Best Movies of 2023: Top 10 by Critics, Ratings, Box Office

2023 delivered something Hollywood hasn’t seen in years: two blockbusters that genuinely divided pop culture while raking in billions. The so-called “Barbenheimer” moment — when Barbie and Oppenheimer opened on the same weekend — turned moviegoing back into a shared event. Beyond the headliners, a Japanese Godzilla reboot, a Scorsese crime saga, and a Mission: Impossible sequel all earned some of the year’s best critical scores.

Rotten Tomatoes #1: Oppenheimer (93%) · IMDb Top Pick: John Wick: Chapter 4 · Empire Highlights: Past Lives, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Oppenheimer, Barbie · Guardian Features: Poor Things, Saint Omer · Reddit Mentions: Society of the Snow, The Holdovers

This table shows how the top 2023 performers stacked up across critical scores and box office returns.

What are the top 10 movies of 2023?

Aggregating across Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb user scores, and editorial lists from Empire and Guardian, certain films kept surfacing at the top. Oppenheimer led the critical charge with a 93% Tomatometer score, while Barbie dominated the commercial charts. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One actually scored higher with critics at 96%, though its box office fell short of the summer’s biggest earners.

Critics’ picks from Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes’ curated best-of-2023 list highlighted films that earned both critical praise and audience enthusiasm. Oppenheimer sits atop with Cillian Murphy’s “tour-de-force performance” drawing particular acclaim (Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus). Killers of the Flower Moon earned the same 93% score, with critics calling it “enormous in runtime, theme, and achievement” (Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus).

IMDb user favorites

IMDb’s community-driven rankings reflect audience rather than critic preferences. John Wick: Chapter 4 consistently topped IMDb’s user-rated lists for 2023, driven by franchise loyalists and action fans. The platform’s voting system creates a different hierarchy than critic aggregators, often favoring spectacle over subtlety.

Empire magazine rankings

Empire’s editorial selections emphasized films with cultural resonance beyond pure entertainment value. Past Lives, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Oppenheimer, and Barbie all appeared on their year-end lists, reflecting a publication that balances mainstream appeal with artistic ambition.

The implication: reconciling critic scores, audience votes, and box office returns reveals three distinct “best” lists for 2023 — not one universal answer.

What are the top 10 highest rated movies?

Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer and Metacritic’s weighted averages offer standardized measures across 2023 releases. The highest-rated films share a common trait: they prioritized distinct creative vision over franchise obligation.

Highest ratings on Rotten Tomatoes

Godzilla Minus One achieved a remarkable 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, ranking #4 among Certified Fresh 2023 movies (Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh list). The Japanese production earned praise for “engaging human stories anchoring the action” — rare praise for a kaiju franchise entry (Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus).

• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: 96%
• Oppenheimer: 93%
• Killers of the Flower Moon: 93%
• Godzilla Minus One: 99%

10/10 perfect scores on IMDb

IMDb’s 10/10 ratings represent extreme audience enthusiasm rather than statistical averages. Films like Oppenheimer accumulated thousands of perfect votes, though the platform’s rating distribution heavily favors tentpole releases with large voting pools.

What this means: perfect scores on IMDb often reflect fanbase intensity rather than broad critical consensus, making them useful for identifying dedicated followings more than objective quality.

What movie was top of the charts in 2023?

Box office performance provides a concrete, dollar-denominated ranking that transcends subjective taste. The 2023 charts told a story of extreme concentration: two films crossed the billion-dollar threshold while most releases stayed well below that watermark.

Highest-grossing films globally

Barbie claimed the top spot with $1,447,138,421 worldwide — becoming the 53rd film ever to gross over $1 billion and the highest-grossing comedy in cinema history (Box Office Mojo). The Super Mario Bros. Movie followed at $1,360,783,214 worldwide, making it the only other 2023 film to hit that milestone (Box Office Mojo).

• Barbie: $1,447,138,421 (worldwide leader)
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie: $1,360,783,214
• Oppenheimer: $975,811,333
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: $845,555,777
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: $567,535,383

Box office leaders

Universal Studios dominated 2023 with over $2.5 billion from wide releases including The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Oppenheimer (Rotten Tomatoes Studio Analysis). The studio’s strategy of releasing both films within the same window arguably amplified audience buzz rather than cannibalizing ticket sales.

The catch: Chinese productions Full River Red ($670 million) and The Wandering Earth 2 ($615 million) represented the year’s highest-grossing non-Hollywood releases (Wikipedia 2023 Film Overview), though neither approached Hollywood’s top earners.

What 2023 movies are critically acclaimed?

Critical acclaim doesn’t always align with commercial success. Several 2023 films earned rave reviews despite modest box office, suggesting the year’s most celebrated work appealed more to critics than general audiences.

IndieWire’s 50 best from 158 critics

IndieWire compiled lists from 158 critics to create a consensus best-of-2023, revealing which films achieved broad critical agreement beyond any single publication. Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Poor Things appeared consistently across participating critics’ personal lists.

Guardian and Empire consensus

The Guardian highlighted Poor Things and Saint Omer as standout art-house entries, while Empire magazine’s rankings emphasized Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse for its animation innovation. These editorial choices reflect publications that value artistic ambition alongside commercial viability.

The pattern: critical acclaim in 2023 favored films with strong directorial vision (Nolan, Scorsese, Gerwig) over franchise extensions, suggesting audiences and critics reward different qualities.

What are the top 5 trending movies?

“Trending” captures what’s generating conversation right now rather than what historians will remember. Social platforms and theater analytics reveal which films kept audiences engaged beyond opening weekends.

Popular now from theaters and streaming

Theater chains and streaming platforms report different trending metrics. Netflix’s most-watched lists for 2023 showed strong performance from original productions, while theatrical data tracked sustained audience interest through multiple viewings. Oppenheimer maintained theatrical legs well into winter 2023, uncommon for non-franchise releases.

Reddit community picks

Reddit user discussions elevated films like Society of the Snow (the avalanche survival drama) and The Holdovers (the holiday character study) — both smaller productions that found passionate advocates in online communities. These films didn’t dominate box office charts but generated disproportionate enthusiasm in engaged cinephile circles.

The trade-off: trending status reflects current conversation more than lasting quality, meaning films that dominate social media may fade quickly once the conversation moves on.

“Oppenheimer marks another engrossing achievement from Christopher Nolan that benefits from Murphy’s tour-de-force performance and stunning visuals.”

— Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus

“With engaging human stories anchoring the action, Godzilla Minus One is one kaiju movie that remains truly compelling between the scenes of mass destruction.”

— Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus on Godzilla Minus One