The MPA’s PG-13 movie rating means “Parents strongly cautions, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13, “ white the R-rating requires that children under 17 be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian. The line between the two ratings may have become a little blurry over time, but most PG-13 films tend to step back from excessive use of language or violence, and are less sexually explicit than R-rated fare. The good news for the studios is that the PG-13 motion pictures make money anyway. (So do R’s, of course. These are some R-rated movies that broke the box office.)
To compile a list of the 32 most popular PG-13 movies people actually saw in theaters so far this year, 24/7 Tempo reviewed domestic ticket sales data from The Numbers, an online movie database owned by Nash Information Services. The site defines “domestic” as the United States, including Puerto Rico and Guam, as well as Canada. Films were ranked based on the total number of domestic tickets sold this year as of mid-May. Six of the movies on the list were released in late 2022, but remained in theaters for weeks in 2023.
Since the Motion Picture Association film rating system was introduced in 1968, the high-water mark for PG-13 films released in a single year was 186 in 2016. The year with the highest ticket sales for the category was 2018, when PG-13 films hauled in $17.16 billion.
Three movies on our list were the top-grossing films of any rating category in their respective year – “Titanic (1997),” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003),” and “Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).” (These are the highest-grossing movies of all time.)
Many of the films on our list that people have gone to see in theaters this year are action/adventure movies such as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.” Also popular are motion pictures with a religious or spiritual theme. These include: “Women Talking,” “His Only Son,” and “Jesus Revolution.”
32. Knights of the Zodiac
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 97,017
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $1,013,834
> Director: Tomasz Bagiński
> US release date: 5/12/2023
31. Close
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 105,274
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $1,100,114
> Director: Lukas Dhont
> US release date: 1/27/2023
30. The Lost King
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 113,687
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $1,188,032
> Director: Stephen Frears
> US release date: 3/24/2023
29. Maybe I Do
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 123,812
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $1,293,842
> Director: Michael Jacobs
> US release date: 1/27/2023
28. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 139,666
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $1,459,515
> Director: Yasuhito Kikuchi
> US release date: 1/20/2023
27. The Quiet Girl
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 143,542
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $1,500,014
> Director: Colm Bairéad
> US release date: 2/24/2023
26. Polite Society
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 147,904
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $1,545,600
> Director: Nida Manzoor
> US release date: 4/28/2023
25. Living
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 285,144
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $2,979,763
> Director: Oliver Hermanus
> US release date: 12/23/2022
24. Chevalier
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 324,622
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $3,392,301
> Director: Stephen Williams
> US release date: 4/21/2023
23. The Fabelmans
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 501,108
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $5,236,585
> Director: Steven Spielberg
> US release date: 11/11/2022
22. Women Talking
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 507,611
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $5,304,544
> Director: Sarah Polley
> US release date: 12/23/2022
21. Big George Foreman
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 518,128
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $5,414,442
> Director: George Tillman Jr.
> US release date: 4/28/2023
20. Love Again
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 586,948
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $6,133,609
> Director: Jim Strouse
> US release date: 5/5/2023
19. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 1,000,111
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $10,451,167
> Director: Kasi Lemmons
> US release date: 12/23/2022
18. His Only Son
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 1,156,371
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $12,084,084
> Director: David Helling
> US release date: 3/31/2023
17. Book Club: The Next Chapter
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 1,421,809
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $14,857,910
> Director: Bill Holderman
> US release date: 5/12/2023
16. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 1,486,860
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $15,537,693
> Director: Ryan Coogler
> US release date: 11/11/2022
15. Champions
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 1,557,120
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $16,271,910
> Director: Bobby Farrelly
> US release date: 3/10/2023
14. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 1,836,184
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $19,188,130
> Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
> US release date: 4/28/2023
13. 65
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 3,068,220
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $32,062,904
> Director: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
> US release date: 3/10/2023
12. Missing
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 3,110,241
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $32,502,025
> Director: Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick
> US release date: 1/20/2023
11. 80 for Brady
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 3,763,692
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $39,330,588
> Director: Kyle Marvin
> US release date: 2/3/2023
10. Jesus Revolution
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 4,985,931
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $52,102,987
> Director: Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle
> US release date: 2/24/2023
9. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 5,515,598
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $57,638,006
> Director: David F. Sandberg
> US release date: 3/17/2023
8. A Man Called Otto
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 6,150,015
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $64,267,657
> Director: Marc Forster
> US release date: 1/6/2023
7. Fast X
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 7,842,264
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $81,951,660
> Director: Louis Leterrier
> US release date: 5/19/2023
6. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 8,902,012
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $93,026,032
> Director: John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
> US release date: 3/31/2023
5. M3GAN
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 9,095,057
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $95,043,350
> Director: Gerard Johnstone
> US release date: 1/6/2023
4. Creed III
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 14,952,020
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $156,248,615
> Director: Michael B. Jordan
> US release date: 3/3/2023
3. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 20,516,859
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $214,401,178
> Director: Peyton Reed
> US release date: 2/17/2023
2. Avatar: The Way of Water
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 24,741,431
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $258,547,957
> Director: James Cameron
> US release date: 12/16/2022
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
> Tickets sold to mid-May 2023: 26,490,503
> Domestic ticket sales to mid-May 2023: $276,825,762
> Director: James Gunn
> US release date: 5/5/2023