By Adia Miller

Cocaine Bear (Feb 24)
A horror comedy based very loosely on the true story of a black bear that died of an overdose after ingesting 40 containers of cocaine, this film was created for a good shock value and grotesque imagery, to which it succeeded in varying degrees, receiving two MTV nominations and a 71% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

John Wick Chapter Four (March 24)
The fourth installment of the John Wick franchise starring Keanu Reeves as the deadly hit man, Wick faced a new enemy with deadly connections that turned former allies into foes. A fifth movie has been speculated to continue this action-packed story, but no official news has been released by Lionsgate.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (March 31)
Taking the general structure of a classic D&D quest with a Bard (Chris Pine) leading a group composed of a barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez), a half-elf sorcerer (Justice Smith), and a druid (Sophia Lillis), it is a comedy-filled heist for a stolen relic.

Filled with creatures and settings from the iconic game which is approaching its 50th anniversary, the film offered something for fans and non-fans alike with quippy humor and vivid imagery.

The Super Mario Bros. Movies (April 7)
The third go at adapting Shigeru Miyamoto’s Nintendo game, though the first animated one, the film casts Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as the hopping, mushroom absorbing plumbers Mario and Luigi.

Changing the plot a bit from the game’s general format in which Mario and his brother go on an adventure to save damsel Princess Peach, the film instead starts with the brothers being sucked from the real world into the mushroom kingdom and separated. They spend the rest of the film trying to reunite.

The end of the film, showing a hatching green-spotted egg that undoubtedly holds Mario’s dinosaur companion Yoshi, sets up for a sequel. Nothing has been confirmed, but its status as the second highest grossing film of the year is promising.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5)
The final installment of Marvel’s Guardians trilogy which started in 2014 and was directed by James Gunn, this movie follows the Guardians as they try to save the life of teammate Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), delving into his past and leading them to face the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).

“Guardians was the Marvel trilogy with the most consistent quality I think,” Myles Whitman, a long time Marvel fan, said. “And this was the perfect wrap up to it. The music was, unsurprisingly, great, Nebula and Rocket’s stories really make you reflect on where they were and where they are now, and we leave the team with a sense of finality, but still open for them to have adventures into the future. It was definitely the best movie of 2023.”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse (June 2)
The sequel to the 2018 animated film Into the Spiderverse, this film was a surprising part one to the apparent conclusion of Miles Morales’s (Shameik Moore) story. Going against spider people for once, Miles has to make a tough decision for his family in order to redefine what it means to be Spider-Man.

This was the third highest-grossing of the year, and was nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Animated Motion Picture. 

Barbie (July 21)
Based on Mattel’s fashion doll, the Greta Gerwig film starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken was 2023’s biggest box office success. Fans showed up to the theaters in their brightest pink getups, basically promoting the film themselves with enthusiasm, TikTok trends, and nostalgia.

Meanwhile, it was also assisted by having the same release date as Oppenheimer, a movie based on the true story of the Manhattan project. While not similar in the slightest, movie goers flocked to the theaters to watch one of the most bizzare double features ever, titled Barbenheimer.

“I watched Mario, Barbie, and a bit of the Little Mermaid this year,” Bellbrook sophomore Maggie Burgess said. “But Barbie was definitely my favorite. I think it just has to do with how you won’t find another movie like it. The look is so distinctive, you will never mix it up with any other film. It’s completely unique.”

The Marvels (Nov 10)
A Marvel production with the highest budget of any non-Avengers film, the film stars Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani), and Photon (Teyonah Parris), whose powers become inextricably linked after an altercation with the films villain Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton).

The movie, while still a success on most film’s standards, was the lowest grossing Marvel film ever released and thus was prematurely pulled from theaters. While viewers shared mixed opinions on the film, almost everyone can agree that the post credit scenes, which introduced X-Men’s Beast, aka Hank McCoy, played by the original trilogy actor, was one of the best Marvel has had to offer in its latest years. 

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Nov 17)
An adaptation of Suzanne Collins 2020 novel which acted as a prequel to her Hunger Games trilogy, the movie follows the life of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he meets 12th District tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), changes the face of the games, and begins his ascension into the evil dictator we all hated through the 2010s.

There are still some highly-anticipated films to come out before the year ends such as Wonka, the Willy Wonka origin story on December 20, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on the December 22, and The Color Purple musical on the December 25. But overall, the 2023 movie season has ended with an emphasis on nostalgia and franchises that made for a well-stocked year of viewing experiences.