest global animated opening of all time (behind April’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie IMAX opening of $21.6M). 

In China, 16.5% of the film’s opening weekend box office came from IMAX screens which represented only 1% of the country’s overall screen count. IMAX’s CEO Rich Gelfond said in a press release, “Animation has emerged as a powerful engine of growth for our global box office and we are focused on capitalizing on this opportunity as filmmakers continue to raise the bar for the genre.” 

7. The Little Mermaid

Domestic Total (2023): $298.1M

International Total (2023): $271.4M

Global Total (2023): $569.6M

Globally, Disney’s latest live-action remake of an animated classic opened to $68M internationally in late May, claiming the number one spot over its debut week in France, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Australia, and Mexico; two weeks later, it would open at #1 in Japan, where it would eventually become the highest-grossing Disney release of the year. Internationally, as in the North American market, the film on balance enjoyed modest week-on-week holds, notching second-week drops of under -25% in key markets U.K., Germany, and Brazil.

8. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Domestic Total (2023): $172.1M

International Total (2023): $395.4M

Global Total (2023): $567.5M

The seventh entry in Paramount’s long-running action franchise, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, led the box office on opening weekend with a global opening of $235M. Expectations for the title were high given the performance of Tom Cruise’s previous film Top Gun: Maverick (which wisely featured the trailer for the Mission: Impossible sequel) and the global high mark for the franchise’s previous installment, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout ($791.6M). 

Although the title arrived slightly below forecasting, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One still managed to achieve the biggest opening for the franchise with an international debut of $155M and a five-day domestic total of $80M. IMAX also reported its best global opening ever for the Cruise franchise, with $25M worldwide. The Mission: Impossible franchise has generated a total of over $4.1 billion globally, with the next chapter expected to arrive in 2025. 

9. Elemental

Domestic Total (2023): $154.4M

International Total (2023): $341.5M