It has been just about four years since the pandemic. Is it safe to say that we are in the new normal as far as Hollywood goes? Maybe or maybe not. Let’s find out.
Let’s start by sharing the Top Ten Domestic Grossers:
And, for comparison, the Top Ten Worldwide Grossers:
I’ll be looking at the Domestic Top Ten for the purposes of this article. Now, let’s dive in.
1. Movies are making less money…or are they?
Let’s look at that chart above. If you were only to look at the “Total Gross” column, it seems pretty clear that the movies are in trouble. The total gross of all movies has not gone back to pre-pandemic numbers. Alert the media! Sound the alarms!
But if we look over at the “Releases” and “Average” columns, you’d see that the “Total Gross” number would be misleading. There were 261 less movies released in 2024 than there were in 2019, but the per film average is higher,
I’m not trying to say that 2024 would have made $3 billion more if it matched the per-pandemic release numbers, especially when the total grosses decreased by almost 4% with the releases increasing by 57 films from 2023. All I am saying is that we have to investigate deeper before we pronounce the movie theaters dead.
2. People are looking for grand spectacle in their films.
One aspect of the new normal that this year’s Top Ten offers us is that with films hitting digital weeks after they hit theaters is that if you want filmgoers to see your film in the theaters you need to offer then some sort of grand spectacle on the screen.
Be it a giant gorilla and a giant lizard fighting or a sweeping epic on a sand planet or a richly detailed creepy underworld, studios need to give fans larger than life images that would pale in comparison on the smaller screen at home.
Or, you know, extend the time it takes films to hit home video. Nah, that won’t happen.
3. The Comic Book Film’s dominance might be over, but it’s not dead.
2024 was a good year for comic book films in terms of number of films. There were seven comic book films released this year. The bad news is most of them sucked.
Only two made enough money to be successful, Venom: The Last Dance and Deadpool And Wolverine and only the latter was good enough to get a Fresh Rating at Rotten Tomatoes and it was also the only one to become a smash hit: making over a billion dollars worldwide.
This is a new reality I could live with. The comic book film haters have most of the genre sink in the mire of mediocrity and awfulness and comic book fans will have one or two films they can really enjoy. Everybody wins.
4. Originality is dead, dead, dead.
I could just cut and paste this entry for previous years’ lists, because lack of originality has been a long-time problem in Hollywood. But this year makes it especially noticeable.
Nine of the Top Ten movies are sequels. The tenth was Wicked which is ~takes a deep breath~an adaption of a Broadway musical that was inspired by a novel which was in turn inspired by a film that adapted a novel. Whew!
With a still uncertain future–either real or imagined–studios are going to go with what they think works. This year’s Top Ten is enough proof to them that going with sequels and adaptations is the right course. Expect more sequels and spinoffs, Speaking of which…
5. There seems to be no time limit on sequels.
There has been 28 years between Twister and Twisters. There has been 36 years between Beetlejuice and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. It’s amazing that fans of the originals are still alive, let alone able to see the film at all.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have fond memories of that cow flying across the screen in the original Twister. And Beetlejuice is where I, and a lot of men my age, first fell in love with Winona Ryder. But if you wanted to bet me if either of these films would ever get a sequel, you’d be getting a lot of money off of me.
But if the road to box office success will be paved with sequels to popular films, expect Hollywood to mine its deep past for new entries. Real Genius 2? The Further Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai? Heathers 2? We might get all of those and more.
6. Animation still shows signs of strength…if only you give them more of what they have already seen.
CGI Animated Fare was once a master of the Box Office. Then the pandemic happened and it appeared that parents were hesitant to take their kids with less-than-fully developed immune systems to see this kind of family friendly fare in theaters.
But it turns out they were unwilling to go see a CGI film unless it continued the story of a CGI they already knew and loved. We have four CGI Animated films in the Top Ten: the fourth installments of the Kung Fu Panda and Despicable Me franchises, a sequel to Moana that was meant to be a Disney+ TV Show, and a sequel to Inside Out, which is 2024’s highest grossing film.
I always like the more original CGI films, so I worry this year’s successful sequels will cause the original films to fall by the wayside. We’ll have to see if that is what is going to happen.
7. When it comes to animation, sometimes the voices used aren’t all that important.
When you saw Inside Out 2, did Fear and Disgust sound different to you? And did you go into Kung Fu Panda 4 hoping to hear Jackie Chan and Angelina Jolie only to end up disappointed? Well, get use to disappointment.
The changes to Kung Fu Panda were, according to the makers of the film, were made to introduce new characters in the stories. But saving some money was also probably a reason, like it was Inside Out 2. Tony Hale replaced Bill Hader as Fear and Liza Lapira replaced Mindy Kaling as Disgust when the original actors balked at only being paid $100,000 for their role, less than Amy Poehler got for playing Joy.
The changes didn’t hurt the movies much. Inside Out 2 landed at number one evem without Hader and Kaling. But considering the money the film eventually made, you’d think Disney could have paid them more. Regardless, doing animation voice work might be easy money for these major stars, just don’t ask for too much of it.
8. Glenn Powell might be Hollywood’s “Next Big Thing” but he’s also good at reviving franchises.
Ah, Glen Powell, Hollywood’s next big thing. He can play the hero, he can play the villain. He’s skilled at comedy and could be an action hero too. He’s the type of guy men want to be like, and women want to be with.
Okay, that might be a bit much. But it looks like he is at the start of a really big career. I reviewed his film Hit Man and was impressed by his acting. But there is something else in his favor: his apparent talent at reviving long dormant properties.
Less we forget, Powell was one of the stars of 2022’s highest grossing film Top Gun: Maverick. Add that to his Twisters being a top ten grosser, and Powell is your go-to-guy for legacy sequels and revamps. That’s good news, because he has been cast as the lead in Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man.
9. Sorry Sony, Paramount and MGM. There’s no room for you in the Top Ten!
Only three studios dominated the Top Ten this year: Warner Brothers and Walt Disney Studios with three films and Universal Studios with four. All the other studios, including Sony and Paramount, are on the outside looking in.
It’s not for lack of trying. Sony barely missed the Top Ten with Bad Boys: Ride or Die and Paramount’s Gladiator II and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 might have cracked the Top Ten if they weren’t released so late in the year. MGM had Red One as their highest grossing movie this year, and the less said about that the better.
But still, it’s odd to see the Top Ten dominated by just three studios. We might be seeing a new hierarchy in Hollywood playing out in the Top Ten this year, with Sony, Paramount and MGM a level or more below Disney, Warners and Universal.
10. International grosses are still vital for having a blockbuster hit
Seven of the Top Ten films this year made more money internationally than they did in the United States. As a matter of fact, some films would have been a flop if it relied exclusively on domestic grosses (looking at you, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire). Heck, Inside Out 2 didn’t even need to be released in the U.S. to earn a billion dollars. It earned as much internationally. Its domestic grosses were just gravy.
This also is nothing new. But that Inside Out 2 news is a bit shocking. Foreign grosses always boosted films’ grosses, but they seldom dominated them. This will change the way movies are made. More attention will be paid to casting international actors and not upset foreign governments than making quality films. That might be great for business, but will end up being worse for fans.
