Credit: Warner Bros.While 2023 has been the year of superhero flops from Marvel and DC, it appears to be the start of a brand-new era in Hollywood. With the success of the Barbie movie over the summer and the success of the recently released Warner Bros. picture Wonka, it seems as though musicals might be the new superhero movie, and Warner Bros. is leading the crusade.
Marvel released three films this year, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Marvels. Guardians of the Galaxy was the most successful of the three, being the final installment of the Guardians trilogy. However, Ant-Man and the Wasp and The Marvels competed for the title of Marvel’s worst-performing movie of all time, a title that eventually went to The Marvels. Both received mixed to negative reviews and barely made back their budgets at the box office.
DC didn’t fare much better, with several releases this year, including Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom. Each movie performed worse than the previous, with the recently released Aquaman being the final nail in the coffin of a disappointing streak at DC. Now that James Gunn has left Marvel to take over DC studios, it might be possible for the rebooted DC universe to be able to revive itself and come back from the blows of the last few years. At the same time, Marvel is restructuring its entire behind-the-scenes work, and with Avengers 5, formerly Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, up in the air and Deadpool 3 as the highly anticipated release next summer, it’s possible that the studio could come back on its own.
Both studios have been struggling for the last several years to see the kind of success that they once did, and it’s led many to dub this era the era of “superhero fatigue.” However, Warner Bros. seems to have found success in a completely different realm of movies, notably the complete opposite of the gritty and dark superhero movies that Hollywood has focused on for so many years. The musical era is back!
The release of Barbie this summer was highly rated and acclaimed by both fans and critics, with many praising the film’s colorful visuals, fun and campy aesthetic, and the film’s soundtrack, including Ryan Gosling’s technicolor musical scene for “I’m Just Ken,” including a choreographed dance off. The film would earn over $1 billion in the box office and was the best-performing movie of the year. Now, the latest release from the studio seems to proving once again that superheroes are out and musicals are in.
Wonka stars Timothée Chalamet as eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka and Hugh Grant as the Oompa Loompas. The film details the start of Wonka’s career in chocolate and candies, showing everything that happened before the events of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). The film was released on December 15, 2023, and during its second week in theaters has already earned over $102 million in the US alone. With a budget of $125 million and global earnings of over $270 million, it’s already far surpassed anything Warner Bros. and DC have released this year.
In addition, The Color Purple, which was released on Christmas Day, has already earned $29 million in its three days in theaters. A newly reimagined take on the 1985 film, the Warner Bros. release is ALSO a musical! Despite the disappointing DC release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, it seems as though Warner Bros.’ musical releases are more than making up for the losses earned by the superhero flick.
With the biggest movie of the year being Barbie, a brightly colorful, fun, a slightly musical endeavor, and the two biggest movies of the second half of the year being Wonka and The Color Purple, also both colorful musicals, it seems to be setting audiences up for the revival and resurgence of the musical era. After over a decade of dark, gritty, superhero films dominating at the box office, it seems as though fans have grown tired of the action, fighting, and high stakes that come with the typical Marvel and DC film. Although several musicals have been released during the superhero era, including films like Mamma Mia! (2008) or Burlesque (2010) or even one of the best-performing recent musical releases, La La Land (2016), none of them have quite sparked a change in the Hollywood landscape.
With Warner Bros. releasing three highly successful musicals in the span of less than a year, especially on the backs of the falling powerhouses of Marvel and DC, it could be time. It also could be the revival Warner Bros. desperately needs after a decade of troubled DC releases and a year of upheaval. 2024 will see the release of Joker: Folie à Deux, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, which is also expected to be a musical released by Warner Bros., and Mean Girls, a film based on the musical adaptation of the 2004 film to be released by Paramount. Depending on the success of those two, audiences could expect to see more musical announcements for 2025 and beyond.
Do you think musicals are coming back? Are you excited for a new genre to take over the box office, or do you hope Marvel and DC make a comeback of their own?