All ten of the highest-grossing movies of 2024 are sequels, with Inside Out 2, Deadpool and Wolverine, and Despicable Me 4 taking up the top 3 spots. It marks the first time in 50 years that the entire top 10 is made up of follow-up titles, which we define as direct continuations here – not prequels, reboots, and films merely consisting of existing IP.
It's hard to imagine sequels would've taken over the top 10 pre-1974, too, which likely means it's the first time it's happened in cinema history.
At the time of publishing (November 21), Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire round out the top 5, while the likes of Kung Fu Panda 4, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Venom: The Last Dance, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes make up the rest of the list, according to Box Office Mojo. Two of the entries made more than $1 billion, with Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine pulling in $1,698,030,965 and $1,337,870,481, respectively – staggering figures, really, when you consider both of them landed on Disney Plus just over 100 days after they were released in theaters.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is currently in tenth place, has made $397 million. (GamesRadar+ has not counted Chinese box office figures in this report).
As Gabriel Rossman, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, points out to us, "box office has mostly recovered from the extremely low COVID era numbers but not all the way" and there "seems to be at a new equilibrium like 75% of the pre-COVID level."
"Theaters need box office wherever they can get it," he explains. "Whether that's originals, sequels/franchises, or more niche/emerging genres like streaming live events."
Not everyone is down with sequels' big screen domination, though. Shockingly, Star Wars creator George Lucas hit out at the trend earlier this year in an interview with French publication Brut Officiel. "The stories they're telling are just old movies," he claimed. "'Let's do a sequel, let's do another version of this movie.' There's no original thinking... the big studios... they don't have an imagination."
During London Film Festival 2024, writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine, Red Rocket) shared similar sentiments, revealing to Metro that "part of the goal" of his newest film, Anora, was "[bringing] films from the '80s that were dramas or dramedies made for adults, [films] we're not seeing a lot of these days" back to cinemas.
Franchise films are hardly a new phenomenon. Over the last half-a-century, there have been a number of series that routinely see each of their new entries do well at the global box office, from Rocky and Star Wars to James Bond. Still, from 1974 to 2002, less than five of the top 10 highest-grossing were continuations every year. In the early 2000s, theater screens were taken over by the likes of The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix, and Harry Potter. As Transformers, the Twilight Saga, the Fast and Furious films, and Shrek entered the fray, more and more spots in the top 10 were taken up by follow-ups.
"We're gonna balance sequels with originals specifically in animation. We're now swinging back a bit to lean on sequels," Disney CEO Bob Iger announced during the company's quarterly earnings in May 2024 (per Variety). "I just think that right now, given the competition and the overall movie marketplace, that actually there's a lot of value in the sequels obviously because they're, you know, they're known and it takes less in terms of marketing."
Sequels may be seen as safer bets for studios, but are they actually saving theaters? Are sequels getting people back into cinemas in the age of streaming, which is swiftly becoming film lovers' preferred way to watch the latest releases? 2024's top 10 movies – be them sequels or not – making approximately $7.5 billion at the box office, as opposed to $8.5 billion in 2023, $10.2 billion in 2022, and $7.6 billion in 2021, highlights the declining interest in seeing movies on the big screen even when they're predominantly titles with built-in fans. Who's to say, however, that it wouldn't be substantially lower without these sequels managing to get bums in seats in these undeniably trying times for the industry?
The odd big-hitting original still comes around every so often, of course. Wicked, the first adaptation of Broadway's hit The Wizard of Oz prequel, threatens to shake up the current top 10 upon its release on Friday, November 22. As reported by Fandango back in October, the musical's pre-sales suggest it's on track to make $1 billion, which would see it nab the third slot in 2024's highest-grossing movies ranking. A more recent write-up from Deadline claims it's projected to pull in an eye-watering $165-200 million over its opening weekend. All ten of the highest-grossing movies of 2024 are sequels? Maybe not for much longer…
For more, check out our picks of the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way in 2024 and beyond.
