From the unexpected success ofTerrifier 3to the unprecedented failure ofJoker: Folie à Deux, there were a bunch of shocks and surprises at the box office in 2024. After Barbenheimer gave the box office a massive boost in 2023, 2024 saw another decline in theatrical revenue. But there were a few blockbuster hits that kept movie theaters alive in 2024, likeWicked,Inside Out 2, andDeadpool & Wolverine. There were some2024 box office disappointments that found success on streaminglong after they left theaters.
Some ofthe box office results of 2024were completely predictable.BorderlandsandKraven the Hunterwere never going to be hits; everything about their marketing and behind-the-scenes drama spelled a disaster from the get-go. And no one was surprised when ol’ reliables likeKung Fu PandaandSonic the Hedgehogscored another hit at the box office. But there were still plenty of surprises at the 2024 box office.
10Joker: Folie À Deux Was An Unmitigated Box Office Disaster
Todd Phillips’ firstJokermovie — a mid-budget, adult-oriented psychological thriller with dark themes — made an unprecedented $1 billion at the worldwide box office in 2019. Naturally, Warner Bros. twisted Phillips’ arm to get a sequel out of him. The studio gaveJoker: Folie à Deuxa whopping $190 million blockbuster budget, gave Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix a hefty payday, and brought in Lady Gaga to play Harley Quinn in what would be a lavish Golden Age-style musical extravaganza.
At the beginning of 2024,Joker: Folie à Deuxwas expected to easily gross another $1 billion like its predecessor. But what those predictions didn’t count on was that the movie would be wildly polarizing. Critics switched between praising and panning it, and fans of the original film felt personally insulted by it. It grossed a paltry $206,102,722 (viaThe Numbers), a massive step down from the first one. Nobody saw that coming.
9It Ends With Us Grossed $350 Million
Over the past few years, the mid-budget grown-up movie has quietly died a death. Those kinds of movies are going straight to streaming as the theaters are increasingly infested with big-budget blockbusters. But the runaway box office success of the 2024 Colleen Hoover-based romantic dramaIt Ends with Ushas proven that maybe the mid-budget grown-up movie isn’t dead after all.
It’s a serious, adult-oriented drama about toxic relationships and domestic abuse, and it managed to become a box office hit alongside a Marvel movie and anAlienmovie.It Ends with Usgrossed an impressive $350,993,761 (viaBox Office Mojo), around the same amount asAlien: Romulus, without a recognizable franchise or action-packed spectacle to rely on. This should be a promising sign for studios interested in adapting other popular novels for the screen.
8Pixar’s Inside Out 2 Became The Highest-Grossing Animated Movie Ever Made
Over the past couple of years, Pixar’s track record at the box office has taken a nosedive.Lightyearwas a bona fide bomb, despite coming from the studio’s most reliable franchise, andElementalstill underperformed despite making an impressive box office comeback. Pixar’s 2024 release,Inside Out 2, could’ve followed in this pattern and been another commercial disappointment for the studio. But not only wasInside Out 2a box office success; it became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time.
Inside Out 2’s box office numbersare impressive even by Pixar’s usual standards. With an enormous global haul of $1,687,272,063,Inside Out 2became the highest-grossing film of 2024 and the highest-grossing film in Pixar’s history. Thanks to its intergenerational appeal,Inside Out 2almost doubled the lifetime gross of the first movie.
78 Of The Top 10 Highest-Grossing Movies Of 2024 Were Sequels
Throughout the 21st century, sequels have made up a healthy majority of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of each year, but they don’t always have the kind of dominance they had in 2024. In 2023, four of the 10 highest-grossing movies were sequels. But in 2024, eight of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of the year were sequels.
These top-grossing sequels includeInside Out 2,Deadpool & Wolverine,Despicable Me 4,Moana 2,Dune: Part Two,Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,Kung Fu Panda 4, andVenom: The Last Dance. The only two entries in the top 10 that weren’t sequels wereYOLO, a comedic Chinese remake of the 2014 Japanese film100 Yen Love, andWicked, a movie based on a Broadway musical based on a novel based on a movie based on a series of books.Wickedis the first part of a two-parter, the second volume of which is set to arrive later this year.
6Dune: Part Two Grossed More Than $700 Million
When it was released in theaters and on streaming on the same day in 2021, Denis Villeneuve’s firstDunemovie barely grossed enough money to get Warner Bros. to commit to completing his adaptation with a second film. It was always going to be tough to turn Frank Herbert’s sci-fi opus into a blockbuster franchise. It deals with heavy political and theological themes, and its lore is shamelessly weird — it was an uphill battle to turnDuneinto a mainstream hit.
