The Biggest Box Office Hits And Surprises Of 2024 So Far
The box office has been firmly in recovery mode for several years now. The pandemic, it's no secret, completely upended the business, and movie theaters have been trying to figure out what the future looks like ever since. Hollywood, for its part, has been doing the same, attempting to balance its streaming-focused operations with the need to release movies in theaters. 2024 has brought forth yet another challenge as the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes last year resulted in a disappointingly bare release calendar. Dire though it has seemed at times, there have been many bright spots in the darkness.
Yes, we've had more than a few box office flops this year, ranging from superhero films like "Madame Web" to total whiffs like "The Book of Clarence." Those flops have helped create a rough situation. However, we've also had quite a few hits. Not just movies that we were expecting to be successful, like the "Mean Girls" musical, but ones that surprised us, outperformed even our most optimistic projections, or helped raise the bar for the box office globally and not just in North America. These hits are not only worth celebrating, but they also give us hope for the future of cinema.
From a buzzy South Korean horror movie to one of the most acclaimed sequels in recent memory, we're going to count down the biggest box office hits of 2024 so far. Which movies have surprised us with their success the most? Which movies are helping theaters keep the lights on? What can we learn from these movies and their respective triumphs? We're going to get into all of that and more. Let's dig in.
Exhuma
In focusing on the global box office, it's impossible to ignore the success of "Exhuma." Hailing from South Korea, the film made a huge splash earlier this year in its native country and found some success elsewhere across the world. Most of all, this film helped lift the South Korean box office in a major way, becoming one of the country's biggest hits since the pandemic began. It topped the charts there for a staggering seven weekends in a row, selling more than 10 million tickets by the end of March (which is what makes a movie a "blockbuster" there).
When we consider that South Korea has a population of around 50 million, the number of tickets sold at this point is downright staggering. To date, the film has made nearly $83 million in the country. Globally, it has pulled in a very impressive $95 million in total. It had a decent run in the U.S. on arthouse screens in March, posting a per-screen average of more than $20,000 from just three screens when it opened domestically.
Directed by Jang Jae-hyun, the supernatural horror film focuses on the investigation into the cause of a disturbing illness that affects only the firstborn children of each generation of a family. As more countries continue to screen the film as the year rolls on, it's very likely to cross the $100 million mark before all's said and done. That does a lot to help lift the global box office.
So often, there is a focus on domestic box office numbers. Yes, the U.S. is one of the biggest moviegoing nations in the world, right alongside China. But it's important to look at the global theatrical marketplace, focusing on movies outside of Hollywood. What we have here is an original, buzzy horror-thriller that has found a great deal of acclaim and commercial success. That's worth celebrating.
The Beekeeper
Early this year, things appeared quite bleak at the box office. There were very few big movies to go around and things looked wildly uncertain thanks to the SAG and WGA strikes that plagued Hollywood last year. Luckily, there were a couple of films out there fighting the good fight helping to save the day. No film embodies that more than "The Beekeeper."
Directed by David Ayer and starring action man extraordinaire Jason Statham, MGM's original action flick opened right alongside the "Mean Girls" musical in the early weeks of January. "Mean Girls" had the edge in the early going (topping the charts domestically), yet as time rolled on, "The Beekeeper" gained the edge globally and helped give theaters something to lean on at a particularly bleak time. The film finished its run with $66.2 million domestically to go with a very solid $86.5 million internationally for a grand total of $152.7 million worldwide. At the time of writing, it remains one of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of the year (though that will change). It was also, for a brief time, the biggest movie globally of the year.
Against a $40 million budget, this was a major win for MGM. It was also Ayer's first outright theatrical hit since 2016's "Suicide Squad." This marked a much-needed win for both mid-budget and original cinema, providing a strong argument for giving these movies a run in theaters rather than releasing them directly to streaming (as did "Mean Girls" for that matter). Silly though the concept of Statham kicking ass as a beekeeper may be, this was an important film in an uncertain year.
Kung Fu Panda 4
The "Kung Fu Panda" franchise has been a monster for Universal and DreamWorks since its inception in 2008. Up until this year, however, the series had been absent from the big screen since 2016's "Kung Fu Panda 3" (which was a very successful movie it's worth adding). Instead, we got "Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight" for several seasons on Netflix. Now, Po has finally made his return to theaters with "Kung Fu Panda 4," and audiences have been more than ready to welcome back Jack Black's martial artist bear, giving 2024 one of its biggest hits.
