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At the end of the day, it wasn’t as bad as expected. That’s the overriding sentiment among international distribution executives and other industry watchers regarding how 2024’s overseas and global box office panned out. Yes, we continue to need more consistency to foster the cinema-going habit, as well as more good movies that hit their mark, and Asia was soft for Hollywood while local product becomes more resonant there. But, the outlook is brighter as 2025 and beyond take shape.
First, let’s look at some stats. Overall, the international box office landed at an estimated $21.2 billion, per Gower Street Analytics. That’s 10% down versus 2023, and does not include China in the equation. As one international distribution exec asserts, “You have to back out China because China’s got such a disproportionate influence” on the total. This is true enough as China struggled in 2024 owing to economic concerns and a lack of major local blockbuster drivers, among other issues.
Global box office, meanwhile, reached an estimated $30B, about 11.5% off of the previous year including China and at historical exchange rates (which is the basis on which Hollywood counts its beans). That’s also frankly not as bad as expected coming off of 2023’s dual strikes and resultant gaps in the release calendar.
Again, when backing out China, that spread closes to just 7.6%. If we look at it in current exchange rates given extreme shifts throughout the year, then it’s even narrower at 2.7%. The comparison to the pre-pandemic three-year average, excluding China, is -20%.
A big boost came in December with the likes of Disney’s Moana 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King, Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Gower Street reports that December surged worldwide (sans China) to be the third highest-grossing month since 2019 at $2.67B. December 2024 was exceeded only by July 2023 and the Barbenheimer of it all, as well as July 2024 which had Deadpool & Wolverine strutting around the globe. What’s more, December 2024 closed out the biggest half-year globally since 2019 with a total of $13.3 billion, 5% ahead of 2023’s second semester.
So, while we came into 2024 with trepidation, and despite the January-March doldrums, the year actually went out on a high for the studios. (See the chart below for how they stacked up overseas and globally in 2024 and look below for a studio-by-studio breakdown.)
Drilling into takeaways from 2024, one distribution maven says, “We needed the hits to work, and thankfully, they did. And then there were a few nice surprises along the way, like Alien: Romulus and It Ends with Us. There were some casualties, but there’s casualties every year. That’s why the industry more than ever needed the hits to deliver. … The other thing that we learned this year is that, whereas in 2023 and 2022 we knew that every single demo was coming back to see see a movie in the theater, what we didn’t see until November 2024 were people coming back at the same time to see different movies — and that’s reassuring.”
Basically, people came out to “the movies” rather than to “a movie.”
On the flip side, we’re told the same problem that existed at the end of 2023 remains, and is becoming exacerbated: There’s no floor anymore (think Joker: Folie à Deux, Furiosa and The Fall Guy). And yet, comments an international distribution expert, “You’ve got Wicked doing what it’s doing domestically, you’ve got Inside Out 2 the number one animated movie of all time, you’ve got Deadpool & Wolverine the biggest R-rated movie of all time.”
Still, as the hits get bigger, “the risk gets greater if there’s no floor. If you don’t cut through, if people struggle to find a reason to go to see it, then irrespective of if you’ve got a 95% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s still no guarantee for success, and that’s the very fickle market in which we live.”
It’s an interesting proposition that had many scratching their heads in 2024: Pre-Covid, it was “good enough to have a good movie,” but “the times have changed,” says a distribution boss. Looking at the RT scores (and comparable barometers overseas) for Furiosa and Fall Guy, for example, they’re strong, with support from audiences and critics. “But there wasn’t a reason for people to see them,” cautions one person.
Hindsight is not always 20/20 as executives continue to ponder these questions: What’s the marketing message, what’s that hook? Audiences are looking for things that make them feel good. But they get it in all sorts of different packages. When looking at the expense for certain films, they have to have a core message.
Another exec continues, “There are no floors, no ceilings, and the middle class of movie seems to be disappearing, which is a scary thing. So the movies that work are taking a higher percentage of the box office. There’s more movies than ever that don’t work and just completely fall off a cliff. That middle genre for studios is important, but for exhibitors it’s super important because they need the volume; they need fresh movies every week. That’s the scary piece to me, that the business seems to be consolidating, and the gap between what works and what doesn’t work seems to be getting larger and larger.”