Dune: Part Twois a near-three-hour war movie about intergalactic politics and the dangers of religious zealotry, but it managed to become an undeniable blockbuster success. It far outgrossed its predecessor with a worldwide haul of $714,444,358 (viaBox Office Mojo). The fact that its breathtaking visuals demanded to be seen with an expensive IMAX ticket surely helped to boost those numbers.
5Deadpool & Wolverine Became The Highest-Grossing R-Rated Movie Of All Time
Marvel Studios’ output used to be a sure-fire success at the box office, but it’s been a lot more hit-and-miss lately. In 2023,Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniaunderperformed andThe Marvelswas a genuine flop. Marvel’s only theatrical release of 2024,Deadpool & Wolverine, could’ve gone either way. The R rating made it a big commercial risk, and it was hard to gauge whether the team-up of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine excited casual moviegoers or just diehard superhero fans.
But it didn’t just turn a profit; it beat outJokerandOppenheimerto become the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever made by a margin of hundreds of millions of dollars.Deadpool & Wolverinegrossed an impressive $1,338,071,348 over the course of an extensive theatrical run (viaThe Numbers). Teaming up these two mutants was one of the best decisions Marvel ever made.
4Terrifier 3 Became The Highest-Grossing Unrated Movie Ever Made
Damien Leone’sTerrifierseries has become notorious for pushing its audience to their limits. What started out as a microbudget horror production has evolved into an unlikely blockbuster franchise, because its sickeningly excessive gore has earned it a fervent cult following. With reports of viewers fainting and vomiting in theaters, 2024’s Christmas-themed threequel,Terrifier 3, brought the franchise’s bloodshed to shocking new heights — and that surprisingly resulted in it reaching new heights at the box office, too.
Terrifier 3grossed $89,754,227 worldwide (viaBox Office Mojo) against a relatively slim budget of $2 million. It broke a bunch of niche box office records: it became the highest-grossingTerrifierfilm, the highest-grossing Cineverse film, the highest-grossing Leone film, and the highest-grossing unrated film. Who could’ve guessed thatArt the Clown would outgross the Joker at the box office?
In the summer of 2024, action movie maestro George Miller dropped another entry in his belovedMad Maxseries,Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. But despite universal acclaim from critics — with a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score unanimously promising a satisfying cinematic experience —Furiosawas a box office bomb. It was the follow-up to modern classicMad Max: Fury Road, but it barely scraped back its $168 million budget with a worldwide gross of $172,714,623.
There are a fewreasons whyFuriosaunderperformed at the box office. It arrived nine years afterFury Road, so it didn’t exactly strike while the iron was hot. Plus, it wasn’t a four-quadrant movie, it didn’t have any proven box office draws in its cast, and it was a prequel. And despite the critical praise, theMad Maxfranchise has always had niche appeal.
2Moana 2 Swooped In At The Last Minute To Become A Smash Hit
When 2024 began, a sequel toMoanawasn’t even scheduled to hit theaters. It wasn’t until February that Disney announced it was retooling aMoanastreaming series as a theatrical sequel to the movie. WhenMoana 2was released in November, the reviews reflected the last-minute cash-grab switch from streaming to theatrical. There’s plenty of evidence that the movie was cobbled together from disparate pieces of a larger story developed for a different medium.
But none of that mattered all that much. TheMoanafan base is so large and dedicated that, despite its mediocre quality,Moana 2became a massive success. Since arriving in theaters,Moana 2has grossed $960,937,374 and counting (viaBox Office Mojo). It might not have been the best creative decision, but it proved to be a wise business decision.
1Longlegs Became The Highest-Grossing Independent Film Of 2024
If not for a viral marketing campaign, Osgood Perkins’ unsettling serial killer thrillerLonglegsmight have disappeared into obscurity. But Neon did an incredible job of advertising this movie. The studio released a series of cryptic trailers that revealed nothing about the plot of the film, but did promise one of the most disturbing cinematic experiences of the year. They deliberately obscured Nicolas Cage’s titular slasher to build an air of mystique around the character.
This ingenious marketing campaign paid off in spades. On a budget of less than $10 million,Longlegsmanaged to gross $126,942,386 (viaBox Office Mojo). It wasn’t enough to enter the top 10, but it was certainly a huge profit margin — and it was enough to become the highest-grossing independent film of the year and Neon’s biggest ever domestic hit.