Released in early March after a very dry January and February, director Mike Mitchell's family-friendly animated film proved to be just what theaters needed — and what moviegoers wanted. "Kung Fu Panda 4" topped the charts with more than $58 million on its opening weekend domestically, setting the stage for a very good run. With little direct competition, the film held well week-to-week and also performed great overseas. As of this writing, it's still playing in theaters but has amassed $180.8 million domestically to go with $304 million internationally for a running total of $484.8 million. It also pushed the overall "Kung Fu Panda" franchise past the $2 billion mark globally.
While the movie outright made a lot of money, the big takeaway here is that Universal has been very thrifty with animated movies as of late. "Kung Fu Panda 3" carried a $140 million production budget. This latest entry? It was made for just $85 million. In an ever-changing theatrical landscape that has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, making movies cheaper when possible is of paramount importance. It allows these movies to make money for the studio, which allows them to make more of them. That's the secret sauce behind this hit. Skadoosh.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
The MonsterVerse has somewhat quietly become one of the most reliable cinematic universes in Hollywood. Spanning five movies (and a TV show) across a full decade, Warner Bros. and Legendary have been willing to take what they can get from audiences without getting greedy or pumping out too much, too fast. As a result, this year's "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" continued the franchise's hot streak with another winner, ranking as one of the biggest movies globally of the year. It has also cemented Godzilla and King Kong, respectively, as A-list movie stars of sorts, despite being fictional monsters created through movie magic.
Director Adam Wingard's follow-up to 2021's "Godzilla vs. Kong" opened in late March and obliterated expectations with a massive $80 million opening weekend domestically, notching a $194 million total global opening. That was just the beginning; audiences all around the world turned up week after week to see Godzilla and Kong reluctantly unite to defeat a larger threat in this colorful, monster-filled romp. As of this writing, the movie is still playing in theaters and earning money but has amassed $173.2 million domestically to go with $315.1 million internationally for a running total of $488.3 million.
"Godzilla x Kong" has also managed to push the MonsterVerse past the $2 billion mark globally, ensuring that whatever comes next in the franchise could move it closer to $3 billion. More than that, Wingard was surprisingly thrifty for a blockbuster this size, with the budget coming in at $135 million, the cheapest film in the series to date. That means WB and Legendary were able to profit sooner, the franchise will undoubtedly continue, and theaters will have more monster-filled adventures to help sell tickets for years to come.
It'd be tough to call this one a surprise, but it's sure as heck a hit that makes the MonsterVerse one of the most consistent franchises around.
Dune: Part Two
In 2021, the theatrical landscape looked vastly different than it does in 2024. Nobody was sure how the pandemic recovery was going to go and, when Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" hit theaters, it was wildly unclear how the ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert's beloved sci-fi novel would perform. Despite also being released on HBO Max the same day it hit theaters, the film made more than $400 million worldwide and paved the way for a sequel. Meanwhile, "Dune: Part Two" reached theaters in early March at a time when audiences were downright ready for blockbuster entertainment. That, coupled with audiences who caught up with the first movie in the two years since it left theaters, created the perfect storm for a massive breakout hit.
"Dune: Part Two" opened to $82.5 million domestically, which was by far the biggest opening weekend of 2024 up to that point and much bigger than the first movie's debut. That trend would continue as the heralded sci-fi sequel continued on its dominant run in theaters. As of this writing, the movie is still playing on the big screen and going strong but has pulled in $277.5 million domestically to go with $420 million internationally for a running total of $697.5 million worldwide. It is, for the time being, the highest-grossing movie of the year, as well as another wildly successful collaboration between Warner Bros. and Legendary. It's also more than enough to guarantee that Villeneuve will be back for "Dune Messiah" to round out the trilogy.
Sequels sometimes make more money than their predecessors, but the fact that this movie made so much more than the first "Dune" is beyond impressive. It's anything but a traditional blockbuster of this size. Audiences demonstrating a willingness to turn up in such numbers for a movie like this can only be a good thing for the future of blockbuster cinema. Much like "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," the case continues to be made that moviegoers are ready to embrace out-of-the-box blockbusters. It's a gigantic win on so many fronts.