Box-office lessons from a turbulent 2024

Movie ticket sales took a bit of a hit in 2024.

It's not as dire as it was in the pandemic years, but it's also not even close to the pre-pandemic norm when the annual box office regularly surpassed $11B.

This is the year the business felt the effects of the Hollywood strikes of 2023, the labor standoff that delayed productions and releases and led to a depleted calendar for exhibitors and moviegoers. And yet it's not as bad as it could have been, or at least as bad as analysts projected at the start of the year.

"This has been a really incredible comeback story for the industry," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "Just a couple of months ago it was a question of whether we would even hit $8 billion for the year."

Hollywood continues to learn lessons about what moviegoers really want, what works and what doesn't. Here are the biggest takeaways from 2024.

The strike fallout was real

The Hollywood strikes might have ended in 2023, putting productions back into full swing and sending stars out on the promotional circuit again—but the ripple effect of the work stoppages and contract standoffs showed their real effects on the 2024 release calendar.

The first two quarters were hit hardest, with tentpoles pushed later in the year ("Deadpool & Wolverine," for one) or even into 2025 (like "Mission: Impossible 8"). With no Marvel movie kicking off the summer moviegoing season, the box office was down a devastating 27.5 percent from 2023 right before "Inside Out 2" opened in June.

"It's an unpredictable business but it thrives on stability," Dergarabedian said. "When the release calendar is thrown off, the momentum stops."

The PG rating (and animation) ruled