Entertainment

Box office was down in 2024. Here's why Hollywood is still in recovery mode

Published

3 days ago

December 29, 2024

Box office was down in 2024. Here's why Hollywood is still in recovery mode

It wasn’t good, but it could’ve been a lot worse. Given the lingering effects of last year’s Hollywood labor strikes, the relative lack of big movies and a dismal first half of the year at the box office, the film industry is breathing a collective sigh of relief as 2024 comes to a close.

This year’s box office revenue could total $8.75 billion in the U.S. and Canada, according to estimates from data firm Comscore. That figure would put the box office about 3% lower than in 2023. More dispiriting for theaters, it’s down about 23% compared with 2019.

But the numbers also represent a remarkable turnaround considering revenue was down 27.5% just six months ago after a weak slate and a string of high-profile flops, before Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” hit theaters in June.

“It was not your typical year because there was no traditional road map to follow through the entire calendar,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “The fact that we’re even here shows that audiences really love going to the movies, but they need a path to follow to get there.”

While 2024 presented unique challenges for the film business, moviegoing still faces a slew of hurdles that were accelerated by the pandemic.

Once-regular movie watchers aren’t seeing films in theaters at the same rate as before, waiting until their preferred movies show up as premium digital rentals or on streaming platforms. Films are also in theaters for shorter periods, meaning they’re often gone by the time casual moviegoers decide to check out a flick.

Last year’s strikes by Hollywood writers and actors also resulted in many movie releases being pushed out of 2024 due to production delays or a need for more marketing time. That meant there weren’t as many wide releases for moviegoers to get excited about.

As of Dec. 18, there were 95 domestic releases in 2,000 theaters this year, according to data from the National Assn. of Theater Owners trade group. That paled in comparison with 2023 (101 films). Next year is expected to be stronger, with 110 wide release movies on the schedule.

“As we were coming into the year, as a result of the strikes last year, I think there was clearly just some concern about what impact that would have,” said Sean Gamble, chief executive of Plano, Texas-based movie theater chain Cinemark. “The big thing that we’re just continuing to keep an eye on is what is the timing for volume, and where is volume going to fully fill out over the next couple of years.”

A lighter release schedule, combined with bombs early in the year, such as Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Furiosa: A Mad Max Story” and Universal Pictures’ “The Fall Guy,” had industry players feeling apocalyptic about the movies. But a strong string of hits throughout the summer and holidays has put some wind back in the sails.

“We’re ending the year in a better place than we were at the beginning of the year,” Tony Chambers, head of theatrical distribution at the Walt Disney Studios, said of the industry’s progress. “Part of it was how well these summer titles worked.”

Animation was a major win for the year, grossing more than $2 billion — a quarter of annual domestic box office revenue — and the biggest percentage ever for the genre. Summer films like Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 4” and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” the latter of which became the highest-grossing film of the year with nearly $1.7 billion in global sales, brought families to theaters in droves. Months later, Disney’s “Moana 2” helped anchor a massive Thanksgiving weekend box office haul.

Worldwide, animated films brought in more than $5 billion this year, according to Comscore. Analysts have credited family films — and more broadly, PG-rated titles, such as Universal’s “Wicked” — with boosting this year’s box office. The films not only resonated with their target audience of families, but also featured well-known and beloved characters, which can ease trepidation among families wrestling with whether a trip to the theaters is worth it.

While animated movies were a clear winner this summer, some superheroes also did their jobs. Marvel Studios’ latest film, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” grossed $1.3 billion worldwide, boosting the Disney-owned studio’s prospects after a string of lackluster films. The film also proved there is a niche for R-rated and irreverent storylines within the House of Mouse’s largely family-friendly and PG-13 superhero universe.

The summer may have been bolstered by blockbusters, but Osgood Perkins’ original indie “Longlegs” also contributed to the box office momentum. The breakout horror film, which stars Nicolas Cage, handed independent distributor Neon its biggest opening ever, with $22 million, and came after an extensive and cryptic marketing campaign.

