The numbers are in: Domestic summer 2024 box office revenue is estimated at $3.67 billion, down 10.4% from 2023, Comscore said Monday. As counterintuitive as it may seem, Hollywood studio executives and theater owners aren’t panicking.
The mood was very different at the end of May, the official start of the summer box office. The month’s revenue fell 29% from a year earlier, raising new concerns that the moviegoing experience might not survive the lasting impact of the pandemic, historic labor strikes in Hollywood and competition from streaming.
Marvel Studios and Disney have been unable to open due to strikes Deadpool and Wolverine early May — the third part was delayed to late July — marking the first time in years that a Marvel superhero movie hasn’t been released this summer. This year, that job has fallen to Universal’s action-romance film The guy who falls at the right timewhich did not disappoint expectations. Disney and the 20th century Kingdom of the Planet of the Apesreleased in mid-month, performed well and managed to revive the franchise, but Memorial Day suffered a major blow when Warner Bros. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga I have a flat tire.
Sony’s June Offer Bad Boys: Ride or Die “That triggered a major reset and a two-month box office recovery that saw the “sins of the past quickly disappear into the rearview mirror,” says Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
The rebound began with the record performance of Inside Out 2that put Pixar back on the map and became the highest-grossing animated film of all time with over $1.667 billion in worldwide revenue as of September 2, including $651 million in the United States. And it will soon surpass Jurassic World to rank as the eighth highest-grossing film of all time at the worldwide box office.
From there, the domestic summer box office took off in full swing. A series of films of all shapes and sizes outperformed in North America, including A quiet place: first day ($139 million). July wins included Illumination and Universal Despicable Me 4 ($335.6 million), Amblin and Universal Tornadoes ($259.6 million) and Marvel and Disney’s superhero sensation Deadpool and Wolverinewho, like Inside Out 2broke numerous records and is the first title in the franchise to surpass $1 billion worldwide. Over the Labor Day weekend, dead Pool The threequel hit another milestone by crossing the $600 million mark in the US to end the long holiday weekend with a global haul of $1.262 billion.
“The turnaround for movie theaters in the middle of the summer season is astonishing and a lesson in how unpredictable and resilient this industry has always been despite the Chicken Little-esque predictions that come every time there’s a box office decline,” Dergarabedian said.
Analyst Shawn…
