As Summer 2024 is winding down, it’s time to evaluate the box office highs and lows. Shout-out to blockbusters “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Twisters”, and family film hits “Despicable Me 4”, “IF” and “The Garfield Movie”, but I had a feeling they were all going to do well. You can certainly acknowledge slight underperformers, like “A Quiet Place: Day One”, “The Bikeriders” and “MAXXXINE”. And I suspected “Borderlands” was going to flop. These lists acknowledge the movies that did significantly better — and significantly worse — than I expected:
THE SURPRISES
Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” certainly exceeded expectations, as did “Bad Boys: Ride or Die”, which was hardly impacted by Will Smith’s Oscars slap controversy two years after it occurred. “Ride or Die” only earned $12.8 million less than 2020’s “Bad Boys For Life”, or a decrease of just 6%, much less than Sony probably anticipated. The studio’s “It Ends with Us” pulled-off a $50 million debut, one of eight films this summer to hit that mark.
20th Century’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” managed to perform 16.5% better than the finale in the Andy Serkis trilogy, 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes”, and even came very close to matching the domestic total of 2011 trilogy opener “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.
Horror has continued to do terrific business in theaters. “Longlegs” shocked everyone by outgrossing NEON’s previous top-earner, 2019 Best Picture Oscar winner “Parasite”, by $20 million. Lionsgate’s “The Strangers: Chapter 1” totaled a solid $35 million. (Parts 2 and 3 still don’t have release dates yet.) Another film with a small opening weekend but steady legs over several weeks: Magnolia comedy “Thelma” starring June Squibb, which kicked-off with $2.3M but is now up to $8.8 million.
And how about re-releases? “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” celebrated its 25th anniversary with $13 million (including $4.6M on May the 4th), and “Coraline” turned 15 with $16.1 million and counting.
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
I didn’t think Sony and Apple’s “Fly Me to the Moon” would only earn $20.4 million (nearly half of that from its opening weekend). “Harold and the Purple Crayon” should be higher than $16.2M by now. Universal’s “The Fall Guy” got the season off to a rocky start with a $27.8M debut but managed $92.9M total, still lower than the $150M-$200M UNI likely wanted. Searchlight’s “Kinds of Kindness” was more than kind of a flop: only $5 million compared to the $34 million-plus of Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone’s “Poor Things” and “The Favourite”.
And following a spectacular spring with “Dune: Part Two” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire”, Warner Bros. had a rough summer. I’m sure M. Night Shyamalan hoped “Trap” would do better than $35M (it will probably end-up at $40M) and his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan likely hoped “The Watchers” would make more than $19M. But the big disappointments are “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” ($67.5M) and “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” ($29M), neither of which really connected with audiences. However, in just two weeks, WB is unveiling “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”, which should get Fall off to a scary good start.