Scott Mendelson's Stupidly Lengthy 2024 Summer Movie Box Office Recap

Disney over-delivered amid 2010s nostalgia, while long legs (not just for 'Longlegs') offered optimism as a permanent (?) theatrical recovery began ahead of schedule.

With all the… drama over the last few years, I had forgotten how boring Labor Day weekend tended to be at the box office. Reagan will open with around $9 million over the Fri-Mon holiday, mazel tov. Amid COVID and/or strike-specific circumstances, the previous four years have offered comparative excitement, be it Chris Nolan’s Tenet crushing it overseas ($305 million) but bombing in North America ($58 million), Marvel’s Shang-Chi showing that (via a $94 million Fri-Mon debut) even Labor Day weekend can launch a blockbuster or National Cinema Day-infused launch of Sony’s Gran Turismo. This year? It’s boring business as usual as everyone waits for Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice to kick off the Fall season with It-level debut grosses. So, let’s take stock of what transpired over the just-concluded summer movie season.

The raw numbers…

The May-August period earned — just in-season releases — $3.44 billion at the domestic box office, with a likely finish of around $3.6 billion. That would be 10% below the $4.06 billion earned last summer but 10% above 2022 and 89% above 2021. That’s partially because theaters had 175 total releases compared to 150-154 in 2021, 2022 and 2023. One bit of encouraging news - The limited releases, led by I Saw the TV Glow ($5 million, quite good for a slow-burn, 99% subtext mood piece), earned $31 million. That was well above the $23 million (led by Sundance pick-up Theater Camp earning $4 million) but well below the 2010s, which hovered over/under $100 million. Again, when discussing overall box office decline compared to before-times, it’s not just a tentpole here or a tentpole there. In terms of month-by-month, here’s how the biggies did…