Behind the Unexpectedly Successful Summer Box Office
After weathering one of the slowest starts to a box office year we’ve seen, 2024’s summer box office proceeded to take a very different turn. Now lagging only about $500,000 behind summer 2023, mainly attributed to the lack of an early May “kickoff” Marvel film, it’s difficult to conceive of this being the same year we were so skeptical of just a few months ago. Today, our experienced local entertainment attorney in Los Angeles, Blake & Wang P.A.’s Brandon Blake, takes a closer look at what’s behind this shift in fortune and what it means for the wider 2024 box office.
Near-Nonstop Resilience
Despite a rocky start to 2024, once Sony’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die turned in a creditable $56.5M States-side debut in early June, the successes and event films have kept coming.
Interestingly, some industry pundits believe that the rise (and rise) of ad-supported streaming may have something to do with this. It’s already a well-established fact that a trip to the movies is one of those low-budget, big-value ways for ordinary people to enjoy a cheap(ish) night out in tough economic climates — roughly to the tune of $12.36 per adult ticket. With ad-supported streaming now aligning most home offerings with earlier linear models and their commercial breaks, streaming platforms have ironically created an ecosystem where the ad-free, high-impact silver screen once again has a big role to play in how we relax and unwind.
A Highly Impactful Summer
Summer 2023 brought us 13 films crossing $100M domestic at launch and 5 that brought home $200M. 2024’s summer will close out with 9 $100M movies and 4 north of $200M. Of the current $5.6B total-year box office, 64% of it was driven by summer releases.
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There are some other notable factors at play. For one, far more innovative marketing. 2022 and 2023 brought the realization that, rather than running contrary to each other, a solid theatrical release can be an amazing marketing tool for later streaming success. This leaves a ripe market for innovative marketing directly targeted to specific audiences and demographics, bringing in both established genre and IP fans as well as the newly curious.
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We also saw considerable repeat attendance buoy summer 2024’s box office attendance. Strong holdovers have been a feature this year, with Deadpool and Wolverine, for example, holding at -45% on average across its 5 first weeks. Sometimes, too, less is more, as the Disney/Marvel stable aptly demonstrated. Instead of 3 movies to tire out the audience’s appetite, we had one skillfully marketed and hyped one, and it truly paid off. Disney alone accounts for about $1.5B of that box office total.
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Lastly, we also saw movies getting bolder about courting female demographics, especially with the rise and rise of It Ends With Us. Likewise, we saw the return of families to the summer 2024 box office, again quite against the post-COVID expectation that families would prefer to skip hefty concessions prices and watch new releases on the small screen. In fact, 2024 has been an animation success story, with Despicable Me 4, The Garfield Movie, and Inside Out 2 all delivering robust to downright stellar performances.
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While it may not be the summer 2024 box office we foresaw, it’s certainly been a successful and productive one. Hopefully, we will see the same momentum carry us through to the end of the year, too.?????????????