It felt like a quieter year for the movies in 2024. While global box office takings appear to have increased, 2024 cinema didn’t have a Barbenheimer-style pop culture defining moment – despite the promotional teams for Wicked trying very hard to fabricate one. What the global box office does speak to is a cinematic landscape that continues to shift and change in search of its position in the new entertainment landscape. Existing IP remains the key strategy, with Red One and IF the only films in the top 25 grossing films in the world that are not sequels, remakes or adaptations. We saw the continued decline of the superhero movie after two decades as the dominant blockbuster force, with the second year in a row of only two superhero movies – Deadpool & Wolverine (which was ok) and Venom: The Last Dance (which was not good) – cracking the global box office top ten. Family animation showed that it is still the most dependable performer, with Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 performing strongly and Despicable Me 4 and Kung Fu Panda 4 doing solidly (Inside Out 2 also showed that Pixar is still very much a drawcard when Disney doesn’t shoot themselves in the foot by sending them straight to Disney+). Wicked confirmed that the non-animated musical genre has returned as a legitimate blockbuster form, while Joker: Folie à Deux (which I kind of liked)showed that if you are going to make a sequel that is openly antagonistic to the audience that made your first film a massive hit then you probably shouldn’t inflate the budget with massive salary raises.

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