2024's Ten Top-Grossing Films Were All Sequels or Prequels (slashfilm.com)
- Reference: 0175786173
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/12/30/000205/2024s-ten-top-grossing-films-were-all-sequels-or-prequels
- Source link: https://www.slashfilm.com/1745855/highest-grossing-movies-of-2024/
Here's the [2]list of 2024's top-grossing films published by the movie blog SlashFilm :
10. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
9. Venom: The Last Dance
8. Kung Fu Panda 4
7. [3]Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
6. Wicked
5. [4]Dune: Part Two
4. Moana 2
3. Despicable Me 4
2. [5]Deadpool & Wolverine
1. Inside Out 2
2024 was the year Godzilla celebrated its 70th year as a franchise — but it wasn't the only long-running franchise. "When the Marvel Cinematic Universe went R-rated with Deadpool & Wolverine ... it was literally more successful than any other R-rated movie in history," SlashFilm points out, while Venom: The Last Dance was the year's 9th highest-earner. (But several other big superhero movies flopped and "the misses outweighed the hits this year, while DC sat it out entirely as the world waits for Superman to [6]usher in James Gunn's new DC Universe .")
They also marvel that Wicked earned $572 million after opening on the same day as Ridley Scott's Gladiator II ....
But in the end SlashFilm describes 2024 as "a banner year for animation," with computer-animated movies filling four of the top ten spots ( Kung Fu Panda 4 , Moana 2 , Despicable Me 4 , and Inside Out 2 ). And another interesting trend? Though the world flocked to Tim Burton's first sequel to Beetlejuice after 36 years, Warner Bros. was, "at one point, [7]pushing for Beetlejuice 2 to go directly to streaming on Max." And Disney original had the same idea for Moana 2 , leading SlashFilm to conclude that 2024's box office "should be [8]the death of the big direct-to-streaming movie ." SlashFilm notes that Disney also sent several Pixar originals to Disney+ between 2020 and 2022, which "did immeasurable damage to the brand, something that [9]even CEO Bob Iger has acknowledged ." And then after a theatrical debut Pixar's Inside Out 2 became "the eighth biggest movie ever at the box office, with $1.698 billion to its name" — and the highest-grossing animated film ever made.
And Dune: Part Two ?
> Denis Villeneuve accomplished nothing shy of a miracle with 2021's "Dune," an adaptation of Frank Herbert's cherished sci-fi novel that was faithful to the material, massive in scale, but still felt like an auteur film... The only downside? 2021 was a terrible time to release a movie, particularly a Warner Bros. movie, as all of the studio's films were going to HBO Max the same day they hit theaters. Yet, "Dune" made $400 million in its original run, which was enough to justify a sequel. Evidently, the audience for this franchise grew exponentially in the years before "Dune: Part Two" hit theaters in early March... All told, Villeneuve's sweeping, epic sequel pulled in $714.4 million worldwide, all while garnering tons of acclaim once again. Also, not for nothing, Villeneuve got it made for less than $200 million...
>
> Without "Dune: Part Two" making what it made, the box office might have been in truly dire shape. As a relatively dead April and very weak May followed, this overperformance helped keep theaters afloat until greener pastures arrived in the back half of the year. The Spice must flow, as it were.
[10]The Hollywood Reporter offers another take on the significance of 2024:
> Total domestic box office revenue appears to be heading toward around $8 billion, down from 2023's exhilarating post-COVID turnaround of $9 billion, but the National Association of Theatre Owners prefers to [11]accentuate the positive , attributing the dip to a shortage of product due to the labor strikes and taking encouragement from the renewal of the movie habit...
>
> Interestingly, or thankfully, the cinematic universes of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars failed to expand: except for [12]Deadpool & Wolverine , not one of the huge hits came from a comic book franchise or a galaxy far, far away.
The article then complains about people using their phones during the movie for texting, talking, and [13]photographing the movie itself . (Though it applauds [14]a PSA against the practice in which Deadpool and Wolverine "delivered the message in laudably blunt terms.")
And on Wikipedia, Deadpool & Wolverine and Dune: Part Two were [15]the eighth and 23rd most popular articles of 2024 .
