Summer 2024 Box Office Roundup: Who Are the Winners and Losers?

From the damp squib Furiosa to the historic record of Inside Out 2, including the comeback of Marvel and the success of Monte Cristo: here's what you need to remember from this summer in theaters.

The schoolbags are ready. No more beach and sunny movies. It's time to take stock of the 2024 summer season. And when it's time to do the math in the cinemas, the operators are rather smiling. The summer blockbusters have responded, in France, the United States and around the world. To give you an idea, the US box office for the summer of 2024 shows 3.5 billion dollars across the Atlantic. A score lower than the summer of 2023 ($4.039 billion), marked by Barbie And Oppenheimer – and far from the record of $4.754 billion in 2013 – but after a catastrophic spring, the trend is undoubtedly positive. So who has been able to pull out all the stops? And who has not been able to take advantage of the momentum?

AT THE TOP

Artus and Monte Cristo carry the French rooms

How can we not begin this summer review with the phenomenon A little something extra ? With 10.3 million spectators in France (and nearly 80 million dollars), Artus' film went through July and August like a sun, after a radiant spring. So much so that it will soon be in the top 10 of the biggest successes in the history of French cinema. The Count of Monte Cristo will not succeed, but the swashbuckling film by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière confirms the good form of major French productions, with 7.3 million admissions since June, much more than the two films by Three Musketeers accumulated last year! And the trend should continue at the end of August with Emilia Perezthe latest Jacques Audiard film, which has already attracted more than 300,000 spectators in its first week in theaters.

Deadpool & Wolverine or Marvel's Revenge

Obviously, internationally, French hits are no match for American blockbusters, such as Deadpool & Wolverinea symbol of the Disney studio's return to form, raking in more than $1.2 billion in revenue. After a disastrous 2023, the entertainment giant is back on top and has managed to revive the Marvel machine at the same time, after the resounding failures of The Marvels And Ant-Man 3.

Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Garfield : animated films unite

But there's not just Marvel at Disney, there's Pixar too! And in this case, Inside Out 2 has been shattering expectations and records all summer long. Still in theaters, the second installment of Riley's teenage adventures has grossed $1.7 billion worldwide. It is already the biggest animated hit of all time, surpassing Frozen 2 and will certainly be the biggest hit of 2024 at the cinema. In its wave, Pixar has brought Illumination. Its Despicable Me 4 is approaching $900 million worldwide, the peak of the franchise. And proof of the good health of this genre, ideal for bringing families together during the summer holidays and attracting crowds to the cinema: Garfield; hero in spite of himselfwins an unexpected jackpot of 230 million dollars!

Bad Boys, Planet of the Apes, Alien…Franchises are holding up

The other sure value for making entries is IP, aka intellectual properties, aka licenses on which studios make money. There was the success – not necessarily obvious on paper – of Bad Boys 4: Ride or DieDespite the media storm after the Oscars slam, Will Smith is still popular and has earned 400 million with his buddy Martin Lawrence, placing him at the same level as the previous part, the most profitable in the saga. Planet of the Apes is also a franchise that is a hit. With $397 million in revenue, The New Kingdom strikes again, even if it is the smallest success of the saga. Similarly, A Quiet Place: Day 1 didn't break any records but shows that the franchise created by John Krasinski still has a future, with its 260 million earnings. And we will not forget Twisterswhich relaunches the 1996 brand, without Helen Hunt or the late Bill Paxton. Hurricanes blew $350 million off the summer box office (well below the original's $500 million, nonetheless). New life also for the Xenomorphs: Alien: Romulus has been able to ride the good wave in the middle of August: 230 million dollars for the moment, and the film will be one of the most profitable in the Ridley Scott saga, behind Prometheus.

THE FLOPS

Furiosa not all the rage

Furiosa cannot say the same. Yet highly anticipated and acclaimed at Cannes, the latest installment of Mad Max failed to bring the crowds together. 170 million in receipts at the end is too little. Half as much as Fury Road ! Clearly not enough to pay off George Miller's big budget.

Largo Winch anonymous

A decade after the second opus, this summer also marked the return of Tomer Sisley in the shoes of the billionaire adventurer. But Largo Winch: The Price of Money failed to attract French spectators. Faced with too much competition, it had to settle for 400,000 admissions, compared to 1.3 and 1.7 million for the previous installments.

Kevin Costner, Cate Blanchett, Scarlett Johansson, Dany Boon and Raphaël Quenard

The other big loser of the summer is called Kevin Costner. The star of Yellowstone put a bundle of his own money on the table for his big adventure in the wild west. But Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 has made so little – 35 million worldwide! – that the Chapter 2which was supposed to be released at the end of the summer, has been postponed to a later date by the distributor, to avoid an even bigger industrial accident. Who will go see the 2 if no one has seen the 1? The question will not even arise for Borderlands. The great science fiction quest adapted from the video game and starring Cate Blanchett is a colossal flop, which will cost the financiers dearly: only 25 million in revenue, for a production budget of 110 million! A failure of less epic proportions, Fly Me to the Moon has only grossed $40 million and will not reimburse the money advanced (at least $100 million). It is above all proof that it has become complicated to sell a film on the sole name of Scarlett Johansson. The same observation applies in France to Dany Boon, whose The Hennedricks Family failed to reproduce the director's past hits Ch'tis. Starring in his partner Laurence Arné's first film, he only attracted 200,000 spectators in theaters in France. That's still twice as many as Raphaël Quenard, who asked Why are you smiling?in July, to Emmanuelle Devos and Jean-Pascal Zadi (104,000 admissions).

THE SURPRISES

Blake Lively surfs her husband

This may be the film with the highest grossing index of the summer: Never Again It – Ends with Us grossed $260 million, for a small romantic drama budget. A success that owes much to its star, Blake Lively, a celebrity idol in the US thanks to her marriage to Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), which she dared to confront in theaters in August… and her friendship with a certain Taylor Swift.

Shyamalan and Nicolas Cage regain credibility

After two minor commercial failures – old And Knock at the Cabin – M. Night Shyamalan pulled off a nice stunt with Trap. His claustrophobic thriller starring Josh Hartnett didn't cost much to make and is approaching $80 million in two weeks. It should be the filmmaker's biggest hit since Glass. Similarly, Nicolas Cage has apparently put an end to his spiral of flops. The horror film Longlegs ends at more than $100 million. A milestone that the star had not exceeded for a decade and Ghost Rider 2...