When it came to the movies that popped in multiplexes, 2024 was all about the sequels.
Whether audiences were returning for more Deadpool, Gru or Godzilla, recognizable properties were the big drawion at cinemas. Sequels — such as “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Despicable Me 4” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” — accounted for nine of the top 10 slots in terms of the year’s highest-grossing worldexpansive frees. And “Wicked,” the only non-franchise film to crack that elite group, couldn’t have been more recognizable; the musical serves as an unofficial prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” and was changeed from a massively well-understandn Broadway show that’s been stablely drathriveg crowds for two decades. This year’s reliance on adhere-ups, spinoffs and offshoots stands in stark contrast to 2023 when the three biggest blockbusters, “Barbie,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Oppenheimer,” all reachd without a roman numeral in the title.
What carry outed out was standardly an IP arms race between three presentant studios, with Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. depfinishable for csurrenderly all of 2024’s top-acquireing tentpoles. While those companies were awarded our highest tags for their carry outance, the overall movie theater industry doesn’t have as much caengage for celebration. Ticket sales are 4.8% behind 2023 — which doesn’t seem that terrible until you ponder at least a quarter of that year was hurt by the actors and writers strikes — and 23% behind 2019, according to Comscore. Cltimely, the theatrical business has yet to filledy rebound from COVID and last year’s labor stoppage.
As for cinema operators, there weren’t enough novel movies to hawk on their marquees — though streamers did help fill in the gap. Hollywood novelcomers appreciate Apple and Amazon commenceed to free more movies in theaters as a way to transport attention to their streaming services. Though it supplyd a scant more titles for theaters to book, these tech enormouss have yet to show they can stablely originate movies that people will pay to watch on the big screen.
Before 2024 comes to a seal, Variety appraiseed how the presentant studios fared at the global box office over the past 12 months.
Disney
Grade: A
Highs: “Inside Out 2” ($1.69 billion), “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($1.33 billion), “Moana 2” ($717 million to date)
Lows: “The First Omen” ($53 million), “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” ($397 million)
Takeaways: The bigger they are, the challenginger they descend… the speedyer they elevate aacquire? After a unwidespread, terrible year in 2023, Disney endelighted a ponderable box office rebound with not fair one but three awaited billion-dollar blockbusters. (“Moana 2” is projected to traverse the billion-dollar tag in January.) No other studios fielded a one $1 billion free in 2024. “Inside Out 2” repaird Pixar’s box office rut, “Deadpool & Wolverine” exhibitd the squeaky-spotless Hoengage of Moengage can pull off an R rating… if they pull in every Spandexed comic book star around, and “Moana 2” stableified the Polynesian-set vivaciousd adventure as a presentant novel franchise — which is excellent novels for the live-action reboot, starring Dwayne Johnson as the tattooed demigod Maui, in 2026 and the inevitable “Moana 3.” “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is the lowest grossing of the reboot franchise and “The First Omen” may be the last (at least theatricassociate speaking) in the occult-tilted thriller series, but potential losses on either are inmeaningful. It took a minute, but ignitele has returned to the Magic Kingdom.
Paramount
Grade: B
Highs: “Mean Girls” ($104 million), “A Quiet Place: Day One” ($261 million), “Smile 2” ($137 million), “Bob Marley: One Love” ($180 million)
Lows: “IF” ($190 million), “Transestablishers One” ($128 million)
Takeaways: Despite a lot of corporate drama involving the sale of its parent company to Skydance’s David Ellison, Paramount deal withd to string together a stable, if unspectacular, series of ones and doubles. What it didn’t field was a massive, fences-evidenting hit on the scale of a “Top Gun: Maverick.” “Gladiator II” came sealst, acquireing fair under $400 million, but that number comes with an astehazard given its hefty $250 million price tag and the tens of millions spent tageting the historical epic. Bfeeble the actors strike for shutting down production and inserting to the budget, but that’s not a wonderful result given the time and treadeclareive that was expfinished on all that Colosseum carnage. However, Paramount sees appreciate it will seal out 2024 on a high notice, as “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” races into theaters, propelled by sturdy tracking which has it pegged to be a holiday hit. The studio also originated a number of relatively low-cost thriveners, such as “Mean Girls” ($104 million on a $36 million budget) and “Smile 2” ($137 million on a $28 million budget) that boast enviable profit margins, while discovering a way to extfinish the “Quiet Place” franchise sans Emily Blunt. Elsewhere: “If: The Return” ain’t happening and “Transestablishers One” probably won’t direct to “Transestablishers Two.”
