Box Office Studio Report Card: Disney’s Billion-Dollar Rebound, Apple and Lionsgate Flop Hard and More

As a seasoned film critic with decades of experience under my belt, I must say that this year has been nothing short of disheartening for the studios. Among them, Lionsgate seems to be struggling the most. I remember when they used to churn out hit after hit, movies that resonated with audiences and critics alike. But this year, it’s been one flop after another.

When it came to the movies that popped in multiplexes, 2024 was all about the sequels.

It seems that this year, recognizable franchises like Deadpool, Gru, Godzilla, and others dominated the box office, with sequels such as “Inside Out 2”, “Deadpool & Wolverine”, “Despicable Me 4” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” filling eight out of the top ten highest-grossing movies worldwide. Interestingly, the only non-franchise film to make this list was “Wicked”, which is actually an unofficial prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” and a musical adaptation of a long-running Broadway show. In contrast, the biggest blockbusters in 2023 were “Barbie”, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Oppenheimer”, all of which didn’t have any numerals in their titles, indicating they weren’t sequels or part of a series.

The events unfolded as a continuous intellectual property competition among three leading studios: Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros., who accounted for almost all of the top-grossing blockbusters in 2024. These companies received our highest accolades for their efforts, but the cinema industry overall doesn’t have much to cheer about. Ticket sales are 4.8% lower than 2023, a figure that seems insignificant until you factor in that at least a quarter of that year was affected by actors and writers strikes. Compared to 2019, ticket sales are down by 23%. This indicates that the movie theater industry is still struggling to recover from COVID-19 and last year’s work disruptions.

For cinema operators, there was a scarcity of fresh films to showcase on their billboards, and while streamers did offer some relief, they didn’t completely fill the void. Emerging players in Hollywood like Apple and Amazon began releasing more films in theaters as a marketing tactic for their streaming platforms. However, these tech companies have yet to convincingly prove they can regularly produce movies that audiences are willing to pay to watch in cinemas.

By the time 2024 wraps up, I took a look back at how the big movie studios stacked up against each other in terms of global ticket sales for the past year.

Disney

Grade: AHighs: “Inside Out 2” ($1.69 billion), “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($1.33 billion), “Moana 2” ($717 million to date)Lows: “The First Omen” ($53 million), “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” ($397 million)Takeaways: The bigger they are, the harder they fall… the faster they rise again? After a rare, terrible year in 2023, Disney enjoyed a considerable box office rebound with not just one but three expected billion-dollar blockbusters. (“Moana 2” is projected to cross the billion-dollar mark in January.) No other studios fielded a single $1 billion release in 2024. “Inside Out 2” restored Pixar’s box office rut, “Deadpool & Wolverine” proved the squeaky-clean House of Mouse can pull off an R rating… if they pull in every Spandexed comic book star around, and “Moana 2” solidified the Polynesian-set animated adventure as a major new franchise — which is good news for the live-action reboot, starring Dwayne Johnson as the tattooed demigod Maui, in 2026 and the inevitable “Moana 3.” “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is the lowest grossing of the reboot franchise and “The First Omen” may be the last (at least theatrically speaking) in the occult-tilted thriller series, but potential losses on either are minor. It took a minute, but sparkle has returned to the Magic Kingdom.

Paramount

Assessment: Grade B

Sony

Assessment: The following film performances have been reviewed:

Universal

Summary: Universal Studios has achieved success in various genres, with musical adaptations like “Wicked” becoming popular and breaking the norm of Broadway-to-screen failures. The upcoming “Wicked: For Good” is anticipated for November 2025. In animation, Universal’s rivaling Disney with hits like “Despicable Me 4”, “Kung Fu Panda 4”, and “The Wild Robot”. However, the action comedy “The Fall Guy”, despite positive reviews and a global gross of $181 million, was a financial loss for the studio, indicating that budget control is essential for theater-focused comedies. A lesser-known film, “Abigail”, a Dracula’s daughter thriller, incurred less significant losses due to its lower production cost.

Warner Bros.

Grade: B+

Amazon MGM

Evaluation:

Apple

Grade: D

Lionsgate