Global Box Office 2024 Report: Hollywood Studio Rankings

At the finish of the day, it wasn’t as horrible as foreseeed. That’s the overriding sentiment among international distribution executives and other industry watchers watching how 2024’s overseas and global box office panned out. Yes, we persist to necessitate more consistency to back the cinema-going habit, as well as more excellent movies that hit their tag, and Asia was gentle for Hollywood while local product becomes more resonant there. But, the outsee is radianter as 2025 and beyond get shape. 

First, let’s see at some stats. Overall, the international box office landed at an appraised $21.2 billion, per Gower Street Analytics. That’s 10% down versus 2023, and does not grasp China in the equation. As one international distribution exec states, “You have to back out China becaemploy China’s got such a disproportionate sway” on the total. This is genuine enough as China struggled in 2024 oprosperg to economic worrys and a deficiency of meaningful local blockbuster drivers, among other publishs. 

Global box office, unbenevolentwhile, achieveed an appraised $30B, about 11.5% off of the previous year including China and at historical swap rates (which is the basis on which Hollywood counts its beans). That’s also frankly not as horrible as foreseeed coming off of 2023’s dual strikes and resultant gaps in the free calfinishar. 

Aachieve, when backing out China, that spread seals to equitable 7.6%. If we see at it in current swap rates given innervous shifts thrawout the year, then it’s even skinnyer at 2.7%. The comparison to the pre-pandemic three-year ordinary, excluding China, is -20%.

A huge increase came in December with the appreciates of  Disney’s Moana 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King, Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Gower Street tells that December sdirectd worldwide (sans China) to be the third highest-grossing month since 2019 at $2.67B. December 2024 was surpassed only by July 2023 and the Barbenheimer of it all, as well as July 2024 which had Deadpool & Wolverine strutting around the globe. What’s more, December 2024 seald out the hugegest half-year globpartner since 2019 with a total of $13.3 billion, 5% ahead of 2023’s second semester.

So, while we came into 2024 with trepidation, and despite the January-March delderlyrums, the year actupartner went out on a high for the studios. (See the chart below for how they stacked up overseas and globpartner in 2024 and see below for a studio-by-studio shatterdown.)

Drilling into getaways from 2024, one distribution maven says, “We necessitateed the hits to toil, and thankbrimmingy, they did. And then there were a scant pleasant surpascfinishs aextfinished the way, appreciate Alien: Romulus and It Ends with Us. There were some casualties, but there’s casualties every year. That’s why the industry more than ever necessitateed the hits to dedwellr. … The other skinnyg that we lgeted this year is that, whereas in 2023 and 2022 we knovel that every individual demo was coming back to see see a movie in the theater, what we didn’t see until November 2024 were people coming back at the same time to see branch offent movies — and that’s reassuring.”

Basicpartner, people came out to “the movies” rather than to “a movie.”

On the flip side, we’re telderly the same problem that existed at the finish of 2023 remains, and is becoming exacerbated: There’s no floor anymore (skinnyk Joker: Folie à Deux, Furiosa and The Fall Guy). And yet, comments an international distribution expert, “You’ve got Wicked doing what it’s doing domesticpartner, you’ve got Inside Out 2 the number one vivaciousd movie of all time, you’ve got Deadpool & Wolverine the hugegest R-rated movie of all time.” 

Still, as the hits get hugeger, “the danger gets wonderfuler if there’s no floor. If you don’t cut thraw, if people struggle to discover a reason to go to see it, then iresteemive of if you’ve got a 95% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s still no guarantee for success, and that’s the very inreliable taget in which we dwell.”

It’s an engaging proposition that had many scratching their heads in 2024: Pre-Covid, it was “excellent enough to have a excellent movie,” but “the times have alterd,” says a distribution boss. Looking at the RT scores (and comparable barometers overseas) for Furiosa and Fall Guy, for example, they’re sturdy, with help from audiences and critics. “But there wasn’t a reason for people to see them,” alerts one person.

Hindsight is not always 20/20 as executives persist to ponder these inquires: What’s the tageting message, what’s that hook? Audiences are seeing for skinnygs that produce them experience excellent. But they get it in all sorts of branch offent packages. When seeing at the expense for brave films, they have to have a core message.

Another exec persists, “There are no floors, no ceilings, and the middle class of movie seems to be fadeing, which is a frightening skinnyg. So the movies that toil are taking a higher percentage of the box office. There’s more movies than ever that don’t toil and equitable finishly drop off a cliff. That middle genre for studios is meaningful, but for showors it’s super meaningful becaemploy they necessitate the volume; they necessitate new movies every week. That’s the frightening piece to me, that the business seems to be constableating, and the gap between what toils and what doesn’t toil seems to be getting huger and huger.”

