Summer Box Office: ‘Inside Out 2’ Tops Charts, ‘Furiosa’ Flops

The summer of 2024 delivered a mix of box office triumphs and disappointments, with “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” emerging as the season’s biggest successes, while films like “Furiosa” and Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” struggled to find their footing.

“Inside Out 2,” the highly anticipated sequel to the 2015 Disney-Pixar animated hit, became the summer’s box office champion, grossing approximately $650 million domestically and an impressive $1.6 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The film not only shattered numerous records for animated movies but also revitalized the summer movie season. “Inside Out 2” took just one week to surpass the earnings of “Dune: Part Two,” becoming the highest-grossing film of 2024 at domestic theaters, and soon after, it surpassed the “Dune” sequel on the global stage. The movie’s success marks it as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, overtaking “Frozen II,” which earned $1.45 billion in 2019. Additionally, “Inside Out 2” now ranks as the tenth highest-grossing film of all time worldwide and the third highest-grossing film of the 2020s. Notably, it also became the first animated film to gross over $1 billion in international markets, excluding the United States.

Close on the heels of “Inside Out 2” was “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the only Marvel film released this year. The movie grossed $581 million domestically and $1.21 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of the summer. “Deadpool & Wolverine” set the record for the biggest box-office debut of the year, with $211 million in its domestic opening weekend, making it the sixth-largest opening weekend of all time. The film’s success broke a losing streak for superhero movies at the box office, which had seen several underperforming titles from both Marvel and DC in recent years. Disney CEO Bob Iger noted during a May earnings call that Marvel would be “reducing output and focusing more on quality,” a strategy that seemed to pay off with “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

The top-grossing films of the summer were dominated by sequels and franchise entries. “Despicable Me 4,” “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” and “Twisters,” a standalone sequel to the 1996 hit “Twister,” were all among the highest earners. Horror films also made a strong showing, with “A Quiet Place: Day One” and “Longlegs” performing well at the box office, with “Longlegs” standing out as the only film in the top 10 that wasn’t a sequel or based on existing material.

However, not all films released this summer enjoyed the same level of success. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” a prequel to the critically acclaimed “Mad Max: Fury Road,” was one of the season’s most significant disappointments. Despite positive reviews, the film grossed just $32 million over the extended Memorial Day weekend, a poor showing considering its massive $168 million production budget. Its worldwide gross of $172 million fell far short of the $350 million to $375 million needed to break even, as reported by Variety, though Warner Bros. suggested the break-even point might be lower. The underperformance of “Furiosa” was a major blow to Warner Bros., which had high expectations for the film.

Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” was another high-profile flop. The first installment in a planned four-part Western saga, the film grossed just $35 million worldwide, despite a reported $100 million production budget. The film’s failure at the box office and with critics led to the postponement of the second chapter, which was initially slated for an August release. The poor performance of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” has cast doubt on the future of the planned sequels, raising questions about Costner’s ambitious project.

Another notable failure was the film adaptation of the popular video game series “Borderlands,” which grossed only $26 million worldwide after its August release. The film had a reported production budget of $115 million, not including the additional $30 million spent on marketing and distribution. Despite a star-studded cast led by Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis, “Borderlands” bombed with critics, earning a dismal 10% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film’s failure at the box office is another example of the challenges faced by video game adaptations in finding success on the big screen.

The summer of 2024 has been marked by the dominance of established franchises and the struggles of new and original content to break through. While sequels and adaptations have proven to be reliable box office performers, the underperformance of several high-budget films has highlighted the risks involved in big-budget filmmaking. As the industry looks ahead to the fall and winter releases, the successes and failures of this summer will undoubtedly influence the strategies of studios and filmmakers in the months and years to come.