As summer turned into fall, the string of hits continued with Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” and the heavily marketed “Wicked.” The continued momentum helped affirm that theatrical movies are still in demand, said Gamble of Cinemark.

In a recent meeting in Los Angeles with studio executives, he said a common topic of conversation was the meaning of this year’s box office for the health of theatrical exhibition.

“Everybody’s viewed the collective results of this year as a really positive thing,” Gamble said. “What we continue to see are examples that suggest the enthusiasm for moviegoing remains very robust.”

Disney had an especially good year, as the studio crossed the $2-billion mark in domestic box office with three of the top five films of 2024 — “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” each of which cracked $1 billion globally at the box office, and “Moana 2,” which has now grossed almost $821 million worldwide. That puts the Burbank media and entertainment giant at about 25% of this year’s box office.

“The successes we’ve had this year show that audiences are eager for that unbeatable experience of watching a great movie in a theater with a crowd of people who are enjoying it just as much as they are,” Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, said in a statement.

While blockbusters filled seats in theaters this year, there were also plenty of duds.

Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola’s massive, $120-million passion project “Megalopolis” hit a hard wall at the box office, grossing just $4 million in its opening weekend and less than $14 million total worldwide. The loosely Roman-themed fable about an architect in a futuristic New York was anathema to major studios, leaving Coppola to shoulder much of the financial risk himself.

Kevin Costner’s western epic “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” met a similar fate, grossing just $38 million worldwide after the “Yellowstone” actor put up his own property to fund the film. The movie was the first in a planned four-part saga. After the first movie’s reception, the sequel was pulled from its scheduled August theatrical release.

Despite the success of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” other superhero-related films didn’t fare as well theatrically, including Sony Pictures’ “Madame Web” and “Kraven the Hunter,” along with Warner Bros.’ comic book sequel-turned-musical “Joker: Folie à Deux.” Eli Roth’s video game adaptation “Borderlands” also failed to connect with audiences, as did Lionsgate’s reboot of horror film “The Crow.”

Still, film industry executives and analysts say they feel hopeful about 2025 — a year in which the effects of the strikes and the pandemic are further in the rearview mirror, and the cadence of movies gets closer to normal.

Industry leaders said 2025 should be a return to the trajectory the business was on before the pandemic and the strikes. Next year’s slate is stocked with superhero fare (“Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts” and a new DC reboot of “Superman”), action films (“Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” and “Jurassic World Rebirth”) as well as sequels to popular films (“Now You See Me 3,” “Zootopia 2” and “Wicked: For Good”).

The success of — and reliance on — sequels and reboots is also going to force a future reckoning for new stories.

Though original films like A24’s “Civil War,” Amazon MGM Studios’ “Challengers” and “Longlegs” cashed in at the box office, the entirety of the top 10 highest-grossing films domestic or worldwide this year were sequels or films based on existing stories (“Wicked,” as an adaptation of the 21-year-old Broadway play and a revision of the classic “Wizard of Oz,” is included in this).

“What studios and exhibition and the industry needs to focus on is possibly how to cut through with original content,” said Chambers of Disney. “Being able to have original titles cut through, that’s going to be the challenge.”

Movie Reviews

A look back at movie reviews of 2024

Published

6 hours ago

January 1, 2025

Press Room

Throughout the year, I took a look at quite a few new releases that were shown at the Dietrich Theater. Some of these new releases also consist of a few films that were shown during the seasonal film festivals. And, some of the new releases that I checked out were really good.

In fact, my top films of the year list is slightly bigger than usual. So, let’s get things started and here’s my top picks of 2024.

20. Remembering Gene Wilder

19. Civil War

18. Arthur the King

17. Anyone But You

16. The Holdovers

15. Inside Out 2

14. Ordinary Angels

13. Transformers One

12. The Wild Robot

11. It Ends With Us

10. Alien: Romulus

9. Twisters

8. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

7. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

6. Sonic the Hedgehog 3

5. Smile 2

4. The First Omen

3. Deadpool & Wolverine

2. The Wild Robot

And my number one pick of the year is … (definitely not Madame Web!) … Wicked.