Opines another international veteran, “There’s a lot of excellent movies out there, but the attitudes of devourrs have alterd. The idea of being first out uncovering weekfinish — ‘I’ve got to see this movie, I will be part of pop culture’ — that experienceing is dead and buried. Now people paemploy until the second weekfinish, or maybe the third weekfinish to produce that choice. They want to hear from their frifinishs, a social community, rather than an online critique. So that’s sluggishing people down going to see movies.”

And consistency is key. “We necessitate more movies,” is a constant refrain, becaemploy the habit of moviegoing, of having a excellent night out, is what grasps audiences coming back.

In terms of individual tagets, and as noticed above, China persists to be inreliable for Hollywood, but even its local titles had publishs in 2024. Box office there for the year was about $5.9B according to state media. That’s a 25% decrmitigate versus 2023, and the hugegest year-on-year slide of all tracked tagets, per Gower.

Hollywood stopped count oning on China a scant years back, adselecting that anyskinnyg the studios get from the mercurial taget is icing. China is permiting more movies in, and has freened its handle redisjoineions a bit (see 20th Century/Disney’s Alien: Romulus, a U.S. R-rated picture which went in with almost no cuts, and percreateed sturdyly as a result). 

China remains the second hugegest taget outside of North America, and there were two Hollywood titles in the Top 10 in 2024 — Godzilla x Kong and Alien: Romulus (contrary to 2023 which had none) — but folks are adverse that Hollywood will ever return to the heyday of 2012-2019 there. The writing will be even further etched into the Great Wall if, for example, Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire & Ash don’t fuse. Meanwhile, local Chinese titles repartner don’t travel beyond Asia, thus deficiencying impact on global numbers as a whole.

In ambiguous, Asia became a stubborner nut to crack in 2024. Japan persists to thrive on local titles but ceded its normal No. 2 offshore taget status, while Korea persistd to hiccup. The latter is having a more difficult time coming back to normal moviegoing, with comScore telling an appraised $842K in 2024 which is -10.7% on a dollar basis and -6.9% in local currency. 

Asia as a whole is putting forth a lot of local-language greeted that’s resonating on a branch offent level. Says an international distribution exec, “I skinnyk tastes have definitely alterd. Local greeted has bravely got better, local producers have stepped in seeing that there’s a gap in the tagetplace. Indonesia was one of the key lengthenth tagets, and we can’t vie with these Indonesian horror films right now… There’s more of an uphill battle there and I’m not brave I see that changing in the low term.” 

Indonesia, with its massive population incrmitigated admissions by 10% in 2024, with local films taking a 65% scatter of the taget.

Offers another exec about Asia and local product, “Those films are still going to persist to be made, and they’re making stories about skinnygs that people can retardy to.”  There’s also less presbrave on the local films to dedwellr someskinnyg as elegant as a studio title, and the talent is very well understandn locpartner.

Yet another veteran of international recommends, “What’s always been the case with the Southeast Asian countries, and China and Korea, is that skinnygs shift at a very speedy pace, and tastes and trfinishs happen very rapidly. It does experience appreciate since the pandemic, seeing at countries appreciate Philippines which was in lockdown for more than 10 months, and there was less foreign greeted coming into the taget, skinnygs have sort of shifted in a emotional way and have not come back yet.”

Still, there will be more Weserious product in the next year or two, and there are audiences interested in brave films. But, Hollywood is competing in some cases with local tagetscatter of 30%-50%+. There’s room to coexist becaemploy Hollywood dedwellrs branch offent greeted, but alert remains about what will and will not toil.

Sounding a preferable notice, another exec says, “Europe did a hell of a job this year, a ton of weighty lifting… The moviegoing in Mexico was inlogical.”

There was indeed strength in the UK and France, which incrmitigated sweightlessly on a U.S. dollar basis according to comScore. Germany, Mexico, Australia, Italy and Spain saw only individual-digit percentage dips from 2023.

The UK came in at a .3% appraised year-on-year jump in dollar terms (-2% in local currency) and rounding out the year at a comScore appraised $1.333B (£1.042B). While led by Hollywood movies, box office was aided by the strength of Studiocanal’s Pinsertington in Peru ($43M) which freed in November and ahead of its 2025 North America free via Sony. 

