
Global Box Office Raked in $30 Billion in 2024 — Was it Enough?
By Movieguide® Contributor
The global box office hit $30 billion last year, 11.5% down from 2023.
The international box office had $21.2 billion, but that doesn’t include China, as it has “disproportionate influence” on the total, according to one international distribution executive. That number is 10% down from 2023.
Disney’s share of the global pie was 32.8% at $5.4 billion. Warner Bros came in second at 19.7% and $3.28 billion. Universal had 22.6% and $3.7.
“We needed the hits to work, and thankfully, they did. And then there were a few nice surprises along the way, like ALIEN: ROMULUS and IT ENDS WITH US,” one distribution exec told Deadline. “There were some casualties, but there’s casualties every year. That’s why the industry more than ever needed the hits to deliver.”
“The other thing that we learned this year is that, whereas in 2023 and 2022 we knew that every single demo was coming back to see see a movie in the theater, what we didn’t see until November 2024 were people coming back at the same time to see different movies — and that’s reassuring,” the exec said.
In essence, people went to the theaters for the experience, rather than to see a specific movie.
“The risk gets greater if there’s no floor,” said one exec. “If you don’t cut through, if people struggle to find a reason to go to see it, then irrespective of if you’ve got a 95% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s still no guarantee for success, and that’s the very fickle market in which we live.”
Core messages seem to be what people are looking for — messages that will make them feel good.
“There are no floors, no ceilings, and the middle class of movie seems to be disappearing, which is a scary thing. So the movies that work are taking a higher percentage of the box office. There’s more movies than ever that don’t work and just completely fall off a cliff,” another exec said.
READ MORE: EXCESSIVE CONTENT LED TO LOW BOX OFFICER NUMBERS IN 2024
“That middle genre for studios is important, but for exhibitors it’s super important because they need the volume; they need fresh movies every week,” they continued. “That’s the scary piece to me, that the business seems to be consolidating, and the gap between what works and what doesn’t work seems to be getting larger and larger.”
One exec believes that people don’t want to see movies in their opening week anymore. Now, they’d rather wait and see what others think before seeing it themselves.
In the individual markets, China proved to be a flop for Hollywood, despite loosening restrictions, as revenue dropped 23% from 2023.
South Koreans haven’t returned to regular moviegoing, and Japan maintained its spot as No. 2 in offshore markets. Asia as a whole has made a lot more strides in local language content, which locals seem to enjoy.
“I think tastes have definitely changed,” one distribution exec says. “Local content has certainly got better, local producers have stepped in seeing that there’s a gap in the marketplace. Indonesia was one of the key growth markets, and we can’t compete with these Indonesian horror films right now…There’s more of an uphill battle there and I’m not sure I see that changing in the short term.”
“What’s always been the case with the Southeast Asian countries, and China and Korea, is that things move at a very fast pace, and tastes and trends happen very quickly,” another exec said. “It does feel like since the pandemic, looking at countries like Philippines which was in lockdown for more than 10 months, and there was less foreign content coming into the market, things have sort of shifted in a dramatic way and have not come back yet.”
The UK and France saw a lot of growth. Germany, Mexico, Australia, Italy and Spain also had a lot of moviegoers, but they didn’t do as well as in 2023.
France’s local titles took up nearly half of the market. French titles haven’t been that high in 17 years.
“2024 ended up much better than what we anticipated as we got halfway into the year,” said one exec.
Variety noted that 2024’s biggest hits were all sequel or franchise-related: INSIDE OUT 2, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DESPICABLE ME 4, GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE and WICKED.
While the box office numbers for 2024 didn’t drop as far as expected, hopes are high for next year. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH and WICKED: FOR GOOD are a few major movies expected to do well in 2025.
Screen Rant estimates that 2025’s top movies will be AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, ZOOTOPIA 2 and JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH.
Movieguide® maintains that the movies that perform the best usually have family-friendly, wholesome values. In Movieguide®’s 2024 annual Report to the Entertainment Industry, we wrote:
Movies that best reflect spiritually uplifting, redemptive, morally uplifting faith and values do much better at the box office and on home video than movies that don’t. Our Annual Report to Hollywood also shows once again, with relevant financial statistics, that people, including most moviegoers and television viewers, want Good to conquer evil, Truth to triumph over falsehood, Justice to prevail over injustice, and true Beauty to overcome vileness. They also want to take their whole family to the movies more often.
READ MORE: THESE FAMILY MOVIES HOLD STRONG AT THE BOX OFFICE