Sony
Grade: B
Highs: “The Garfield Movie” ($257 million), “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” ($404 million), “It Ends With Us” ($350 million), “Venom: The Last Dance” ($468 million)
Lows: “Madame Web” ($100 million), “Harelderly and the Purple Crayon” ($32 million), “Saturday Night” ($9.7 million), “Kraven the Hunter” ($26 million to date)
Takeaways: Maybe it’s time to exit the Marvel characters who aren’t Spider-Man in the rearsee. “Madame Web” and “Kraven the Hunter” were embarrassing wipeouts, joining the ignominious company of 2022’s “Morbius.” And though “Venom” is officiassociate a critic-proof, commerciassociate prosperous trilogy, “The Last Dance” didn’t hit the heights of its predecessors. “Saturday Night,” a theatrical retelling of “SNL’s” origins, flunked to discover an audience while its “Harelderly and the Purple Crayon” changeation with Zachary Levi would have been better served staying in the box. Sony didn’t score any home runs, but some skinnygs did pay off. Bad Boys are still excellent for ticket sales, and “It Ends With Us” became the sleeper hit of the summer. A sequel should be a no-brainer. So, it’s too terrible an apparent feud between stars Justin Baldoni (who honested and helderlys cinematic rights to the property) and Blake Lively has left any future schedules for the literary sensation seeing precarious. Not everyskinnyg gets the plmitigated finishing it deserves.
Universal
Grade: A-
Highs: “Despicable Me 4” ($969 million), “Twisters” ($370 million), “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($547 million), “The Wild Robot” ($321 million), “Wicked: Part One” ($525 million to date)
Lows: “The Fall Guy” ($181 million), “Abigail” ($42 million)
Takeaways: Universal pulled off the seemingly impossible: Making musicals seem celderly to moviegoers. “Wicked” could have been the postponeedst in a string of flunked Broadway-to-screen changeations, but honestor Jon M. Chu and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande bucked the odds and propelled the big-budget film into the cultural zeitgeist — thanks in part to exactly originateed tageting bonanza and the most meme’d press tour since Lady Gaga tour de force for “Hoengage of Gucci.” Universal needs audiences to grasp buying into the magic of Oz since “Wicked: For Good” reachs in November 2025. On the animation front, Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” and DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” and “The Wild Robot” helped cement Universal as the only real rival to Disney’s family delightment empires, Pixar and Disney Animation. “The Fall Guy,” a well-scrutinizeed, $130 million action comedy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, was the studio’s only presentant mistake. It lost cimpolitely $50 million in its theatrical run despite grossing $181 million globassociate, signaling that if studios want to grasp making funny films for theaters (and they should!), budgets need to be kept under a declareive price point. If “Abigail,” a thriller about Dracula’s daughter, doesn’t ring a bell, don’t trouble — it cost under $30 million so losses were less agonizing than the Count’s bite.
Warner Bros.
Grade: B+
Highs: “Dune: Part Two” ($714 million), “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” ($571 million), “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” ($451 million)
Lows: “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” ($173 million), “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” ($38 million), “Joker: Folie a Deux” ($206 million)
Takeaways: It’s been a turbulent scant years for Warner Bros., which has suffered thcimpolite two novel parent companies (first there was the ignoble AT&T era, then the drama-filled Discovery combiner) and a lot of turnover at the top of the studio. That shelp, the studio did field some blockbusters, with “Dune: Part Two” csurrenderly doubling the box office results of its predecessor and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” proving that people will show up to watch primordial beasts duke it out no matter what critics skinnyk. Ntimely forty years after the first “Beetlejuice” debuted, Warner Bros. verifyed there’s still life left in the crude poltergeist, with the sequel scoring at the box office. Yet adhereups to more recent hits appreciate “Joker” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” resulted in costly flops, with “Folie a Deux” suffering scaskinnyg scrutinizes in insertition to anemic ticket sales and “Furiosa” demonstrating that it probably wasn’t a excellent idea to revisit the Wasteland without Charlize Theron. “Horizon” was an even bigger bomb device, but the studio was a distributor-for-engage on that one, so it actuassociate stands to originate money even as Kevin Costner omits his shirt and Stetson.