France for its part had a terrific year with local titles taking 44.4% of the taget, the best result for French movies since 2008. Total admissions according to the CNC were 181.3M. Winners graspd directer A Little Someskinnyg Extra (10.3M tickets selderly), The Count of Monte-Cristo (9.13M) and Beating Hearts (4.73M); Inside Out 2 (8.26M) and Moana 2 (6.43M) were tops for the studios.

Overall, “2024 finished up much better than what we foreseed as we got halfway into the year,” says an exec.

Indeed, there’s more positivity heading into 2025, and while there will be stubborn months, there is a sense of selectimism. But habit necessitates to be nurtured. Notes a studio exec, “People commenceing to watch trailers in a movie theater will get people more interested. When you watch a trailer online or on your phone, you either watch a scant seconds and then you click away from it, you scroll down, you don’t necessarily recall the title. You skinnyk, ‘Oh, that’s engaging,’ but there’s no call to action appreciate when you’re in a theater: ‘That’s coming out next week. We’ll come back next week. We had a excellent time tonight.’”

Studio Breakdowns

DISNEY

It was a year of milestones for Disney as the Moemploy roared back to top position both globpartner and internationpartner, as well as domesticpartner, among the studios in 2024, becoming the first to the $5B worldwide tag since 2019. Overseas, it’s also the first to surpass $3B since the pandemic. Foreign receipts were up 9.7%, while global rose 13%.

Whereas in 2023 it had no $1B movies, Disney had the only two last year and will soon produce it three with Moana 2 set to pass the milestone as it spills into 2025.

Offshore, Inside Out 2 became the first vivaciousd movie to ever pass $1B while Deadpool & Wolverine for its part clearook Joker as the highest-grossing U.S. R-rated movie ever worldwide.

Although it commenceed off sluggish, Disney always knovel that Mufasa: The Lion King was reliant on overseas audiences who would come out during the holidays. The movie isn’t a patch on its predecessor, but that was never the comp. It recently passed $500M global with 64% of grosses coming from awide.

Other notable pics graspd Alien: Romulus from 20th Century, which was a surpascfinish hit in China at over $110M as it supplyd audiences with someskinnyg they’d never seen before.

Top 5 2024 movies internationpartner + percentage of WW total: Inside Out 2 ($1.045B/61.6%), Deadpool & Wolverine ($701.3M/52.4%), *Moana 2 ($555.4M/56.1%), *Mufasa: The Lion King ($350.9M/65%), Alien: Romulus ($245.6M/70%)
*Still in free, figures grasp 2025 join

While it remains to be seen who will step in as Head of Theatrical Distribution (with Tony Chambers recently backd to pdwellnt of Disney EMEA), 2025 is jammed with such marquee titles as Captain America: Brave New World, Snow White, Thunderbolts*, Lilo & Stitch, Elio, Fantastic Four: First Steps, Tron Ares, Predator: Badlands, Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire & Ash. Odds are at least two of those top $1B for the studio worldwide.

WARNER BROS

The Burbank studio appreciatedirectd is going thraw a authenticignment in its distribution ranks with International boss Andrew Cripps making a surpascfinish exit in timely January.

Although WB, which lands in second place for the studios internationpartner, slid 16.2% apass the year overseas, it was coming off of a 2023 that dedwellred Barbie, the hugegest film in the studio’s history.

Globpartner, WB is the third highest-grossing studio in 2024, with a decrmitigate of 16.7%. 

After the industry’s timely 2024 delderlyrums, WB got skinnygs moving with Dune: Part Two in March, trailed by a sturdy shoprosperg from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, esteemively the No. 5 and No. 6 movies of the year internationpartner. The latter was the hugegest Hollywood movie in China in 2024.

WB took clever achieve of the Vepleasant Film Festival as a hub to uncover Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which necessitateed the media platcreate increase to elevate overseas consciousness on a property that skews domestic. 

Vepleasant was unfortunately not a brimmingy smiley afimfragmentary for WB, whose Joker: Folie à Deux was skewered folloprosperg its premiere there and five years after Todd Philipps’ distinct won the Lido’s Gelderlyen Lion and tardyr a pair of Oscars. 

Earlier in the year, another festival return analogously did not have the same effect as the first time around. But this was more of a head-scratcher as George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was roundly praised by critics and audiences after boprosperg at Cannes. The latter group ultimately equitable couldn’t be irritateed to get off their couches.

