5 Worst Movies of 2023, Ranked by Fan Frustration
Apart from the few sensational phenomena of summer 2023, this year was largely filled with disappointing failures of movies, and here are the five worst of them.
5. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
It was 2023 that really showed us the scale of the disaster the superhero franchises are finding themselves in, and this year, it began with the MCU ’s massive flop — Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The third in the series of the Ant-Man movies, Quantumania managed to throw the previous two movies’ success in the trash bin.
Filled with painfully ugly VFX and driven by a questionable storyline, Quantumania was universally called a failure. Box office-wise, the movie also didn’t perform too well: with a production budget of $200M, it only earned back $476M, turning a rather underwhelming profit. But Quantumania wasn’t the worst superhero flop of 2023.
4. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
DC Studios started this year way worse than its main competitor, and the failure of Shazam! Fury of the Gods set the tone for the studio’s performance in the upcoming months. The movie was sort of already doomed when it hit the theaters as the news of the DCEU coming to a closure had already been announced at that point.
This caused a drop in interest in the last DCEU movies, including Fury of the Gods, but even the fans who watched it were disappointed. With a budget of up to $125M, the last Shazam! installment racked up a measly $133M worldwide, making it a massive box office bomb — though not quite as embarrassing as the next one.
3. The Little Mermaid
Following Disney ’s trend of the last few years, The Little Mermaid was a live-action remake of a popular animated movie. The problem with those is that no one ever asks for them since the audience loves the original versions of their favorite characters; thankfully, the big names themselves attract quite a lot of viewers.
The Little Mermaid caused a huge stir online for many reasons, but it didn’t prevent the $250M-budget movie from turning a profit: it went on to earn over $569M worldwide. Despite the commercial success of The Little Mermaid, few people had anything positive to say about the remake, and it was quickly forgotten.
2. The Flash
The biggest disappointment of the year, The Flash had been digging its own grave for months before its release. Marketed as “the best superhero movie ever” and publicly praised by the biggest names in Hollywood, The Flash promised a spectacular game-changing experience but delivered an undercooked shame.
From the terrible CGI to the immoral cameos from dead actors, The Flash had next to nothing good about it…save for the fan-favorite Supergirl. With a production budget of $250M and an even bigger marketing budget, The Flash barely managed to earn $270M worldwide, losing DC an entire fortune.
1. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
A heartbreaking story of a popular franchise that didn’t finish when it should have, the last Indiana Jones movie was believed to draw a satisfying conclusion to the iconic adventurer’s journey — but it didn’t. Fans almost unanimously agreed that the film came off as bland and mediocre which is arguably even worse than just bad.
Being mediocre is something you can’t afford on such a large production budget, and The Dial of Destiny was the eighth most expensive movie in history with just under $300M worth of production expenses. Indiana Jones’s last outing collected just under $384 at the global box office, making it both a critical and a commercial bomb.