Opines another international veteran, “There’s a lot of good movies out there, but the attitudes of consumers have changed. The idea of being first out opening weekend — ‘I’ve got to see this movie, I will be part of pop culture’ — that feeling is dead and buried. Now people wait until the second weekend, or maybe the third weekend to make that choice. They want to hear from their friends, a social community, rather than an online critique. So that’s slowing people down going to see movies.”
And consistency is key. “We need more movies,” is a constant refrain, because the habit of moviegoing, of having a good night out, is what keeps audiences coming back.
In terms of individual markets, and as noted above, China continues to be inconsistent for Hollywood, but even its local titles had issues in 2024. Box office there for the year was about $5.9B according to state media. That’s a 25% decrease versus 2023, and the biggest year-on-year slide of all tracked markets, per Gower.
Hollywood stopped relying on China a few years back, accepting that anything the studios get from the mercurial market is icing. China is allowing more movies in, and has loosened its censorship restrictions a bit (see 20th Century/Disney’s Alien: Romulus, a U.S. R-rated picture which went in with almost no cuts, and performed strongly as a result).
China remains the second biggest market outside of North America, and there were two Hollywood titles in the Top 10 in 2024 — Godzilla x Kong and Alien: Romulus (contrary to 2023 which had none) — but folks are pessimistic that Hollywood will ever return to the heyday of 2012-2019 there. The writing will be even further etched into the Great Wall if, for example, Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire & Ash don’t connect. Meanwhile, local Chinese titles really don’t travel beyond Asia, thus lacking impact on global numbers as a whole.
In general, Asia became a tougher nut to crack in 2024. Japan continues to thrive on local titles but ceded its usual No. 2 offshore market status, while Korea continued to hiccup. The latter is having a more difficult time coming back to regular moviegoing, with comScore reporting an estimated $842K in 2024 which is -10.7% on a dollar basis and -6.9% in local currency.
Asia as a whole is putting forth a lot of local-language content that’s resonating on a different level. Says an international distribution exec, “I think tastes have definitely changed. Local content has certainly got better, local producers have stepped in seeing that there’s a gap in the marketplace. Indonesia was one of the key growth markets, and we can’t compete with these Indonesian horror films right now… There’s more of an uphill battle there and I’m not sure I see that changing in the short term.”
Indonesia, with its massive population increased admissions by 10% in 2024, with local films taking a 65% share of the market.
Offers another exec about Asia and local product, “Those films are still going to continue to be made, and they’re making stories about things that people can relate to.” There’s also less pressure on the local films to deliver something as polished as a studio title, and the talent is very well known locally.
Yet another veteran of international suggests, “What’s always been the case with the Southeast Asian countries, and China and Korea, is that things move at a very fast pace, and tastes and trends happen very quickly. It does feel like since the pandemic, looking at countries like Philippines which was in lockdown for more than 10 months, and there was less foreign content coming into the market, things have sort of shifted in a dramatic way and have not come back yet.”
Still, there will be more Western product in the next year or two, and there are audiences interested in certain films. But, Hollywood is competing in some cases with local marketshare of 30%-50%+. There’s room to coexist because Hollywood delivers different content, but caution remains about what will and will not work.
Sounding a positive note, another exec says, “Europe did a hell of a job this year, a ton of heavy lifting… The moviegoing in Mexico was insane.”
There was indeed strength in the UK and France, which increased slightly on a U.S. dollar basis according to comScore. Germany, Mexico, Australia, Italy and Spain saw only single-digit percentage dips from 2023.
The UK came in at a .3% estimated year-on-year jump in dollar terms (-2% in local currency) and rounding out the year at a comScore estimated $1.333B (£1.042B). While led by Hollywood movies, box office was aided by the strength of Studiocanal’s Paddington in Peru ($43M) which released in November and ahead of its 2025 North America release via Sony.