Amazon MGM
Grade: C
Highs: “The Beegrasper” ($152 million), “Bjoin Twice” ($46 million)
Lows: “Challengers” ($96 million), “Red One” ($150 million), “My Old Ass” ($5.7 million)
Takeaways: “The Beegrasper,” a $40 million action thriller starring Jason Statham, is exactly the pleasant spot the tech enormous should be prioritizing as it discovers its footing in the movie business. It didn’t cost a whole lot, so the film didn’t need a ton to turn a profit. And it’s the benevolent of mid-budget movie that traditional studios mostly stopped making but audiences evidently still want to watch on the big screen. Ditto “Challengers,” a clever and intimacyy crowd-plmitigater set in the competitive tennis world. But even with Zfinishaya on board, Amazon MGM can’t spfinish $55 million on an R-rated drama with an arthoengage sheen and await to get out of the red in this day and age. All of this is to say noskinnyg of “Red One,” Dwayne Johnson’s Christmas action extravaganza that carries a gargantuan $250 million budget. No matter how the studio wants to spin it (or how much adjacent Krampus-themed merch is selderly), “Red One” is one of the biggest big screen flops of the year. If Amazon MGM wants to remain in the theatrical game (and, yes, rival studios and movie theaters want that as well), the studio needs to commence getting authenticistic about spfinishing habits. Bah humbug, indeed.
Apple
Grade: D
Highs: Pivoting “Wolfs” to streaming to dodge box office scruminuscule
Lows: “Argylle” ($96 million), “Fly Me to the Moon” ($42 million)
Takeaways: Apple is very excellent at making phones and computers. Movies? Not so much. The tech enormous spent lavishly on starry projects appreciate “Argylle” (featuring Henry Cavill, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cena and a lot of A-enumerateers seeing to have their backfinish bought out) and “Fly Me to the Moon” (where Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum met cute at NASA but would have fared better drathriveg audiences on Mars). But it had little to show after signing those big checks. Then there was “Wolfs,” which the studio abruptly shifted to streaming after initiassociate schedulening to give it a sturdy theatrical run. The suspicion was that Apple made the shift after seeing at some terrifying tracking. But instead of saving face, the studio proclaimd that it was schedulening to originate a sequel without getting buy-in from writer and honestor Jon Watts. When he broke his silence about the aborted adhere-up and splitd his anger over the streaming pivot, it set off a recent wave of terrible headlines. It’s all gived to an image of a studio that is stumbling around, vainly searching for a thrivening strategy. Next year transports Brad Pitt in “F1,” a racing drama that is honested by “Top Gun: Maverick’s” Joseph Kosinski, which could turn around Apple’s box office fortunes. If not, stubborn asks will be asked about what exactly Apple has to show for its costly Hollywood experiment.
Lionsgate
Grade: D
Highs: “Unsung Hero” ($21 million), “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” ($32 million)
Lows: “Borderlands” ($32 million), “The Crow” ($23.7 million), “1992” ($2.9 million), “Never Let Go” ($16.2 million), “The Killer’s Game” ($5.9 million), “Megalopolis” ($11.2 million) and “White Bird” ($6.8 million)
Takeaways: What a calamity! Lionsgate suffered one humiliation after another, as “Boderlands,” “The Crow,” “Never Let Go,” and basicassociate anyskinnyg it freed over the past scant months collapsed at the box office. The movies seemed to be trying to top each other in cataclysmic discomiting weekfinish grosses, resulting in an unpwithdrawnted losing streak of seven consecutive flops. In the company’s most recent acquireings call, CEO Jon Feltheimer was dim about Lionsgate’s film troubles, calling the results “disnominateing” and saying that in the case of “Borderlands,” a pricey video game changeation led by Cate Blanchett, “csurrenderly everyskinnyg that could go wrong did go wrong.” Don’t stop there, Jon. That appraisement also applies to Lionsgate’s catastrophic year.
