From Deadpool and Wolverine to Dune: Part Two, all 10 of the highest-grossing movies of 2024 are sequels – and it's the first time that's happened in at least 50 years
Nov. 21, 2024The Wizard of Oz prequel Wicked could wind up threatening the ranking, though
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It’s hard to imagine sequels would’ve taken over the top 10 pre-1974, too, which likely means it’s the first time it’s happened in cinema history.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is currently in tenth place, has made $397 million. (GamesRadar+has not counted Chinese box office figures in this report).
As Gabriel Rossman, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, points out to us, “box office has mostly recovered from the extremely low COVID era numbers but not all the way” and there “seems to be at a new equilibrium like 75% of the pre-COVID level.”
“Theaters need box office wherever they can get it,” he explains. “Whether that’s originals, sequels/franchises, or more niche/emerging genres like streaming live events.”
Not everyone is down with sequels' big screen domination, though. Shockingly, Star Wars creator George Lucas hit out at the trend earlier this year in an interview withFrench publication Brut Officiel. “The stories they’re telling are just old movies,” he claimed. “‘Let’s do a sequel, let’s do another version of this movie.’ There’s no original thinking… the big studios… they don’t have an imagination.”
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I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.
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