The 2024 box office continues the rise in the return to theaters!
As the year comes to a close, it’s time to look back on the box office results. (Note that this article is being written before year end), so not all box office numbers will be current, but with the exception of a few year end movies like Sonic 3, and the continuing run of Wicked, Red One, and Mufasa adding to the numbers, the 2024 domestic box office will come in pretty close to last year.
Like 2023, 2024 had its share of box office winners and losers. For much of the year, 2024 looked like it might languish as it seemingly has after the pandemic years. After a bonanza of movies in 2018 and 2019, led by huge Marvel Universe films, and a box office take each year of $11.3+ billion, the industry was nearly destroyed in 2020 and 2021, when box office revenue rose only to $2.1 billion.
A continued rise in movie tickets, popcorn, and cocktails…
Over the last four years, the theater goers have returned, taking in Barbenheimer in 2023 and Glicked or Wickidator, this year. But, this year had a couple of extra movies to lead the way. And the choices were out there for every member of the family. And 2024 saw the highest ever grossing R-rated movie, from Disney, no less!
Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine led the two top spots with over $600 million domestically and over $1.3 million each worldwide. As of this article, the U.S. box office total was just over $8 billion. And the big winner this year was Disney, the only studio which made over $2 billion and which had three of the top ten films this year. Universal had four movies in the top ten, including Wicked, Despicable Me 4 and Twiters. And Warner Brothers had the remaining top three films in the top ten, including Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice and Dune, Part 2.
And, the first half of 2025 looks like it might be even better, [add link] as people return to the movies to get that shared feel of community. And if you’re out with us, cocktails!
