It’s no rarity for sequels of previous blockbuster films to garner a load of cash from moviegoers, but this year so far has proven to be a special one for sequels in regards to box office records.
GamesRadar reported that sequels have filled up the entire top 10 spot in terms of the highest-grossing films released worldwide in 2024. This marks the first time in 50 years where all 10 movies are continuations of previous titles. To be more specific, this excludes prequels, remakes, and movies simply consisting of existing IP.
According to Box Office Mojo, as of November 25, Inside Out 2 sits at the top of the leaderboard with $1,698,217,953 while Deadpool and Wolverine trails close behind with $1,337,900,827. Both Disney films so far are the only ones to cross the one billion dollar mark, to no one’s surprise. Despicable Me 4 was almost close to joining the two films as it ranks number three with a gross of $968,240,710.
Other movies in order of highest-grossing films listed in the top 10 chart from fourth place include: Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Venom: The Last Dance, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. All films are essentially sequels with no newcomers in sight.
Usually, there’ll be new non-sequel films to break box office records every year that puts them on the list of ten highest-grossing films, but will 2024 be an exception? Apparently not, because the recently released Wicked just opened worldwide with a gross of $164,180,000, meaning it’ll ruin the chances for 2024 to be a year where all sequels dominate the first ten slots in the box office chart.
Imagine a year where films ranking high in the box office are newer ones or standalone titles. Now that’ll be more impressive and good for the industry as it prioritizes original content or newer film adaptations over a saturation of sequels.
As exciting as it is for everyone’s favorite movies to have their continuation, sometimes less is good after all. Consuming more sequels each year can possibly lead to burnout, so having some fresh entries in your plan-to-watch list is a great cure for that.
