Soul-sucking, corporate-branded product. That’s how I’d describe almost every single one of the ten highest grossing movies of 2024.
Total Film is reporting that for the first time in recorded history, and at this late point in the year, every single one of the 10 highest grossing movies of 2024 have been sequels. Forget about originality, that’s not what makes money these days. Mainstream audiences want, as Scorsese once put it, them park rides. Nostalgia. Comfort food.
At the time of publishing (11.21.24), this was this year’s top 10:
1) Inside Out 2
2) Deadpool & Wolverine
3) Despicable Me 4
4) Dune: Part II
5) Godzilla x Kong
6) Kung-Fu Panda 4
7) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
8) Venom: The Last Dance
9) Bad Boys: Ride or Die
10) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Very soon, a non-sequel will be showing up on this pathetic list of movies. “Wicked,” a ‘Wizard of Oz’ prequel, is currently on track to make $1B, which would see it nab the third slot in 2024's highest-grossing movies ranking. Ironically enough, a ‘Wicked’ sequel has already been shot and set for release in 2025.
Now, what about old-school cinema? The arthouse isn’t making much money these days. The demographic for those types of films have all migrated to streaming content at home. Meanwhile, the three most successful “original” and non-IP movies of the year are based on a popular novel (“It Ends With Us”), animated (“The Wild Robot”), and a music biopic (“Bob Marley: One Love”).
It’s like we’re stuck in a cursed loop. Audiences say Hollywood only makes sequels and remakes but then only show up to watch those sequels and remakes and ignore the actual original films that are being made, thus empowering Hollywood execs to greenlight more sequels and remakes.
Star Wars creator George Lucas, of all people, recently slammed this trend of sequels, reboots and remakes, in an interview with French publication Brut Officiel.
The stories they're telling are just old movies. Let's do a sequel, let's do another version of this movie.' There's no original thinking... the big studios... they don't have an imagination.
Just for sheer comparison. A little over thirty years ago, in 1993, the ten highest grossing films list was composed solely of originals: “Jurassic Park,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “The Fugitive,” “The Firm,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Indecent Proposal,” “In the Line of Fire,” “The Pelican Brief,” “Schindler’s List,” and “Cliffhanger.”
At the start of the new century, in 2000, you had a healthy box-office that had a top 10 with only one sequel (“Mission: Impossible II”), no remakes, just one superhero flick (“X-Men”), and a whopping eight originals: “Cast Away,” “Gladiator,” “Meet the Parents,” “The Perfect Storm,” “What Women Want,” “Dinosaur,” “What Lies Beneath,” “Scary Movie.”
Sure, not all of them good movies, but at least they were original blockbusters, millions went to see them, and the trend of rehashes had not yet fully taken grip in Hollywood. Now, in 2024, we’re being flooded by IP, and there doesn’t seem to be a way out of it. As long as audience demand is high for “Avengers 5” or “Fast & Furious 8,” then studio execs will continue to greenlight them.