[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/peak-top-10-lists-recording-movie-theater-screens-1236092926/
[2] https://www.slashfilm.com/1745855/highest-grossing-movies-of-2024/
[3] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/03/31/1727230/dune-2-beaten-by-godzilla-x-kong
[4] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/04/05/145230/denis-villeneuve-is-doing-dune-3
[5] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/07/29/0132247/disneys-first-r-rated-movie-opening-sets-an-all-time-record-deadpool-wolverine
[6] https://www.slashfilm.com/1742372/how-superman-trailer-sets-up-james-gunn-dc-universe/
[7] https://www.slashfilm.com/1665715/tim-burton-beetlejuice-2-theatrical-release-warner-bros-condition/
[8] https://www.slashfilm.com/1729207/moana-2-death-direct-to-streaming-blockbuster-movie/
[9] https://www.slashfilm.com/1338610/multiple-marvel-shows-diluted-focus-pixar-movies-streaming-hurt-disney-brand-says-bob-iger/
[10] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/peak-top-10-lists-recording-movie-theater-screens-1236092926/
[11] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/nato-report-moviegoing-box-office-1236089498/
[12] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/deadpool-and-wolverine-review-ryan-reynolds-hugh-jackman-marvel-1235955797/
[13] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/wicked-movie-debate-photos-screen-1236071975/
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OnsDHB3TTU
[15] https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2024/12/03/announcing-english-wikipedias-most-popular-articles-of-2024/
Re: (Score:2)
Pro-tip: Movie releases are announced months in advance, the year ends in about two days and there are no new movies scheduled to open between then and now.
And meanwhile... (Score:2)
...talented writers can't find work.
No trend lasts forever, I'm hoping that originality and creativity returns someday.
But, I fear that it will get a LOT worse before it gets better
Re:And meanwhile... (Score:4, Insightful)
The issue is with so much money on the line, the investors get stupidly conservative. If you invest in a sequel, sure, you're not likely going to get the same result but you're going to have a built-in audience and an advertising boost. It's a 'proven' property.
In the end, greed dooms it all. Movies don't need to cost that much. The average Hallmark movie has a $2M budget and takes less than a month to make. You could pay a script writer $100K to spend a year getting your script just right and then knock out that movie while barely noticing the difference in your budget.
Top name actors can pull down enough in a single movie payday to make Hallmark level movies for a years, and could choose any script they want that doesn't involve lots of CGI or stunts. They don't.
It's all about the greed.
Re: (Score:2)
Naah, look at how popular all the sequels and prequels are! They're the entire top ten, so obviously we need more sequels, sequels, sequels, and no new movies or new ideas of any kind.
Big money, big nuts (Score:3)
The problem is that making a movie is expensive. We're seeing the same thing in pharmaceuticals, where new ideas get zero investment. It has become so expensive that only "sure" bets get investment. If a lottery ticket cost 1 million dollars very few people would buy it. That's why investment is attracted to existing tech. Like, if you're hiring would you hire someone with zero experience straight out of college? I mean, they might be just as capable as an experienced person. The person who has a resume filled with similar things that you want to do gets hired. That's because it's a surer bet than the out-of-college person with a blank resume (who might be just as, or more, capable than the experienced worker). It's also why someone would hire an MIT grad over a state college grad even though both bachelor's degrees have pretty the same curriculum.
Two movies from that list (Score:2)
I've seen 2 movies from that list in the theater; but if that's the extent of the list it's no wonder the movie industry is tanking.
Re: (Score:1)
> I've seen 2 movies from that list in the theater; but if that's the extent of the list it's no wonder the movie industry is tanking.
you were expecting a more extensive list of movies in the top ten list? Does "ten" mean some other value where you're from?
Or were you thinking it was binary? In which case you saw all of them.
Re: (Score:2)
Theaters have been complaining that Hollywood won't give them enough movies. They are all more interested in streaming now.
Dune 2? (Score:4, Insightful)
Dune 2 shouldn't count towards this terrible Hollywood trend. It's neither a sequel nor a prequel - it is part two of the same book.
Re: (Score:1)
I really want to like Dune, but it's really hard to get around the eugenics aspect, because that is so central to the plot and the worldbuilding. He attributes many things to genetics which are definitely not a result of genetics.
Independent theaters are still worth going to (Score:4, Insightful)
I am lucky enough to have one in my town, and I go regularly to see movies from before I was born on the big screen. Mine even serves good beer!
Deadpool (Score:1)
The first two Deadpool movies were entertaining. I never read the comics or cared about superheroes. Deadpool and Wolverine seemed to be 90% in franchise jokes and references to movies I haven't seen. The movie was not good.
Re: (Score:2)
The only good Dead Pool movie was the 1988 original, with Clint Eastwood. (sorry, couldn't resist ;)
Same as 2022 (Score:2)
All the top 10 grossing movies of 2022 were also sequels or prequels.
