2023 is coming to an end, and what a wild year it’s been for cinema. From the record-breaking “Barbenhiemer” duel release that dominated the summer box office to Oscar-favorites like Everything Everywhere All At Once continuing to prove that A24 is becoming one of the most powerful studios, it’s been a hell of a year for Hollywood.
But what have been the most popular streaming movies in 2023? The list might surprise you. Neither Barbie nor Oppenheimer cracked the Top 10, likely because neither became available to watch digitally until the end of the year. Another surprise was Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid, which despite seeing controversy and a lackluster box office debut, ended up ranking #4 on the list, proving that, while Disney might be struggling in theaters, its streaming service Disney+ remains incredibly popular.
And Disney wasn’t the only studio grappling with films that didn’t quite reach their box office potential this year. Movies from other studios like The Flash, Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods all struggled to make a profit. But whereas cinema might have stagnated this year, the streaming wars have given audiences ample amounts of excellent content to stream or rent from home.
As a whole, the Top 10 list is actually pretty diverse, being comprised of animated favorites, action hits, and even a horror entry, with 2022’s The Menu coming in at #5. Here are the top 10 movies of 2023, according to JustWatch users.
Methodology:
We ranked our top 10 movies based on how many user interactions each film had. Anytime a user clicked on a streaming option, added a film to their watchlist, or marked it as seen, it counted as an interaction. From there, we crunched the numbers to find out which 10 films had been interacted with the most between January-December 2023.
