Recently, all Hollywood film companies announced their total box office in North America in 2024, and Disney and Sony also completed the statistics of global box office in 2024. There are both completely expected results, such as Disney completely getting out of the slump in 2023 and becoming the box office leader again; there are also unexpected performances, such as Sony Pictures' two superhero movies "Spider-Man: The Spiderwick Chronicles" and "Kraven the Hunter" both failed at the box office at the beginning and end of the year, but its global box office did not decrease but increased.
The following companies are ranked in order of their North American box office in 2024. It is not difficult to find that the traditional status of the "Big Five in Hollywood" is still difficult to shake, and investments in small and medium-sized companies should be more cautious, while the profitability of independent film companies that originally focused on art films has become stronger and stronger.
Disney
After the box office failures of films such as Captain Marvel 2 and Wishing A Star in 2023, Disney regrouped and regained the title of the best-selling Hollywood film company in 2024. The group recently announced that its global box office in 2024 will reach 5.46 billion US dollars; at the same time, its North American box office will also reach 2.219 billion US dollars.
Inside Out 2 is the top-grossing Hollywood movie in 2024
With a total of 30 films released throughout 2024, Disney becomes the only film company with an annual North American box office of more than $2 billion, a 17% increase from 2023. This is the seventh time since 2010 that Disney has achieved an annual North American box office of more than $2 billion. Its global box office has exceeded the $5 billion mark, becoming the first Hollywood film company to achieve this goal since 2019, and the sixth time Disney has achieved this since 2010. Among the top five films in the global box office in 2024, Disney accounts for three, namely "Inside Out 2" (US$1.69 billion), "Deadpool and Wolverine" (US$1.33 billion) and "Moana 2" (US$961 million).
The successive box office hits also boosted Disney's popularity in the stock market. Its share price rose 23% throughout the year, closing at $111.35 at the end of the year. Although it cannot be compared with streaming giant Netflix, which saw a 90% increase throughout the year, it is already a leader among traditional Hollywood film companies.
global
In 2023, with hits such as "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Oppenheimer", Universal Pictures earned $1.93 billion in North American box office throughout the year, narrowly beating Disney and becoming the North American annual box office champion company for the first time since 2015. In 2024, although the top spot returned to Disney, Universal Pictures relied on films such as "Despicable Me 4", "Wicked" and "Twister", which can be regarded as a very ideal answer. With 31 films released throughout the year, Universal Pictures earned a total of $1.88 billion in North American box office, a decrease of 3% compared to 2023. Among them, "Despicable Me 4" raked in $969 million worldwide, ranking third in the annual box office list; "Wicked", which was released at the end of the year, ranked sixth with a global box office of $680 million.
Wicked Poster
Of course, the action comedy "The Stunt Man", which Universal invested $150 million to shoot, ultimately only earned $180 million at the global box office. Taking into account the publicity and promotion costs, losses are inevitable.
In terms of the stock market, Universal Pictures' parent company Comcast suddenly announced a split plan at the end of 2024, and is expected to gradually separate its cable TV network during 2025. It is difficult to determine the impact of this move on Universal Pictures itself. In 2024, Comcast's stock price fell 14.4%, closing at $37.53 at the end of the year.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. earned a total of $1.164 billion in North American box office in 2024, a 17% decrease from 2023. The main reason is obviously the lack of annual blockbusters like "Barbie". Moreover, they had a somewhat high start and low end last year. In the first and second quarters, relying on "Dune 2" and "Godzilla vs. Kong 2: Rise of an Empire", Warner once became the half-way box office champion in 2024. These two works finally ranked fifth and seventh in the annual global box office list with $710 million and $570 million respectively.
However, "Mad Max: Fury of the Gods" and "Joker 2", which were released later, failed to win the audience's favor. Instead, "Stranger Things", which was not very optimistic at first, sold well at the box office and even unexpectedly became Warner's best-selling work in North America throughout the year.
In terms of stock price, Warner fell 9% throughout the year, closing at US$10.57 at the end of the year.
Sony
Sony Pictures released 28 films in 2024, including such expensive but completely failed works as "Spider-Man: Far From Home" and "Kraven the Hunter". Despite this, Sony Pictures' total North American box office in 2024 is still the same as in 2023, at $1 billion; even its global box office reached $2.4 billion, higher than the $2.08 billion in 2023.
The reason is that compared with the previous Hollywood big brothers, Sony's advantages lie in cost control and its ability to find joint investors to cooperate in filming. Therefore, even though the best-performing film "Venom: The Last Dance" could only barely rank among the top ten global annual box office with $470 million, it still brought profits to Sony in the end.
