Wicked and Moana 2 help 2024 box office surpass £1bn for second straight year
Total 2024 box office in the UK and Ireland was flat year on year, reaching £1.06bn for the second consecutive year following a significantly improved performance in November and December.
December box office grossed £115.6m, a 21% increase from a year earlier, led by substantial contributions from November’s Wicked (£23.2m in December) and Moana 2 (£21.8m in December).
Meanwhile, new family-friendly releases Mufasa: The Lion King (£17.4m) and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (£16m) ranked third and fourth for December.
For the full year, top box office performers were predictably dominated by family films and blockbusters, led by Inside Out 2 (£59.2m).
The news follows recent forecasts from the likes of Omdia that predicted box office would fall below £1bn in 2024.
Michael Tull, insight business director at cinema sales house Digital Cinema Media, remarked: “People have underestimated just how big November and December were going to be.”
Speaking to The Media Leader, Tull said the strong November film slate contributed to a significant uplift compared with the same period last year, when Wonka was the only major release to pull in cinemagoers in December.
“December had a lot more range,” Tull explained, adding that audience cannibalisation did not end up being a concern during the holiday season.
Cinema advertising is purchased based on admissions data rather than box office. While full-year admissions figures will not be released until later this month, Tull said DCM estimates a roughly 2.5% increase in the number of admissions year on year.
The discrepancy in growth in admissions versus box office in 2024, according to Tull, is likely due to 2023’s Oppenheimer having “a notably higher-than-average ticket price due to its disproportionate amount of ‘premium large-format’ admissions it delivered”.
Cinema’s focus: Increasing frequency
Looking ahead to 2025, Tull suggested a high likelihood of another strong slate, especially during the summer.
For now, he highlighted awards contenders Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown as potential draws for ABC1 audiences during January, and Bridget Jones sequel Mad About the Boy as a Valentine’s Day release to keep an eye on.
In the summer, blockbusters including Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, Superman, F1 and 28 Years Later are expected to have significant appeal alongside family-friendly Pixar film Elio.
“Having huge summers and huge winters seems to be a recurring theme from the past two years,” Tull commented.
November box office doubles thanks to Wicked, Gladiator II and more
While Tull conceded that it is challenging to predict whether and when cinema box office might surpass pre-Covid-19 levels, he noted that “the people who used to go the cinema have predominantly come back”.
He added: “Now the job is to increase their frequency.”
Tull expects incremental box office growth in 2025 and 2026 given film slates have become more consistent after years marked by pandemic disruptions and the US writers’ and actors’ strikes, with more successful genre films providing more variety and lessening the reliance on blockbusters.
He continued: “This was a consolidation sort of year and then building up from there.”