The four months between May and August have always been the most profitable time of the year for movies, followed closely by the holiday season of November and December. With the combination of schools closed for the summer and people usually taking vacations, summer has been a prime time for movies and usually leads to some of the year’s biggest and most anticipated films. Almost every studio takes the time to release one or several of their headliners in the hopes of having a hit on their hands. However, from the start of 2024, the box office has been on shaky soil and several high-profile movies have flopped or were disappointments. This carried over into the start of the summer movie season, where numerous films struggled to gain traction. However, the tail end of the summer began to see a shift as several movies saw success, calling into question how things were able to turn around for the better.

The Year of Struggle

Before May, studios already saw trouble, as potential box office hits weren’t connecting with audiences. For example, Madame Web cost $100 million and went on to gross $100.3 million world-wide. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire had a budget of $100 million, only to earn $202 million. Even Abigail, with a modest budget of $28 million, only grossed $42.4 million. For a while, Dune: Part Two stayed as the highest grossing film, earning $711.8 million at the box office against a $190 million budget. 

Dune: Part Two released on March 1, and one would imagine that the director would be proud to hold the top earning spot. This didn’t turn out to be the case, as director Denis Villeneuve was actually upset to see his film remain at the top for so long. After receiving the Academy Icon Award at the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards, Villeneuve expressed his view on the year’s box office.

“I think we need movies that are theatrical experiences, that will fully embrace the power of the theater, and I’m not just talking about Dune 2. Of course I’m talking about many movies,” Villeneuve told reporters. “A movie like Civil War, for instance, is a strong example of a movie that absolutely used the power of the theater.”

Villeneuve went on to share his disappointment with other films not finding similar success. “I was lucky that [Dune] Part Two did reach the audience, I wish it would happen more often, honestly,” Villeneuve explained. “I’m disappointed to still be number one… I hope soon that there will be other successes at the box office. I hope, sooner or later, that this summer box office will be much better.” 

The Falling Box Office

Kicking off the summer movie season was the Ryan Gosling led film The Fall Guy. What easily could have been a mediacore action romcom became one of the highlights of the year, earning an 82% critic rating and 86% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite how good the film was, it underperformed at the box office, grossing $178 million on a $150 million budget. The underwhelming box office results continued the falling weeks with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and IF. 

The death plow eventually came over the Memorial Day weekend with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. What was expected to be a hit turned into a box office bomb, with a budget of $233 million and only grossing $172 million. Memorial Day weekend tends to be a valuable weekend for movies, due to it being a three-day weekend, coinciding with the end of school and serving as what many consider to be the true launch of summer. However, the 2024 Memorial Day weekend became the lowest-grossing holiday weekend since 1995. More films continued to flop or disappoint, such as The Watchers, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, The Bikeriders, and Fly Me To The Moon.