As usual, there are some honorable mentions that were kind of close to making it to the top list! Migration; Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire; The Beekeeper; Moana 2; Kung Fu Panda 4; Abigail; IF; A Quiet Place: Day One; Gladiator II; The Bikeriders; Speak No Evil; Beetlejuice Beetlejuice; Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1; Reagan; Bad Boys: Ride or Die; My Penguin Friend; Saturday Night

For the first time, I will reveal a few selections that didn’t come close to making it to either the top list or the honorable mentions: Joker: Folie A Deux; Argylle; Lisa Frankenstein; The Watchers; Trap; The Crow

I plan on working on quite a few fun reviews through 2025! Besides the new releases and the film festival selections I generally work on, I will also be planning on some throwback reviews. Make sure to keep on checking my Wyoming County Examiner reviews page on Facebook for future reviews that I will be working on.

Entertainment

A guide to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's bitter eight-year Hollywood divorce

Published

7 hours ago

January 1, 2025

Press Room

A guide to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's bitter eight-year Hollywood divorce

Former Hollywood power couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married for only two years. Then they spent four times as long undoing their union.

The Oscar winners, who were together for about 12 years before Jolie filed for divorce in 2016, reached a written settlement agreement on Monday that finally ended one of the longest and most contentious splits in Hollywood history. In it, the “Girl, Interrupted” and “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” stars, who share six children and were each declared legally single in 2019, entered into a written agreement on their marital and property rights and gave up the right to any future spousal financial support.

Here’s a look at how the actors went from whirlwind romance to epic court battle.

Brangelina: The origin story

A single woman and a married man were cast as husband and wife in the 2005 movie “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” and soon after, “Brangelina” was born. With that movie-set origin story and the ensuing tabloid headlines, Jolie and Pitt immediately became one of the biggest power couples in Hollywood history.

Pitt had been married to “Friends” superstar Jennifer Aniston at the time, but her 2005 divorce from Pitt took less than a year, start to finishStill, it barely beat the 2006 arrival of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Pitt’s adoption of Jolie’s children Pax and Maddox. Three more children would follow.

Lots of rumors, then — finally — a wedding

After years of couplehood and lots of rumors that either a wedding or a breakup was on the way, the stars’ six children finally cajoled them into getting married. Despite fairy tale nuptials in 2014, the decision to exchange vows would turn out to be a big mistake. Huge.

The split happens — and quickly turns ugly

The world was shocked (well, mostly shocked) when the couple announced their separation in 2016 after two years of marriage. Things quickly got contentious, including abuse allegations stemming from an incident on a private plane — Jolie filed for divorce just days later — and a subsequent probe by the FBI.

Bad blood

Despite minor efforts to make the breakup seem civil, the war between the two stars played out for years and included many episodes of family drama. The estranged couple ultimately enlisted a private judge to help work things out, a decision that helped keep some of the specifics out of the public eye.

2019: More revelations

While the two were declared legally single in 2019, the divorce itself remained unresolved.

2021: More battling

2022: And more

Still going in 2023

Into 2024

Final resolution?

The former couple entered into a written agreement to settle the divorce in the last week of 2024. But the other dispute, about the sale of half of Chateau Miraval, remains outstanding. A judge still needs to sign off on the agreement.

Movie Reviews

Marco Review: You Will Bathe in Blood

Published

14 hours ago

December 31, 2024

Press Room

BOTTOM LINE
You Will Bathe in Blood

RATING
2.75/5

CENSOR
A, 2h 24m

What Is the Film About?

When Victor, the younger brother of a powerful mafia family is killed inhumanly by a rival family, his step-brother Marco (Unni Mukundan) promises to take revenge. The movie’s basic story is the way Marco goes about the vengeance and the setbacks he faces.

