After last week’s disappointing Memorial Day, the industry was inundated with a flood of pessimistic takes on the 2024 summer box office. The Atlantic’s Shirley Li summed up the prevailing sentiment succinctly – “Don’t Expect Another Barbenheimer.”
Memorial Day usually makes its presence known to kick off summer moviegoing. Only two years ago, TOP GUN: MAVERICK swooped in with a $126M opening weekend, and continued for many weeks to sell out IMAX and other Premium Large Format screenings.
This year, FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA eked out a slight win over THE GARFIELD MOVIE, with the two films together grossing only $50M. This weekend was even less encouraging, with no new significant openings and a total box office for all films in theatres of only $60M, the second lowest of the year so far.
So, what’s up with that? The disruptions caused by last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes are still working their way through the system, though their impact should fade in the months ahead, with the consensus being that a more appealing slate of new releases will arrive in the second half of the year.
And fundamentally, the movie business is fickle and depends greatly on how well studio output matches the mood of the wider culture. Everyone agrees that a fundamental rebound in moviegoing will only be accomplished with an increasing number of new movies going to theatres, providing a range of options to suit different tastes and demographics.
In the end, the habit of moviegoing was broken by the pandemic and exhibitors are still struggling to re-train their audiences on how much fun it is to go to the movies, over and over again.