France for its part had a terrific year with local titles taking 44.4% of the market, the best result for French movies since 2008. Total admissions according to the CNC were 181.3M. Winners included leader A Little Something Extra (10.3M tickets sold), The Count of Monte-Cristo (9.13M) and Beating Hearts (4.73M); Inside Out 2 (8.26M) and Moana 2 (6.43M) were tops for the studios.
Overall, “2024 ended up much better than what we anticipated as we got halfway into the year,” says an exec.
Indeed, there’s more positivity heading into 2025, and while there will be tough months, there is a sense of optimism. But habit needs to be nurtured. Notes a studio exec, “People starting to watch trailers in a movie theater will get people more interested. When you watch a trailer online or on your phone, you either watch a few seconds and then you click away from it, you scroll down, you don’t necessarily remember the title. You think, ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’ but there’s no call to action like when you’re in a theater: ‘That’s coming out next week. We’ll come back next week. We had a good time tonight.'”
Studio Breakdowns
DISNEY
It was a year of milestones for Disney as the Mouse roared back to top position both globally and internationally, as well as domestically, among the studios in 2024, becoming the first to the $5B worldwide mark since 2019. Overseas, it’s also the first to surpass $3B since the pandemic. Foreign receipts were up 9.7%, while global rose 13%.
Whereas in 2023 it had no $1B movies, Disney had the only two last year and will soon make it three with Moana 2 set to pass the milestone as it spills into 2025.
Offshore, Inside Out 2 became the first animated movie to ever cross $1B while Deadpool & Wolverine for its part overtook Joker as the highest-grossing U.S. R-rated movie ever worldwide.
Although it started off slow, Disney always knew that Mufasa: The Lion King was reliant on overseas audiences who would come out during the holidays. The movie isn’t a patch on its predecessor, but that was never the comp. It recently crossed $500M global with 64% of grosses coming from abroad.
Other notable pics included Alien: Romulus from 20th Century, which was a surprise hit in China at over $110M as it provided audiences with something they’d never seen before.
Top 5 2024 movies internationally + percentage of WW total: Inside Out 2 ($1.045B/61.6%), Deadpool & Wolverine ($701.3M/52.4%), *Moana 2 ($555.4M/56.1%), *Mufasa: The Lion King ($350.9M/65%), Alien: Romulus ($245.6M/70%)
*Still in release, figures include 2025 play
While it remains to be seen who will step in as Head of Theatrical Distribution (with Tony Chambers recently promoted to president of Disney EMEA), 2025 is jammed with such marquee titles as Captain America: Brave New World, Snow White, Thunderbolts*, Lilo & Stitch, Elio, Fantastic Four: First Steps, Tron Ares, Predator: Badlands, Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire & Ash. Odds are at least two of those top $1B for the studio worldwide.
WARNER BROS
The Burbank studio likewise is going through a realignment in its distribution ranks with International boss Andrew Cripps making a surprise exit in early January.
Although WB, which lands in second place for the studios internationally, slid 16.2% across the year overseas, it was coming off of a 2023 that delivered Barbie, the biggest film in the studio’s history.
Globally, WB is the third highest-grossing studio in 2024, with a decrease of 16.7%.
After the industry’s early 2024 doldrums, WB got things moving with Dune: Part Two in March, followed by a strong showing from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, respectively the No. 5 and No. 6 movies of the year internationally. The latter was the biggest Hollywood movie in China in 2024.
WB took smart advantage of the Venice Film Festival as a hub to open Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which needed the media platform boost to raise overseas awareness on a property that skews domestic.
Venice was unfortunately not a fully smiley affair for WB, whose Joker: Folie à Deux was skewered following its premiere there and five years after Todd Philipps’ original won the Lido’s Golden Lion and later a pair of Oscars.
Earlier in the year, another festival return similarly did not have the same effect as the first time around. But this was more of a head-scratcher as George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was roundly praised by critics and audiences after bowing at Cannes. The latter group ultimately just couldn’t be bothered to get off their couches.
Top 5 2024 movies internationally + percentage of WW total: Dune: Part Two ($432.3M/60.5%), Godzilla x Kong ($375.4M/65.7%), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($157M/34.8%), Joker 2 ($148.1M/71.8%), Furiosa ($106.3M/61.2%)
Up ahead, eyes will be on Minecraft, Sinners and Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, and of course Superman under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s revived DC.