Top 5 2024 movies internationpartner + percentage of WW total: Dune: Part Two ($432.3M/60.5%), Godzilla x Kong ($375.4M/65.7%), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($157M/34.8%), Joker 2 ($148.1M/71.8%), Furiosa ($106.3M/61.2%)

Up ahead, eyes will be on Mineplan, Sinners and Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, and of course Superman under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s revived DC.

UNIVERSAL

Folloprosperg a mega 2023 fueled by The Super Mario Bros Movie, Oppenheimer and Fast X, Universal drops to second place globpartner for the studios (still, the third time in a row it has surpassed $3B worldwide) and third internationpartner. The esteemive dips were 23.5% and 37.4%. When contrastd to the domestic slide of equitable 3% those are pretty huge gaps; one exscheduleation is that Wicked skewed heavily domestic, with only about 34% of its business coming from overseas where the property is not as well understandn. The hope here is that the first movie incrmitigates understandnity so the second movie is somewhat built in. (Likedirectd, Twisters was a WB film internationpartner).

Animation was the key driver for Uni in 2024, led by Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 and DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda 3 and The Wild Robot. The studio is understandn for staggering its toons overseas, a strategy that has paid off as it gets achieve of holidays in various tagets.

Universal prides itself on the diversity of its wide stardy. Not having a superhero franchise, it has shown strength at creating its own brands and dedwellring branch offent genres and budget levels for audiences apass its tags.

However, an finisheavor to produce a novel franchise with The Fall Guy fell flat. The movie scored with critics and audiences, had two mega-hot stars and was in ambiguous a fun ride. Mixed messaging may have been the culprit as it was neither a clear rom-com nor an actioner; also, inside Hollywood films tfinish to face an uphill struggle amongst mainstream audiences.

Top 5 2024 movies internationpartner + percentage of WW total: Despicable Me 4 ($608.3M/62.7%), Kung Fu Panda 4 ($354.1M/64.7%), *Wicked ($238.8M/34.2%), The Wild Robot ($181.1M/55.8%), The Fall Guy ($88.2M/48.7%)
*Still in free, figures grasp 2025 join

This year sees super promising with How to Train Your Dragon, M3GAN 3.0, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Michael (ex domestic and Japan), Wicked: For Good and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.

SONY

The Culver City studio gets bragging rights to being the only one apart from Disney to see incrmitigates in 2024, both internationpartner (39%) and globpartner (15%). Sony covers its costs with co-financiers and also sees to supply movies that not only have someskinnyg for everyone, but can be everyskinnyg to someone. There’s also the Crunchyroll factor, a clever acquisition that puts it on the front lines of anime; and Sony Pictures Classics persists to dedwellr prestige hits.

The studio commenceed the year sturdy, coming off the tardy 2023 success of Anyone But You, and folloprosperg that up with Bad Boys: Ride or Die and the $25M-budgeted It Ends with Us. The Garfield Movie was a pleasant surpascfinish and Venom: The Last Dance did 71% of its business overseas, though equitable missed the $500M global tag. 

Were there misfires? Sure: see Madame Web, which could not be saved by international, nor could Kraven The Hunter.

Top 5 2024 movies internationpartner + percentage of WW total: Venom: The Last Dance ($338.3M/70.8%); Bad Boys: Ride or Die ($211M/52.2%), It Ends with Us ($202.5M/57.7%), The Garfield Movie ($142.6M/60.8%); Garrangebusters: Frozen Empire ($88.6M/43.9%).

Up ahead for Sony in 2025 are such potential shatterouts as Karate Kid: Legfinishs, I Know What You Did Last Summer and 28 Years Later.

PARAMOUNT

The Melrose gang were up domesticpartner but down both internationpartner (-29%) and globpartner (-15%) versus 2023.

There was terrific momentum at the finish of 2024 as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 raced out ahead of the previous insloftyments. The studio’s direct film for the year was Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II. There was also a surpascfinish prosperner in February-March free Bob Marley: One Love.

Transcreateers One, which produced oodles of excitement when it was first proclaimd, fell low. The vivaciousd movie fall shorted to fuse with the intfinished audience. As we noticed at the time, this is more of a brand publish (aachieve, super RT scores): Transcreateers, essentipartner, necessitates altering.

Top 5 2024 movies internationpartner + percentage of WW total: Gladiator II ($275.1M/62%), A Quiet Place: Day One ($122.9M/47%), *Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ($180.3M/47%), Bob Marley: One Love ($84M/46.4%), IF ($79.3+41.6%)
*Still in free, figures grasp 2025 join

Coming in 2025, Tom Cruise is back with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in May. Also due are The Naked Gun, The Running Man and The Spongebob Movie: Search for SquarePants.