REGINA - Welcome to 2025, folks, and welcome to another Cairns on Cinema review of the box office of 2024.
Yes, folks, we got through another year at the movie theatres, and all I will say about it is that 2024 was really the hangover of the previous year.
As we have recounted in this column so many, 2023 saw the massive labour disruptions that swept Hollywood with the actors and the writers all on strike at the same time. That put numerous productions on ice and threw movie industry workers right out of jobs all over Â鶹´«Ã½AVern California.
In fact, if you look at the stories out of Hollywood this year, you see so many reports of movie industry people leaving California completely because of the lack of work and how expensive it’s gotten there. Of course the labour disruptions affected the whole industry everywhere, but a further problem down in southern California has really been the runaway production. Producers are taking their movie and TV shoots elsewhere to take advantage of tax credits, in part because they are also feeling the pinch from inflation and other things.
What you've seen at the box office is a reflection of all of what’s gone on. All these production delays resulted in a depleted line-up of blockbusters at the box office, especially during the first part of the year, and that impacted the final results that you did see. Seriously, it wasn’t a very exciting lineup at the cinemas in general.
So let's take a look at the final score of the box office for 2024 and the complete run-down of who won and who lost at the domestic box office.
First, here is a look at the top domestic grosses for 2024. As usual, these numbers are courtesy Box Office Mojo:
Inside Out 2, $652,980,194
Deadpool & Wolverine, $636,745,858
Wicked, $432,943,285.
Moana 2, $404,017,489.
Despicable Me 4, $361,004,205.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, $294,100,435
Dune: Part Two, $282,144,358.
Twisters, $ 267,762,265.
Godzilla x Kong : The New Empire, $196,350,016.
Kung Fu Panda 4, 193,590,620.
Now, taking a look at the top five worldwide box office grosses for 2024.
Inside Out 2, $1,698,772,985.
Deadpool & Wolverine, $1,338,073,645.
Despicable Me 4, $969,126,452.
Moana 2, $905,757,963.
Dune: Part Two, $ 714,444,358.
So the clear winner at the box office this year, both at home and abroad, was Inside Out 2 from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It was clearly a big year for animation, and a big year for family movies generally. Conversely, it wasn't such great a year for superheroes, even though Deadpool & Wolverine did so well. Usually you might expect the superhero movie to finish right at the top of the box office! Not this past year.
Part of the issue is that 2024 didn't see the usual flood of blockbuster-style movies being released, due to the aforementioned problems plaguing Hollywood due to the various strike situations the previous year. Hollywood did not have a “Barbieheimer” weekend to count on and of course the strike situation hurt big time. As for the total gross at the domestic box office, that stood at $8.55 billion, which is down 3.9 per cent from the previous year.
As you can imagine, there were plenty of losers at the box office in 2024. Among the most notorious flops included Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga which earned just over $67 million domestic; Argylle which only earned $45 million domestic and $96 million at the global box office; and of course Joker: Folie a Deux, which notoriously grossed $58 million domestic and just over $200 million worldwide — far below what the movie reportedly cost.
So what's the big takeaway from 2024? I'd say this is simply a case of Hollywood needing to get some stability under its feet and get a move on in green-lighting major projects again. A period of “back to business as usual” ought to help matters considerably in the release schedule. But you never know, given the financial state of these studios like Warner Brothers and Paramount which have been going through some financial turmoil of their own lately. Money is hard to come by in general, and of course the cost of making movies is facing no shortage of inflation pressures.
Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts about the box office in 2024. In 2025 we are expecting a new Superman movie, a new Captain America movie, the long-awaited and somewhat controversial Snow White movie, another Jurassic Park movie, and of course Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning with Tom Cruise.
Based on this lineup, I expect 2025 to be a better year at the box office, but who can tell? That's it for now — see you at the movies!
