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Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Domestic Box Office Hits $8.7 Billion in 2024, Down From Pre-Pandemic
variety.com: Not even the dynamic duos of Joy and Anxiety, Deadpool and Wolverine, Gru and his minions or Paul Atreides and those massive sandworms could push the 2024 box office to pre-pandemic heights.
I think that while this article is shouting about how last years numbers were down compared to pre-pandemic times, it is amazing to know that the numbers are still in the green! Even despite the hit that movie releases took due to the previous actor and writer strikes, the box office was only down a little bit. I remember during the pandemic I was really worried about whether or not movie theatres were going to recover, and I know of several in my hometown that didn't. I was surprised both by how many of last years big movies were sequels, as well as how many were produced by Disney. As far as companies go, Disney is one of the ones that I am most suspicious of. It has its hands in a lot of cookie jars so to speak. I also don't feel like the movies coming out of Disney are of the same quality that they used to be, which is disappointing. I hope that this changes and that the box office stays alive and thriving, allowing future generations to enjoy quality films.
I enjoyed reading all of these stats. I thought it was really interesting that out of the top ten movies this year, there were no originals. I know Wicked is considered an original movie, but it's not an original story, just an adaptation. I was also surprised that it wasn't higher on that list. But there were a lot of good movies that came out this year. They talk about concern that box office numbers are decreasing, and I think it needs to be considered how that is related to ticket price. Movie tickets are so expensive nowadays. I found that they are cheaper in Pittsburgh, but back home it's $15 for one person to go to the movies. So for me, even if I see a movie I would want to watch, a lot of times it makes more sense to wait until it comes out to watch at home. I think if they lowered ticket prices, or theaters started doing more sales/promotions, they could start to get those numbers back up.
I think it's really interesting to learn that the box office numbers are lower than they were in like 2019-2020 the pre-pandemic era but also they're still making an incredible amount of money off of these movies and sequels to iconic movies like inside out two made 1.7 billion dollars worldwide which is so much money and to think that this is their below average standard kind of blows my mind and I get it like it's the movie industry and Disney is this huge company this multi-billion dollar industry making so much money off of movies but it's still crazy to think that like even though they're starting to do better with their numbers that one point seven billion is not the ideal number that they're shooting for worldwide I'm like that just like blows my mind kind of leaves me speechless but the stats for this were very interesting to read and I think all the movies that there doing research on the statistics of were really great movies and really great research baselines so it was really interesting to read about like these new movies stats.
The 2024 domestic box office really highlighted how much the industry is still recovering from the pandemic and the strikes. I think the $8.75 billion total feels like a step back, especially since this is the first year post-pandemic where revenues didn’t improve. It’s frustrating to see admissions drop so significantly from pre-COVID levels too—it shows that even with big franchises like Inside Out 2 or Deadpool & Wolverine, the industry isn’t where it used to be. With the uprise of streaming services I mean, it has to be hard for movies to even make lots of money anymore because it will just come out online 3 weeks later for $20 or three months later on some random service, kind of making dropping money and going to a theater pointless. I feel like relying so heavily on sequels is a huge part of the problem. I understand that franchises like Despicable Me and Moana bring in consistent revenue, But it's such a missed opportunity for original films to stand out.
4 comments:
I think that while this article is shouting about how last years numbers were down compared to pre-pandemic times, it is amazing to know that the numbers are still in the green! Even despite the hit that movie releases took due to the previous actor and writer strikes, the box office was only down a little bit. I remember during the pandemic I was really worried about whether or not movie theatres were going to recover, and I know of several in my hometown that didn't. I was surprised both by how many of last years big movies were sequels, as well as how many were produced by Disney. As far as companies go, Disney is one of the ones that I am most suspicious of. It has its hands in a lot of cookie jars so to speak. I also don't feel like the movies coming out of Disney are of the same quality that they used to be, which is disappointing. I hope that this changes and that the box office stays alive and thriving, allowing future generations to enjoy quality films.
I enjoyed reading all of these stats. I thought it was really interesting that out of the top ten movies this year, there were no originals. I know Wicked is considered an original movie, but it's not an original story, just an adaptation. I was also surprised that it wasn't higher on that list. But there were a lot of good movies that came out this year. They talk about concern that box office numbers are decreasing, and I think it needs to be considered how that is related to ticket price. Movie tickets are so expensive nowadays. I found that they are cheaper in Pittsburgh, but back home it's $15 for one person to go to the movies. So for me, even if I see a movie I would want to watch, a lot of times it makes more sense to wait until it comes out to watch at home. I think if they lowered ticket prices, or theaters started doing more sales/promotions, they could start to get those numbers back up.
I think it's really interesting to learn that the box office numbers are lower than they were in like 2019-2020 the pre-pandemic era but also they're still making an incredible amount of money off of these movies and sequels to iconic movies like inside out two made 1.7 billion dollars worldwide which is so much money and to think that this is their below average standard kind of blows my mind and I get it like it's the movie industry and Disney is this huge company this multi-billion dollar industry making so much money off of movies but it's still crazy to think that like even though they're starting to do better with their numbers that one point seven billion is not the ideal number that they're shooting for worldwide I'm like that just like blows my mind kind of leaves me speechless but the stats for this were very interesting to read and I think all the movies that there doing research on the statistics of were really great movies and really great research baselines so it was really interesting to read about like these new movies stats.
The 2024 domestic box office really highlighted how much the industry is still recovering from the pandemic and the strikes. I think the $8.75 billion total feels like a step back, especially since this is the first year post-pandemic where revenues didn’t improve. It’s frustrating to see admissions drop so significantly from pre-COVID levels too—it shows that even with big franchises like Inside Out 2 or Deadpool & Wolverine, the industry isn’t where it used to be. With the uprise of streaming services I mean, it has to be hard for movies to even make lots of money anymore because it will just come out online 3 weeks later for $20 or three months later on some random service, kind of making dropping money and going to a theater pointless. I feel like relying so heavily on sequels is a huge part of the problem. I understand that franchises like Despicable Me and Moana bring in consistent revenue, But it's such a missed opportunity for original films to stand out.
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