Stills from Love, So Far
The most surprising Sony work in 2024 is "Love, Here and There". This romantic film, which cost only $25 million to produce, earned $148 million in North America alone, higher than "Venom: The Last Dance", and a global box office of $350 million. However, at the end of 2024, the director and the leading actor of the film had a war of words, which had some impact on the reputation of Sony Pictures.
Paramount
2024 is a year of great earthquake for Paramount Pictures. Former Chairman Sally Redstone finally agreed to withdraw and sell Paramount, which has been run by her family for many years, to Skydance Media led by David Ellison. However, due to market supervision, the transaction is not expected to be completed until September 2025. In terms of stock price, Paramount fell 27% throughout the year and closed at $10.46 at the end of the year.
Although the company changed hands, Paramount also released 12 films this year, two more than in 2023. The full-year North American box office reached 879.5 million US dollars, 5% more than in 2023. I believe it is mainly due to the excellent performance of "Gladiator 2" and "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" in the second half of the year.
Stills from Gladiator 2
Overall, there are quite a few films that Paramount invested in and released in 2024 that had disappointing box office results. For example, "Mystery Friend" and "Transformers: Origins" both had good reputations, but they just couldn't convince the audience to buy tickets. Moreover, these films all have problems with cost control. In the future, it depends on whether the new head can come up with a solution.
Lionsgate
In addition to the five Hollywood giants mentioned above, Lionsgate usually ranks sixth in the annual North American box office, and this is also the case in 2024. However, Lionsgate earned a total of $252.2 million in North American box office in 2024, a sharp drop of 57% compared to 2023. The reason is that there are no hot-selling works such as "John Wick" and the second is the box office failures of new films such as "The Commandos" and "The Crow".
Throughout 2024, Lionsgate released a total of 22 films, none of which topped the weekend box office charts when it opened, and none of which grossed $50 million in North America. Their only big-budget IP work in 2024, Borderlands, cost $120 million to produce, and starred many big names such as Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis. In the end, it only earned $15.48 million at the North American box office and $33 million at the global box office, making it one of the most unprofitable films in 2024. Such a box office loss would be a serious blow to the "Big Five" in Hollywood, and a fatal blow to a company like Lionsgate.
In 2024, Joe Drake, the long-time chairman of Lionsgate, will officially step down and be replaced by Adam Fogelson, who used to be the chairman of Universal Pictures and STX Films. It is expected that the future will also bring many changes to this evergreen Hollywood film company. In 2024, Lionsgate's stock price fell by 26%, falling to $7.55 per share at the end of the year.
Amazon MGM
Amazon MGM Studios, which is very old and very new, only released nine films in 2024, earning US$249.7 million in North American box office, a decrease of 8% from 2023.
Backed by the wealth of Amazon, Amazon MGM was originally expected by the market to invest heavily in filming super blockbusters to bring more business and popularity to theaters. As a result, their highest-grossing film in 2024, "Red One: Winter Operation", did cost a huge amount of US$250 million to shoot, but by the end of 2024, the film only earned US$180 million in global box office, which is obviously not ideal.
However, this Hollywood company, formed by the merger of a new business hegemon with a traditional film company, has its own uniqueness. The Red One, which is considered a loss-making movie by the outside world, can be regarded as a commercial success by Amazon, its parent company, in their own eyes. Therefore, the film accounts of Amazon MGM cannot be concluded based on box office alone.
A24
A24 Films released 24 films in 2024, two more than in 2023, with a total North American box office of $201 million, a significant increase of 47% over 2023. In 2014, ten years ago, A24 only released 11 films throughout the year. This shows the growth of this independent film company in the past ten years.
Of course, about one-third of their annual box office revenue came from the blockbuster "American Civil War". The film's global box office reached 126 million US dollars. Although there is still some gap compared to "Telekinesis", it can only rank second in A24's historical performance list; but its North American opening box office of 25.5 million US dollars refreshed A24's best record.
[Top 10 Hollywood movies in the global box office in 2024]
1. Inside Out 2 (Disney) $1.69 billion
2. Deadpool vs. Wolverine (Disney) $1.33 billion
3. Despicable Me 4 (Universal) $969 million
4. "Moana 2" (Disney) $961 million
5. Dune 2 (Warner Bros.) $710 million
6. "Wicked" (Universal) $680 million
7. Godzilla: Rise of an Empire (Warner Bros.) $570 million
8. Kung Fu Panda 4 (Universal) $540 million
9. The Lion King: The Legend of Mufasa (Disney) $470 million
10. Venom: The Last Dance (Sony) $470 million