Performances

Unni Mukundan goes for a complete makeover with Marco. The character is designed as a beast-like personality who is raw and untamed and will go to any extent to protect his loved ones. The physical transformation and the attitude on display make the part believable. But, that is only half the job done as there is a lot of action to do.

Unni Mukundan does extremely well in the action blocks. The ferocity and energy needed for the part are adequately presented in the performance. Believability is the main thing here and the effort makes it convincing from the start to the end. But once he sets the tone and mood for his character, there is hardly any variation he brings.

Analysis

Haneef Adeni writes and directs Marco. It is an out-and-out action film made for genre lovers with a very thin storyline.

The Raid, followed by Hollywood flick John Wick, and series like The Punisher etc. have provided a feast for action movie lovers globally in the last decade and a half. Many have tried to replicate the formula across the industries and here we are now in the same space with Marco.

The movie’s opening segment sets the basic premise neatly without much drag. The principal characters among whom the narrative takes place are given some expository dialogues to establish the world and the editing sets up the tone perfectly.

The hero doesn’t arrive immediately and comes after a lot of buildup, the kind we see in KGF and the like. It raises the expectations and meets them comfortably. The hero’s introduction makes it clear that the movie would be a no-holds-barred action romp with lots of stomach-curdling gore, violence and blood spilling.

The film’s first half is about the build-up to the intro and then to the interval. Everything else happening in between works in tandem with taking the narrative towards those blocks.

The interval block raises the stakes further after the intro in terms of the action. It does remind one of the climax sequence of a recently released Telugu flick, though.

Again, the small twists and turns the proceedings take to reach the interval are on expected lines, and nothing is frankly surprising. These scenes additionally contain brief emotional moments between the brothers to justify all the violence that follows.

Post the bang of an interval, the expectations only increase as to what could come next to top it. However, we don’t immediately get to the ‘action’ and there is some drama. It is typical of the genre, which again feels like a set-up to the next big bang.

We get that bang, but in an unexpected fashion during the pre-climax. It justifies the promotional tagline of the film as ‘The Most Violent Flick’ of the season. It is also emotional and most importantly not for the weak-hearted. Some moments in it might be too much to take for a normal viewer.

The climax is on expected lines after that mayhem seen previously. But, it doesn’t just go through the motions, it delivers a satisfying experience after all things are done. It’s this full contentment experience after the whole ordeal is where Marco succeeds. The joy of making it seeps through amidst all the bloodshed.

Overall, Marco is a violent action thriller with slick execution. It delivers on what it promises without holding back on anything. It is a treat, for action movie lovers who don’t mind the gore. If you like the genre, go ahead.

Performances by Others Actors

We have many artists playing bits and pieces roles in the movie. To those who follow Malayalam cinema, a few faces are instantly recognisable like Siddique, Jagadish etc. They fit into any character given to them effortlessly. We see the same here as they play gangsters.

The rest of the actors are relatively unknown from an outsider’s perspective. However, it doesn’t matter as when it comes to the performances, they all do an adequate job. They generate the right emotion conveying ruthlessness or disgust. Abhimanyu Thilakan and Kabir Duhan Singh impress playing the antagonists. The latter gets a short, but powerful part sure to leave an impact.

Among the female characters, only Yukti Thareja and Durva Thaker have crucial parts. The screen time is small, but they add emotional appeal in their own way.

Music and Other Departments?

Ravi Basrur of KGF fame composes the music. The songs are serviceable to the genre, but the background score is excellent in his typical style. It leans more on the techno side and parts of it are repeated throughout, but it doesn’t get monotonous, though. Technically the movie is slick with excellent cinematography and editing. The action choreography is top-notch and a major highlight of the flick. The writing is okay.

Highlights?

Action Blocks

Unni Mukundan

Editing

Drawbacks?

Thin Storyline

Too Much Gore (Not For Everyone)

Mechanical Drama

Did I Enjoy It?

Yes

Will You Recommend It?

Yes, to those who love action movies in all its bloody glory