The highest-grossing movies at the 2024 box office all share one sad similarity. The year has had an unusual structure in terms of theatrical distribution, as the planned releases of many big-budget blockbusters were pushed to 2025 amid the dual 2023 Hollywood strikes, during which writers and then actors took to the picket lines to fight for fair pay from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, pausing productions across the globe. However, despite a dearth of major tentpoles early in the year, many record-breaking movies were released throughout 2024, including two billion-dollar titles so far.
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The year has broken a variety of records thanks to movies from a wide range of genres. This includes the 2024 Thanksgiving weekend box office earning a collective $414 million thanks to a roster that featured the Disney animated feature Moana 2, Jon. M Chu's Broadway musical adaptation Wicked, and the Ridley Scott historical epic Gladiator II, making it the best 5-day Thanksgiving weekend of all time in North America. Another major record earned during the year was the Pixar animated movie Inside Out 2 becoming the highest grossing animated movie of all time by raking in $1.69 billion.
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Pixar's Inside Out 2 has become 2024's highest-grossing movie. Suffice it to say, it made so much money while also breaking few box office records.
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2024's 15 Highest Grossing Movies Worldwide Are All Part Of IP
They Range From Inside Out 2 To Alien: Romulus
At the time of writing, all of 2024's Top 15 movies are IP adaptations, which is a roster that includes sequels, prequels, and interquels. This was not the case earlier in the year. In July, the 15 highest grossing movies of 2024 included original titles such as Alex Garland's Civil War (now No. 31 with $126.2 million), John Krasinski's IF (No. 22 with $190.3 million), the biopic Bob Marley: One Love (No. 24 with $180.8 million) and the Jason Statham actioner The Beekeeper (No. 27 with $152.7 million). Below, see the full Top 15 chart for the year so far:
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Rank | Title | Worldwide Gross |
|---|---|---|
#1 | Inside Out 2 | $1.69 billion |
#2 | Deadpool & Wolverine | $1.34 billion |
#3 | Despicable Me 4 | $969.1 million |
#4 | Dune: Part Two | $714.4 million |
#5 | Moana 2 | $606.1 million |
#6 | Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | $571.7 million |
#7 | Kung Fu Panda 4 | $547.7 million |
#8 | Venom: The Last Dance | $472.9 million |
#9 | Wicked | $465.5 million |
#10 | Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | $451.1 million |
#11 | Bad Boys: Ride or Die | $404.5 million |
#12 | Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | $397.4 million |
#13 | Gladiator II | $371.5 million |
#14 | Twisters | $370.9 million |
#15 | Alien: Romulus | $350.9 million |
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This IP domination of the year's worldwide box office chart seems unlikely to change during the final weeks of 2024. While there are multiple original movies set to premiere before New Year's Eve - including the Nicole Kidman erotic drama Babygirl and the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown - none seem set up to outgross Alien: Romulus, even though they could become major successes on their own terms. The only movies that seem potentially able to clear $350.9 million are also IP-derived projects such as the musical prequel Mufasa: The Lion King and the video game adaptation Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
IP Dominating The Box Office Is Nothing New - But 2024's Results Are Extreme
2024's Original Hits Have Fallen Behind
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Modern Hollywood has long been dominated by IP projects in a variety of modes. This includes sequels, spinoffs, and prequels such as Top Gun: Maverick, Black Widow, No Time to Die, and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, as well as reboots including the Disney live-action movies The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Additionally, original stories have been adapted from multimedia franchises including Greta Gerwig's Barbie, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Uncharted.
Both Sonic the Hedgehog and Uncharted bring popular video game franchises to the big screen.
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This has somehow occurred in spite of the fact that the 2023 strikes saw many of the most prominent IP movies of the year delayed to 2025. That rescheduling allowed quite a few original movies to thrive earlier in the year, including the independent serial killer thriller Longlegs, which grossed $126.9 million against a budget of less than $10 million, and the romantic drama It Ends with Us, which was based on a novel but is not part of a pre-established movie franchise and has become the No. 16 movie of the year worldwide at the time of writing.
2024's Box Office Is The First Time Ever The Top 15 Movies Are All IP
Usually There Is At Least One Breakthrough Original
However, 2024 marks the first time that the entire Top 15 has been dominated by IP since at least 1977, past which point worldwide box office records become murkier. However, it seems unlikely that full IP domination of the Top 15 was ever the case before 1977, as the modern preponderance of sequels did not begin to kick into high gear until the 1980s. In fact, of the Top 15 movies of 1977, only two (the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me and the horror sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic) were based on pre-existing movie IP.
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The No. 1 movie of 1977 was Star Wars, a movie that launched a sprawling franchise and was instrumental in the tides turning for IP-derived movies throughout the ensuing decade.
Until now, there has been at least one original hit in the Top 15 every year, including Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer in 2023 (No. 3 for the year), 2013's Frozen (No. 1), 2010's Inception (No. 4), 2007's Ratatouille (No. 6), 2003's Finding Nemo (No. 2), and 1999's The Sixth Sense (No. 2). In fact, there are generally even more, including in 2016, when the Top 15 featured five original movies, namely Zootopia, The Secret Life of Pets, Moana, Sing, and The Mermaid even though sequels such as Captain America: Civil War and Finding Dory still thrived.
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2025 Could Repeat IP's Level Of Success At The 2024 Box Office
A Huge Number Of Sequels Are Already On The Schedule
Because so many planned 2024 IP movies got delayed to 2025 during the strikes, there is an even wider range of 2025 movie sequels on the schedule in the coming year. Below, see a breakdown of some of the most prominent sequels set to premiere throughout the year, which does not even include impending reboots such as Wolf Man, Snow White, and Lilo & Stitch. It also does not include the spinoff From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, the video game adaptation A Minecraft Movie., or the comic book universe movies Superman, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
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Sequel | US Release Date (subject to change) |
|---|---|
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl | January 3 |
Den of Thieves: Pantera | January 10 |
Paddington in Peru | January 17 |
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy | February 14 |
Captain America: Brave New World | February 14 |
The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection | April 18 |
The Accountant 2 | April 25 |
Final Destination: Bloodlines | May 16 |
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning | May 23 |
Karate Kid: Legends | May 30 |
28 Years Later | June 20 |
M3GAN 2.0 | June 27 |
I Know What You Did Last Summer | July 18 |
The Bad Guys 2 | August 1 |
Freakier Friday | August 8 |
Nobody 2 | August 15 |
Insidious: The Red Door | August 29 |
The Conjuring: Last Rites | September 5 |
Downton Abbey 3 | September 12 |
Saw XI | September 26 |
TRON: Ares | October 10 |
The Black Phone 2 | October 17 |
Mortal Kombat 2 | October 24 |
Now You See Me 3 | November 14 |
Wicked Part Two | November 26 |
Zootopia 2 | November 26 |
Five Nights At Freddy's 2 | December 5 |
Avatar: Fire and Ash | December 19 |
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants | TBD |
Untitled Scary Movie | TBD |
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | TBD |
Thanksgiving 2 | TBD |
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However, it is possible that IP will not continue its box office domination in 2025. Several of these sequels seem unlikely to land in the Top 15, including Downton Abbey 3, which is a sequel to a $92.6 million movie, and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which is being released on Peacock in the United States in spite of an international theatrical run. Given historical precedent, it is also entirely possible for a surprise original movie (especially a Disney or Pixar title) to become a hit at the level required to outgross even this wide roster.
