2024 Box Office Top Ten

A somewhat meaningless tradition in my blogging has been reporting on the top box office successes each year, which is what this post is about, to clear up any potential confusion...Results are valid as of today, as reported at The Numbers.

1. Inside Out 2 ($652 million) The surprise huge hit Disney, under its Pixar studio, these days kind of really, really needed.  A somewhat belated sequel to the 2015 original, bagging close to double the haul in this market.  I haven't seen either one.
2. Deadpool & Wolverine ($636 million) Another big Disney hit, for its MCU division, which has also been struggling with recent years to find popular, lucrative material.  This was the first real step at integrating the X-Men franchise previously handled by Fox, technically the third Deadpool, certainly the first R-rated superhero film under its new umbrella, and also Hugh Jackman's return to the role that made him famous after a much-celebrated bow in 2017's Logan.  This was the biggest success for any X-Men film to date.
3. Wicked ($432 million) The first of two films adapting Gregory Maguire's take on The Wizard of Oz, based on the Broadway musical.  Somewhat also belatedly (that's really the story of all three films so far listed) on the heels of the similar Frozen.
4. Moana 2 ($404 million) Reportedly cobbled together from a previous incarnation as a TV series.  Actually, Disney did quite well in 2024, all considered.
5. Despicable Me 4 ($361 million) Actually the sixth in the franchise, after three previous under this title and two under Minions.
6. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($294 million) A very belated sequel!  The first was released way back in 1988.  Like Harrison Ford, Michael Keaton's been enjoying revisiting old roles (including Batman in The Flash) recently.  The first didn't quite make this kind of money, although it finished in the top ten for its year, too.
7. Dune: Part Two ($282 million) Denis Villeneuve successfully launched a film series on a book that had previously produced a somewhat notorious dud of an adaptation back in 1984.
8. Twisters ($267 million) I'm gonna go ahead and declare this the closest to an original film the top ten enjoyed this year.  Technically related to the 1996 film Twister, it features new characters in what is essentially a remake, and serves as a vehicle for budding new star Glen Powell.  
9. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($196 million)  Dating back a decade to the release of this franchise's Godzilla, this is somehow the fifth in the series.  
10. Kung Fu Panda 4 ($193 million) Yeah, the caveat for Twisters is really an attempt to rationalize the fact that every single movie this year is part of a series.  That's just how it is these days.  For what it's worth, the fifteenth and sixteenth entries are either merely based on a book (It Ends With Us) or...also based on a book (The Wild Robot).  But the twenty-first, IF, second to last on the list to score at least a hundred million, is entirely original!

Here's, for slight comparison, what it looked like at the global box office:

1. Inside Out ($1.6 billion)
2. Deadpool & Wolverine ($1.3 billion)
3. Moana 2 ($1 billion)
4. Despicable Me 4 ($971 million)
5. Wicked ($743 million)
6. Mufasa: The Lion King ($719 million) The first of two different entrants, and another win for Disney.
7. Dune: Part Two ($714 million)
8. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($572 million) 
9. Kung Fu Panda 4 ($547 million)
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ($491 million) And here's the other big difference.  If you're ever confused as to why some movies that did okay here in the States don't seem to be popular online, or movies that did well internationally but poorly here have bad reputations, or simply did bad everywhere...That's just how things are.  Reputations are built on box office.  The phenomenon of cult classics rehabilitate movies that made small amounts of money (or none).  If you're wondering, the eleventh entry on this list is from China, which is also why I started using The Numbers rather than Box Office Mojo, which decided a few years back to ignore Chinese numbers.  The country also nabbed thirteenth and fourteenth

As always, I post this here these days mostly as a window into my interests.  I love movies.