Disney Hits $2 Billion Domestic Box Office, Earns Top Honors

The Walt Disney Company DIS takes top honors for domestic box office in 2024 and could be in store for a strong 2025 with a new analyst forecast calling for box office revenue to grow 8% in 2025, which is likely music to the ears of movie theater executives.

2024 Box Office Winners: Disney is the only movie studio to hit the $2 billion figure for the domestic box office in 2024, led by hits like "Inside Out 2," "Deadpool & Wolverine" and the recently released "Moana 2."

This marks the second time that Disney hit the $2 billion figure since 2019, with the most recent milestone achieved in 2022, as reported by Deadline. Since 2010, Disney has reached $2 billion domestically seven times.

Disney will add to its year total with the release of "Mufasa" in theaters this weekend.

Here is a look at the top-grossing movies domestically in 2024 and the public company behind the respective studio.

1. "Inside Out 2": $653.0 million, Disney
2. "Deadpool & Wolverine": $636.7 million, Disney
3. "Wicked": $365.2 million, Comcast Corporation CMCSA
4. "Despicable Me 4": $361.0 million, Comcast
5. "Moana 2": $342.1 million, Disney
6. "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice": $294.1 million, Warner Bros. Discovery WBD
7. "Dune: Part Two": $282.1 million, Warner Bros. Discovery
8. "Twisters": $267.8 million, Comcast
9. "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire": $196.4 million, Warner Bros. Discovery
10. "Kung Fu Panda 4": $193.6 million, Comcast

"Inside Out 2" is the 11th highest-grossing movie domestically of all time and the highest-grossing animated film of all time domestically. "Deadpool & Wolverine" set records for R-rated films and is the 12th highest-grossing film domestically of all time.

The top 10 list was led by Disney, Comcast, and Warner Bros., three companies that took home top scores in Variety's movie studios’ year-end grades.

Disney earned an A rating, following a challenging 2023 in which the company failed to produce a $1 billion global grosser for the first time since 2014, excluding the pandemic years. The media giant has seen two films surpass the $1 billion mark globally this year and could add a third with “Moana 2,” which is projected to reach the milestone in December or January.

Comcast's Universal brand received an A- score thanks to the hits in the top 10 list and "The Wild Robot," which grossed over $300 million worldwide.

"Universal pulled off the seemingly impossible: Making musicals seem cool to moviegoers," Variety writes of the success of "Wicked."

Variety hands Warner Bros. a B+ rating with several hits among the top 10 grossing films, but a couple of films that underperformed including "Joker: Folie a Deux" at $206 million worldwide, calling it a "costly flop."

Here were the other Variety grades for movie studios:

• Paramount Global PARA PARAA: B
• Sony Group Corp SONY: B
• Amazon MGM AMZN: C
• Apple Inc AAPL: D
• Lionsgate LGF: D

Tech giants Amazon and Apple scored among the worst, as sometimes they have movies that flop in theaters but later break streaming records.

Read Also: ‘Inside Out 2,’ ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ ‘Baby Reindeer’ Google’s Top 2024 Entertainment Searches

2025 Projections: News of Disney hitting the $2 billion domestic milestone comes with more potential good news for the movie sector and movie theater companies like AMC Entertainment Holdings AMC and Cinemark Holdings CNK.

Gower Street Analytics projects the global box office will reach $33 billion in 2025, an 8% increase from the estimated $30.5 billion total expected for 2024.

While the 2025 figure is expected to grow, it will be 14% behind the average of the 2017, 2018 and 2019 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by Deadline.

Gower Street Analytics predicts the North American box office will hit $9.7 billion in 2025, up 9% from the predicted 2024 year-end figure. The domestic box office stands at $8 billion currently, as reported by BoxOfficeMojo.

The $9.7 billion estimate is 16% below the 2017-2019 average.

Overall, many regions are expected to see higher box office figures in 2025 compared to 2024, but the estimates in most regions are still below the averages from the pre-pandemic era.

"2025 is set to be a strong year for the global box office, fueled by robust studio slates and independent productions," Gower Street Analytics CEO Dimitrios Mitsinikos said.

Mitsinikos said the domestic box office could potentially surpass the $10 billion figure and get "closer to pre-pandemic norms."

The 2025 release slate includes films in the Avatar, Mission: Impossible, Jurassic World, John Wick, Zootopia, Superman and Wicked film franchises.

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Image created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.