Barbenheimer weren’t just linked in movie theaters; they were linked on Google too.
When the search engine published its top trending titles of 2023, two movies landed at the top of the list of Google Trends: Barbie and Oppenheimer. It’s yet another compelling piece of evidence that releasing these two very different movies to theaters on the same day wound up boosting both of their profiles. These two are just going to be connected forever, huh?
Here are the rest of the trending movie titles of 2023, according to Google…
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One interesting detail: No less than four of the ten most Googled movies of 2023 were Universal releases: Cocaine Bear, Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Oppenheimer. I don‘t know if that means Universal did a better job marketing their movies, or they just released the titles that audiences had the most questions about. Either way, that is interesting to observe.
It’s also interesting to see what movies are not on the list. Typically, you’d expect a film like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or The Flash to be on here; these were movies heavy with comics lore that are practically designed to get viewers to ask questions about their villains, their Easter eggs, and their cliffhangers. But both movies flopped — and neither one made this list. (The only superhero film to make the cut on Google Trends in 2023 was the relatively straightforward — but far more popular — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.)
It’s also nice to see Everything Everywhere All at Once on the list even though it came out in 2022 — clearly for all the hand-wringing about whether the Oscars still matter anymore, winning a Best Picture award actually does make a difference for a film’s profile.
In other Google Trends news: The most Googled actors of the year were Jeremy Renner and Jamie Foxx (both of whom had major health scares), while the top trending “passing” was the late Friends star Matthew Perry. The #1 TV show of 2023 was The Last of Us.
The Best Movies of 2023
ScreenCrush’s editor and critic picks the best films of the year.
Gallery Credit: Matt Singer