Commodities (Score:2)
Movies are just commodities from an industry that could give a shit about art. Hollywood reflects our modern culture, and the best that we have today is fake shit pretending to be something that it is not. This has been the case for quite a while. Whether it is AI, the latest smartphone, social media, video games, or movies, we are just regurgitating old shit sold by today’s snake oil salesmen. The biggest difference between today and 30 years ago is that we can make more realistic seeming fake shit.
when there are mostly (Score:3)
Sequels or Prequels this is not an unexpected result.
duh (Score:1)
That's because most movies these days are sequels, prequels, or remakes
earning are not profits (Score:2)
Earning are not profits, wait until all of the studios behind these films report a loss at the end of the year thanks to "Hollywood accounting".
Wonder which would hare reported the highest LOI (Loss on investment) on paper at the end.. they should do award shows for the accounting firms. I'd watch those instead of the Oscars.
As for prequels/sequels vs originals... the quality of scripts has been dropping for decades... with the advent of AI assistance... it will only get worse. Studios are going to conti
Ahh so that's why... (Score:4, Insightful)
I haven't bothered to go see any movies this year. Maybe take a risk or two and come up with something different or interesting or at least something not already done at least twice.
It doesn't help that I strongly dislike the theater experience and building your own home setup isn't really all that costly anymore.
It helps to remember that new stuff like this is being made for the post 40 crowd anyway. We're to picky at this point. Just keep remaking shit every 15 years or so for the next generation of kids.
Re: Ahh so that's why... (Score:2)
Exactly! My wife and I used to be avid movie goers, the pandemic just killed it for us. I remember seeing Tenet and wondering who the actual fuck mastered the audio so god damned badly. And since then, it's just been shit all the way. Now we have our own surround sound setup and it's superior.
Re: (Score:2)
> I remember seeing Tenet and wondering who the actual fuck mastered the audio so god damned badly.
My impression is that Christopher Nolan likes his movies loud.
Re: Ahh so that's why... (Score:2)
It certainly was! The problem though is we couldn't make out what was being said half the time. It's as if there was an error made during mastering where the vocal track was attenuated. Neither in the cinema nor at home did it sound correct. I've not had the same issue with his other films, but nevertheless when I think back to when the cinema 'got shit', sadly Tenet marks the beginning.
Re: (Score:2)
> The problem though is we couldn't make out what was being said half the time.
I went to a Bob Dylan concert (way back) that was like that.
> It's as if there was an error made during mastering where the vocal track was attenuated.
In my case, I think the problem may have been with Bob ... :-)
Re: Ahh so that's why... (Score:2)
It turns out that Christopher Nolan likes it this way. It is not a mistake. It is an artistic decision. Now I think it is a dog ahit of a decision. But it is done on purpose.
When he directed Batman, he sid not put a mic in Bame's mask to capture the authenticity that people would not be able to hear him right. So he is so hard to understand because he is not mic-ed properly on purpose.
Re: Ahh so that's why... (Score:2)
Well here's the thing, I did not find it hard to hear Bane. The audio quality in all of his other films is absolutely superb, Batman included. Tenet is SO FAR off from those films that it genuinely feels like a mistake.
Re: (Score:2)
Last time I went to a theater was the last Jason Bourne movie, 2016. Haven't been back since, as that was such an unpleasant experience - music too loud, too much spam before the movie, etc. (And I'm getting too old to sit through a movie without a r/r break!)
And there's the old saying, "There's nothing new under the sun." Are there any original ideas even left? I get that studios need to make money and movie fans want something to see, but surely there are diminishing returns from pumping out the same ol
Re: (Score:2)
> Maybe take a risk or two and come up with something different or interesting or at least something not already done at least twice.
This story does not say all or even most of the movies released were sequels (despite everybody interpreting it that way) - just that sequels are the ones audiences chose to pay to watch.
You want to see a list with few sequels? Here you go: [1]10 Biggest Box-Office Flops of 2024, Ranked [fandomwire.com]. (How Megalopolis didn't make that list, I have no idea. But it wasn't a sequel!!)
[1] https://fandomwire.com/10-biggest-box-office-flops-of-2024-ranked/
Re: (Score:2)
You are looking for excuses. There's no reason a sequel or a prequel couldn't be any bit as good or maybe even better than an original film just because it is set in some universe in which you have heard a story told before.
Not all new stuff is good
Not all sequels / prequels / remakes are bad.
Re: (Score:2)
To the point: Deadpool & Wolverine might be the best xmen movie so far.
Re: (Score:2)
> There's no reason a sequel or a prequel couldn't be any bit as good or maybe even better than an original film just because it is set in some universe in which you have heard a story told before.
It's certainly true that a sequel can be as good or better than the original; it's also true that that is the exception rather than the rule, and for an obvious reason: There are only a finite number of viable movies you can construct from the elements of any given fictional "universe", and the earlier movies set in that universe get first pick out of the available dramatic possibilities, claiming the best ones for themselves and leaving the later installments with fewer and fewer of the remaining scraps t