UNIVERSAL
Following a mega 2023 fueled by The Super Mario Bros Movie, Oppenheimer and Fast X, Universal drops to second place globally for the studios (still, the third time in a row it has surpassed $3B worldwide) and third internationally. The respective dips were 23.5% and 37.4%. When compared to the domestic slide of just 3% those are pretty big gaps; one explanation is that Wicked skewed heavily domestic, with only about 34% of its business coming from overseas where the property is not as well known. The hope here is that the first movie increases familiarity so the second movie is somewhat built in. (Likewise, Twisters was a WB film internationally).
Animation was the key driver for Uni in 2024, led by Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 and DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda 3 and The Wild Robot. The studio is known for staggering its toons overseas, a strategy that has paid off as it takes advantage of holidays in various markets.
Universal prides itself on the diversity of its broad slate. Not having a superhero franchise, it has shown strength at creating its own brands and delivering different genres and budget levels for audiences across its labels.
However, an attempt to build a new franchise with The Fall Guy fell flat. The movie scored with critics and audiences, had two mega-hot stars and was in general a fun ride. Mixed messaging may have been the culprit as it was neither a clear rom-com nor an actioner; also, inside Hollywood films tend to face an uphill struggle amongst mainstream audiences.
Top 5 2024 movies internationally + percentage of WW total: Despicable Me 4 ($608.3M/62.7%), Kung Fu Panda 4 ($354.1M/64.7%), *Wicked ($238.8M/34.2%), The Wild Robot ($181.1M/55.8%), The Fall Guy ($88.2M/48.7%)
*Still in release, figures include 2025 play
This year looks super promising with How to Train Your Dragon, M3GAN 3.0, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Michael (ex domestic and Japan), Wicked: For Good and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.
SONY
The Culver City studio gets bragging rights to being the only one apart from Disney to see increases in 2024, both internationally (39%) and globally (15%). Sony covers its costs with co-financiers and also looks to provide movies that not only have something for everyone, but can be everything to someone. There’s also the Crunchyroll factor, a smart acquisition that puts it on the front lines of anime; and Sony Pictures Classics continues to deliver prestige hits.
The studio started the year strong, coming off the late 2023 success of Anyone But You, and following that up with Bad Boys: Ride or Die and the $25M-budgeted It Ends with Us. The Garfield Movie was a nice surprise and Venom: The Last Dance did 71% of its business overseas, though just missed the $500M global mark.
Were there misfires? Sure: see Madame Web, which could not be saved by international, nor could Kraven The Hunter.
Top 5 2024 movies internationally + percentage of WW total: Venom: The Last Dance ($338.3M/70.8%); Bad Boys: Ride or Die ($211M/52.2%), It Ends with Us ($202.5M/57.7%), The Garfield Movie ($142.6M/60.8%); Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ($88.6M/43.9%).
Up ahead for Sony in 2025 are such potential breakouts as Karate Kid: Legends, I Know What You Did Last Summer and 28 Years Later.
PARAMOUNT
The Melrose gang were up domestically but down both internationally (-29%) and globally (-15%) versus 2023.
There was terrific momentum at the end of 2024 as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 raced out ahead of the previous installments. The studio’s lead film for the year was Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II. There was also a surprise winner in February-March release Bob Marley: One Love.
Transformers One, which generated oodles of excitement when it was first announced, fell short. The animated movie failed to connect with the intended audience. As we noted at the time, this is more of a brand issue (again, super RT scores): Transformers, essentially, needs transforming.
Top 5 2024 movies internationally + percentage of WW total: Gladiator II ($275.1M/62%), A Quiet Place: Day One ($122.9M/47%), *Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ($180.3M/47%), Bob Marley: One Love ($84M/46.4%), IF ($79.3+41.6%)
*Still in release, figures include 2025 play
Coming in 2025, Tom Cruise is back with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in May. Also due are The Naked Gun, The Running Man and The Spongebob Movie: Search for SquarePants.
