From ‘Inside Out 2’ to ‘Madame Web,’ Grading the Box Office Winners and Losers of 2024 (So Far)
There hasn’t been a lot to celebrate at the box office in 2024. Ticket sales have languished. There’s been a dearth of blockbusters (a consequence of the strikes and COVID, which brought production to a screeching halt). And a few movies that bucked the odds to actually debut in the first half-of-the year probably should have skipped theaters altogether. We’re looking at you, “Argylle.”
And yet, some films still managed to pack in crowds. “Dune: Part Two” and “Inside Out 2” performed like major studio movies of yore, while IFC’s “Late Night With the Devil” proved that there’s still life in the indie business. There were also redemption stories. Will Smith restored the luster on his tarnished star with another “Bad Boys,” and “Garfield,” whose love affair with lasagna dates back to 1976, proved that some kitties have nine lives.
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Here’s a look at what scored and stumbled as 2024 reaches its mid-point.
Winners
“Inside Out 2”
Global box office: $762 million
Production budget: $200 million
Anxiety for the win! Only the offbeat minds at Pixar could turn a film about that dreaded emotion into the biggest movie of the year. Thanks to goodwill for the original 2015 head trip, stellar word-of-mouth and four-quadrant appeal, it’s on track to be the first movie of 2024 to join the coveted $1 billion club. Its outsized success has been a huge (and needed) win for struggling movie theaters. For Pixar, it evoked a feeling the Disney-owned animation empire hasn’t experienced in years… joy.
“Dune: Part 2”
Global box office: $711 million
Production budget: $190 million
That’s a lot of spice! Denis Villeneuve’s triumphant return to Arrakis was a critical and commercial sensation, outpacing the first film by more than $300 million. Of course, comparisons were tricky, given that 2021’s “Dune” was released as the pandemic was a greater concern and debuted simultaneously on HBO Max. But it’s notable that this is a franchise that keeps building an audience. Considering that the first two films are based on just one of a series of sci-fi novels, more sandworms are probably in Villeneuve’s future.
“Bob Marley: One Love”
Global box office: $179 million
Production budget: $70 million
This retelling of Bob Marley’s life and career hit all the right box office notes. It helped that Paramount released the film in mid-February when there wasn’t much on the calendar in the way of competition. But these ticket sales are a reminder that musical biopics don’t have to be great (“One Love” holds a 45% on Rotten Tomatoes) as long as they have songs that make audience members want to jam out.
“Late Night With the Devil”
Global box office: $12.3 million
Production budget: N/A
This ultra low-budget found-footage movie, about a late night show that makes the very bad decision to have an occult-themed episode, was an arthouse breakout. It’s hard to assess how much money IFC will net from the movie (the distributor didn’t release a budget), but a $12.3 million gross for an Australian horror film with no stars is very impressive. It also became one of the most-watched movies in the history of Shudder, the horror streaming service that IFC’s parent company AMC runs. That’s a bloody good result, any way you slice it.
“The Garfield Movie”
Global box office: $230 million
Production budget: $60 million
Despite terrible reviews, “The Garfield Movie” was the cat’s meow with younger audiences. The animated adventure, starring Chris Pratt as the famous orange feline, benefitted from the lack of family films in theaters and brand recognition for the ubiquitous comic. With its reasonable budget (financed and produced by Alcon Entertainment) and overseas appeal, “Garfield” managed to scratch up a tidy profit.
“Bad Boys: Ride or Die”
Global box office: $289 million
Production budget: $100 million
At nearly $300 million (and counting), there’s still a lot of gas left in the tank for the nearly 30-year-old franchise. The strong box office grosses also show that Will Smith’s fans appear to have forgiven him for all things Oscars slap. That probably means that Smith and his “ride or die” Martin Lawrence won’t be turning in their badges any time soon.
Losers
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”
Global box office: $168 million
Production budget: $168 million
It’s an apocalyptic result for George Miller’s pricey return to the wasteland. The film, which just made back its production budget, faced a treacherous road to riches given that it didn’t bring back Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, two key ingredients in the success of “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Though given how combustible those two were on that film, a reunion probably wasn’t in the cards. The sad reality is that as sublimely demented as “Mad Max” movies are, they don’t have the box office firepower of a top-shelf franchise. Despite being considered one of the greatest action movies of all time, “Fury Road” only made $380.4 million, barely breaking even from its tour of cinemas.
“IF”
Global box office: $181 million
Production budget: $110 million
Paramount and director John Krasinski’s kid-friendly fantasy about imaginary friends rebounded since its soft $33 million debut. In fact, “IF’s” current tally of $106 million domestically and $181 million worldwide is pretty good for an original live-action PG film. The trouble is that the film cost $110 million to produce, so it needed to gross more like $275 million to break even in its theatrical run. If only moviegoers bought a movie ticket for their imaginary friends, as well.
“The Fall Guy”
Global box office: $171 million
Production budget: $140 million
Teaming Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, the stars of two of last year’s biggest movies, in one summer flick seemed like a can’t-miss idea. But instead of “Barbenheimer” redux, “The Fall Guy” bellyflopped in theaters. The action-comedy about a stunt man working on his ex-girlfriend’s movie was a little too inside baseball to attract a wider crowd. Plus, it was based on a forgettable TV series from the 1980s that, let’s face it, few people were looking to have rerun on the big screen.
“Madame Web”
Global box office: $100 million
Production budget: $80 million
With Sony’s shaky track record of introducing new Marvel characters, promotional materials and a press tour that were meme-d for all the wrong reasons and some comically brutal reviews, it didn’t take a clairvoyant to predict that “Madame Web” would flame out. Long gone are the days when studios could pluck a comic book character from obscurity in the hopes of churning out an easy theatrical win. However, “Madame Web” will go down in history for the best trailer moment that didn’t make it into the movie: “[He] was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died.”
“Argylle”
Global box office: $96 million
Production budget: $200 million
Apple is very good at making phones and computers. Big-budget spy adventures… not so much. On paper, backing a splashy movie from Matthew Vaughn, the creator of “Kingsman” and “Kick-Ass,” that featured the likes of Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson and Henry Cavill, seemed like a red-hot proposition. In execution, something went terribly awry. For one thing, no one liked the movie much (the reviews were excruciating). For another, argylle may be a popular pattern when it comes to knitwear, but as the title of a $200 million movie, it kinda sucks.
“The Watchers”
Global box office: $29 million
Production budget: $30 million
Neither critics nor audiences cared for “The Watchers,” which may have something to do with the film’s dismal ticket sales. Horror is typically one of the most reliable theatrical genres, but it’s been a disappointing year for movies about things that go bump in the night. First-time director Ishana Night Shyamalan may be the daughter of one of horror’s preeminent filmmakers, M. Night Shyamalan, but so far she hasn’t inherited her father’s box office touch.
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