2024 box-office winners and losers: ‘Wicked,’ ‘Inside Out 2’ bring the green, ‘Kraven’ shoots blanks
Movie theaters still have yet to fully recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which upended the industry in 2020 and 2021. Gone is the era of $11 billion domestic yearly totals, as was the case each year between 2015 and 2019. This calendar year, the total gross of all films released in the U.S. has topped $8 billion. That’s down slightly from last year’s $8.9 billion, but we still have a week to go. So what are the 2024 box-office winners and losers? Here is Gold Derby’s comprehensive analysis, from hits like Wicked to misses like Megalopolis. (All dollar amounts refer to the domestic U.S. box office, as compiled by Box Office Mojo.)
WINNER: It’s easy bein’ green
Wicked and Inside Out 2
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In 2024, green was definitely in. Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba Thropp, aka the lime-skinned Wicked Witch of the West, and Liza Lapira‘s Disgust, the chartreuse emotion who keeps audiences gagging, appeared in movies that dominated ticket sales. Broadway musical-turned-movie Wicked has already reached $370 million (and counting), good enough for third place at the year-end box office, while Pixar’s highly anticipated Inside Out 2 boasts the most successful showing of the year with $652 million. The only film in between them on the chart is Deadpool & Wolverine. Speaking of which …
WINNER: Sassy antiheroes
Deadpool & Wolverine and Despicable Me 4
Audiences have always loved a good villain, and now movies led by bad guys (with hearts of gold) seem to be all the rage. Ryan Reynolds‘ wisecracking Deadpool and Steve Carell‘s grouchy Gru are just two examples of antiheroes who turned their lives around and are using their powers for good. In Deadpool & Wolverine ($636 million), Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine manages to put his own personal feelings of Deadpool aside to help the universe. And in Despicable Me 4 ($361 million), Gru tries to protect his family from a familiar foe, Will Ferrell‘s Maxime Le Mal.
LOSER: Comic-book movies nobody wanted
Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter, and Joker: Folie à Deux
After a decade of Marvel-based movies dominating the box office with year-end chart-toppers Spider-Man 3 (2007), The Avengers (2012), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: End Game (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), we’ve seen some missteps. While Deadpool & Wolverine soared for the Disney-helmed Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony failed to ensare in its Marvel-adjacent Spider-Man Universe. Madame Web, the studio’s fourth film in the live-action Spider-verse starring Dakota Johnson as the clairvoyant hero, grossed just $43 million against a reported budget of $80 million-100 million budget. Kraven the Hunter cost more ($110 million-plus) and bombed even harder with a dismal December opening of $11 million. Even the relatively successful threequel Venom: The Last Dance ($139.6 million) underperformed compared to its predecessors, 2018’s Venom ($213.5 million) and 2022’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($213.5 million). Over in the DC Universe, Warner Bros. hit a sour note with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga singing their way to just $58 million in Joker: Folie à Deux, less than 20 percent of its Oscar-winning predecessor’s $335 million total.
WINNER: Worth the wait
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Twisters, and Gladiator II
These three sequels came out 36 years, 28 years, and 24 years after the original Beetlejuice (1988), Twister (1996), and Gladiator (2000) were released in theaters, respectively. And all three proved that audiences can and will be patient when it comes to seeing new stories told within familiar worlds. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($294 million) returned with its original cast mostly intact, led by ghost-with-the-most Michael Keaton, while Twisters ($276 million) found success with an entirely new ensemble, and Gladiator II ($153 million) featured a mix of new and established characters, including Paul Mescal‘s all-grown-up Lucius.
LOSER: Better on the small screen
The Fall Guy and Saturday Night
Moviegoers showed little interest in nostalgic television characters on the big screen this year. Hot off the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon of 2023, Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt joined forces in The Fall Guy, based on the 1980s television series about a Hollywood stunt man. It crashed at the box office, failing to reach blockbuster status with $93 million, leaving Universal Pictures around $50 million in the red. Hoping to capitalize on the 50th anniversary of SNL, Sony released Saturday Night, about the 1975 premiere of NBC’s sketch comedy series. Despite the show’s half-century of success on the small screen, the film earned less than $10 million at the box office.
WINNER: Cartoons aren’t just for kids
Moana 2, Kung Fu Panda 4, and The Wild Robot
The top 15 films of the year are stuffed with animated fare, whether it’s sequels like Inside Out 2 (see above), Moana 2 ($345 million) and Kung Fu Panda 4 ($193 million), or fresh awards players like The Wild Robot ($143 million). There is even more money to be made from the toon genre, as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King were both released on Dec. 20 and are currently shaking up the box office. While adult critics are often mixed on animated flicks, they found something to love in all of these offerings, particularly The Wild Robot, which has an impressive 97 percent score at Rotten Tomatoes and is the Oscar frontrunner for Best Animated Feature.
LOSER: Epic “auteur” sagas that flopped
Megalopolis, Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1
Disillusioned by studios, two legendary directors self-financed vanity projects that left audiences uninspired. Francis Ford Coppola dumped a staggering $120 million of his own money into Megalopolis, only to watch the sci-fi drama fizzle, grossing less than $8 million. Kevin Costner fared slightly better when he spent $38 million on his two-part Western, Horizon: An American Saga. Chapter 1 brought in $29 million in box-office receipts and, like it or not, Chapter 2 is already in the can and scheduled for 2025. Still refusing to take a hint, Costner started filming Chapter 3 in May and Chapter 4 is in development.
WINNER: Monkey madness
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Two movies about apes scored major bananas this year. The fifth outing in Godzilla‘s Monsterverse franchise earned $196 million, while the fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot film series raked in $171 million. Yet another monkey movie, Better Man, is proving to be a major awards player prior to its U.S. theatrical debut on Dec. 25. All of this illustrates how moviegoers just can’t get enough of these VFX-heavy pictures that showcase chimp-tastic motion-capture technology at its finest. (There was also a cute little real capuchin in Gladiator II, Dundus, who stole viewers’ hearts.)
LOSER: Prequels that audiences ignored
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim
There was little interest in dredging up the past when it came to two of cinema’s most successful franchises. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga showed the renegade warrior’s origin story before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max. It pulled in $68 million, almost $100 million less than 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. The anime prequel The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, set 183 years before The Hobbit, wasn’t expected to match its live-action predecessors, but it came up short of making an impression on filmgoers, earning just $8 million.
WINNER: Take me to your leader
Dune: Part Two, A Quiet Place: Day One and Alien: Romulus
Alien stories have been a Hollywood obsession ever since A Trip to the Moon took flight back in 1902, and three of them abducted your money in 2024. Dune: Part Two ($282 million) returns to Frank Herbert‘s desert planet Arrakis and focuses even more on the gigantic sandworms; A Quiet Place: Day One ($138 million) follows Lupita Nyong’o‘s Sam and other human survivors who learn that staying silent will help them survive an extraterrestrial invasion; and Alien: Romulus ($105 million) takes place after the original Alien from 1979 that started it all and spawned countless “chestburster” Halloween costumes.
LOSER: Star-studded comedy misfires
Argylle and Borderlands
Two movies with stellar casts couldn’t survive being punched down by critics this year. Argylle had Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, and Samuel L. Jackson on its roster, but only managed a paltry $45 million at the box office with its 33 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. Borderlands secured Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis before saying, “Hold my beer,” and taking in $15 million with a 10 percent score on the tomatometer. There is nothing funny about those numbers.
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