Movies in 2024: Lessons from a turbulent year at the box office

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Movie ticket sales took a hit in 2024. The annual domestic box office is expected to reach about $8.75 billion, down more than 3% from 2023, according to Comscore estimates.

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It’s not as serious as it was in the pandemic years, but it’s also not even close to the pre-pandemic standard when annual box office regularly topped $11 billion.

This is the year the company felt the effects of the 2023 Hollywood strikes, a labor standoff that delayed productions and releases and exhausted the calendar for exhibitors and moviegoers. However, it is not as bad as it could have been, or at least as bad as analysts expected at the beginning of the year.

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“This has been a truly amazing comeback story for the industry,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Just a few months ago, the question was whether we would reach $8 billion for the year.”

Hollywood continues to learn lessons about what moviegoers really want, what works and what doesn’t. Here are the biggest takeaways from 2024.

The repercussions of the strike were real

The Hollywood strikes may have ended in 2023, getting production back into full swing and sending stars out on the promotional circuit once again — but the ripple effect of work stoppages and contract standoffs has shown their real effects on the 2024 release calendar.

The first two quarters were the hardest hit, with tentpoles pushed out later in the year (Deadpool & Wolverine, for example) or into 2025 (Mission: Impossible 8). With the summer movie season not starting with a Marvel movie, the box office was down 27.5% from 2023 right before Inside Out 2 opened in June.

“It’s an unpredictable business but one that thrives on stability,” Dergarabedian said. “When the release calendar is canceled, momentum stops.”

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PG rating (and animation) ruled.

Sequels and series dominated this year’s top 10 list, as has often been the case over the past 15 years. But this year, PG-rated movies have done particularly well, starting with the biggest movie of 2024: “Inside Out 2,” which also became the biggest animated movie of all time, not counting inflation.

PG-rated family films — including “Despicable Me 4,” “Moana 2,” “Wicked,” “Kung Fu Panda 4,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” “Mufasa” and “The Wild Robot” — made more From $2.9. billion this year, accounting for about 33% of the annual box office, according to Comscore. By contrast, PG-13-rated films accounted for about 30% of ticket sales.

Disney effect

After a quieter year in 2023 and several years without a film at the top of the charts, The Walt Disney Company is back strong in 2024 with three of the top five films of the year: “Inside Out 2,” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” And “Moana 2”. In mid-December, it topped $2 billion domestic, the second time any studio has done that since 2019 (that was also Disney, in 2022). Its 20th-century section also played an important role in the films “Alien: Romulus” and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”

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“It’s a different industry when Disney sticks to theatrical releases,” said Daniel Loria, executive director at movie data and analytics trader Box Office.

Looking at “flopping” in a different way

Every year brings great failures and disappointments, and this was no exception. Sony has had a hard time with its “Spider-Man”-adjacent titles like “Madame Web” and “Kraven the Hunter” (but that also seems to be the fate lately for anyone not named “Deadpool”). Universal had higher hopes for The Fall Guy, as did Warner Bros. In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Joker: Folie a Deux.

Then there were the director-led (and financed) sentimental projects that failed to make the cut, like Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis.”

“It’s a reductionist way to think about these passion projects,” Luria said. “Those films didn’t come out to great expectations, which meant theaters didn’t vacate the house and give them three auditoriums at each location and hope they would make money.”

However, that was part of the problem with “Joker 2,” which was expected to be more in line with the first film, which grossed more than $1 billion. But even that has a caveat, Lauria believes.

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“It wasn’t just that ‘Joker’ didn’t do well, but there was nothing coming behind it to offset that momentum,” Lauria said. “This is a release schedule error where one movie is supposed to last a month. This model doesn’t work anymore.”

Audiences crave choices and variety

What works is a diverse assortment, with Thanksgiving and Christmas hits being the perfect example, Lauria said. At Thanksgiving, there was “Wicked,” “Gladiator II” and “Moana 2.” Christmas had “Mufasa,” “Sonic 3” and several adult shows as well, including “Nosferatu,” “A Complete Unknown” and “Babygirl.”

Horror is often the safest bet for a play, but this year even veterans were pleasantly surprised by how enthusiastic audiences were, with hits like Longlegs, Nosferatu, Terrifier 3, and Smile 2 taking people out of their fright. the home.

Blake Lively’s drama “It Ends With Us,” which has had its share of ongoing off-screen drama as well, has become something of an event. Audiences were drawn to smart thrillers like “Conclave,” as well as unexpected originals including “Anora,” “The Substance” and “The Brutalist.”

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The nostalgia and appeal of the reissue

Re-releases of films in theaters that are also widely available at home have boomed this year. Among the biggest successes of Christopher Nolan’s films are “Interstellar,” “Coraline,” and “The Phantom Menace.”

“This shows our industry once again that audiences truly understand the difference between the communal theatrical experience on the big screen that they crave even in films they had the opportunity to watch at home,” Nolan said in December. “That theatrical experience that we all know and love is so powerful and so exciting. It’s very clear evidence of that.”

Viral marketing moments

As silly as it sounds, this is the year your new popcorn bucket became a star. It started with the serendipitous creativity of “Dune: Part 2,” which “Deadpool & Wolverine” stuck with in a less casual way. More recently, “Nosferatu” coffin buckets have achieved high resale prices.

For Loria, it’s all part of a trend theaters have noticed since reopening during the pandemic: Moviegoers haven’t returned to pre-pandemic numbers, but those who have returned have been spending more on concessions and premium tickets (like IMAX and other large-format screens) than ever.

2025 is looking bright

Everyone is optimistic about the movie industry in 2025, and the offerings to moviegoers — which include at least 110 films expected to open on more than 2,000 screens — according to the National Association of Movie Theater Owners. And the momentum is there.

“A tremendous amount of box office revenue has been generated in the last six weeks of the year,” Dergarabedian said. “This is the best opening 2025 can offer.”

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