With the exception of Shawn Levy's Deadpool & Wolverine, 2024 will not be remembered as a great year for comic book movies. On the DC side of things, Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux turned out to be a major disappointment both critically and at the box office, and Sony's Spider-Man Universe failed to properly take advantage of a calendar year light on Marvel Cinematic Universe titles. S.J. Clarkson's Madame Web became a punchline in February, Kelly Marcel's Venom: The Last Dance has majorly underperformed domestically, and now J.C. Chandor's Kraven The Hunter is shaping up to be the franchise's biggest bomb yet.
Kraven The Hunter and Kenji Kamiyama's The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim were this weekend's two big new wide releases, and with both failing to draw in movie-goers, Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand, and David Derrick Jr.'s Moana 2 has won the box office for the third week in a row. Check out the full Top 10 in the chart below and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Moana 2 | $26,621,000 | $337,516,469 | 1 | 4,000 |
| 2. Wicked | $22,500,000 | $359,038,000 | 2 | 3,689 |
| 3. Kraven The Hunter* | $11,000,000 | $11,000,000 | N/A | 3,211 |
| 4. Gladiator II | $7,800,000 | $145,935,000 | 3 | 3,224 |
| 5. The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim* | $4,600,000 | $4,600,000 | N/A | 2,602 |
| 6. Red One | $4,400,000 | $92,604,878 | 4 | 3,003 |
| 7. Interstellar | $3,315,000 | $199,799,000 | 6 | 321 |
| 8. Pushpa: The Rule — Part 2 | $1,600,000 | $13,000,000 | 5 | 631 |
| 9. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever | $1,350,000 | $36,663,106 | 10 | 1,519 |
| 10. Queer | $790,954 | $1,924,063 | 14 | 460 |
Moana 2 Passes $700 Million Worldwide, Further Establishing It As One Of 2024's Biggest Hits
Comic book movies may not be doing so well in 2024, but helping to pick up the slack is the phenomenal theatrical performance of the year's animated blockbusters. There is no question at this point that Kelsey Mann's Inside Out 2 will be declared the biggest hit of the year (having made $1.7 billion during its theatrical run), and it is joined in the global Top 10 by Mike Mitchell's Kung Fu Panda 4 ($547.7 million) and Chris Renaud's Despicable Me 4 ($969.4 million).
In just three weeks, Moana 2 has established itself as an important title in that conversation as well, as it has now earned over $700 million from around the planet, having added another $26.6 million to its coffers domestically over the last few days (per The Numbers).
Looking purely at the film's performance in the United States and Canada, the Walt Disney Animation Studios creation is now the fifth biggest release of the year, as its $316.9 million in ticket sales has surpassed the number put up by Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($294.1 million). And while Jon Chu's Wicked had a head start at the box office, released seven days prior, Moana 2 is closing the financial gap that presently exists between the movies.
Moana 2 wasn't an inexpensive feature to put together, as the Los Angeles Times reports the movie was made with a $150 million production budget, but it is an important box office win for Walt Disney Animation Studios, which hasn't had a substantial hit prior to now since 2019's Frozen II. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the release of Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada's Raya And The Last Dragon in early 2020, and none of the titles released in the subsequent years – including Byron Howard and Jared Bush's Encanto, Don Hall's Strange World, and Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn's Wish – managed to make over $250 million globally.
There will be some substantial competition arriving in theaters for Moana 2 in the coming days/weeks, including Barry Jenkins' Mufasa: The Lion King and Jeff Fowler's Sonic The Hedgehog 3 – but it will be fascinating to see just how high the new animated feature climbs when it comes to the highest grossing titles of 2024.
Kraven The Hunter Fails To Even Put Up Madame Web Numbers In Its Opening Weekend
When Daniel Espinosa's Morbius arrived in theaters, there was enough curiosity in the Spider-Man adjacent film to see the release earn $39 million in its opening weekend domestically. Two-and-a-half years later, that curiosity is entirely gone, and Kraven The Hunter has proven the most significant victim of that development. The new release was torn to shreds by critics this past week (I gave the film a two-star review for CinemaBlend), and that complete lack of buzz has resulted in the film making even less than Madame Web did when it debuted in February.
Released head-to-head with Reinaldo Marcus Green's biopic Bob Marley: One Love, Madame Web made just $15.3 million in its opening weekend; Kraven The Hunter's only head-to-head competition was the mostly buzzless The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim (more on that in a minute), and it only made $11 million. The Aaron Taylor-Johnson-led feature made its box office debut in third place – not behind the animated fantasy film, but behind two titles that respectively been out for for nearly a month.
It's easily the slowest start for any film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, and the numbers aren't being buoyed internationally. Only an additionally $15 million in ticket sales has come in from foreign territories, resulting in a $26 million global take in three days. This is a movie that had a reported budget, via Variety, of $110 million (inflated due to complications extending from last year's industry labor battles).
All signs point to the failure of Kraven The Hunter being the final nail in the coffin when it comes to developing Spider-Man movies that don't have Spider-Man in them... and it doesn't seem like too many people will be complaining if that comes to pass.
The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim Settles For Fifth Place
As bad as the numbers are for Kraven The Hunter, the box office results for The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim are even worse – even with the movie's more modest $30 million budget. There was hope that the release would hit upon the recent success of anime titles on the big screen and reinvigorate the passion for J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth that was shown with Peter Jackson's series of blockbuster, but that didn't happen.
While animated movies are having a terrific year (I didn't even mention the successes of Josh Cooley's Transformers One or Chris Sanders' The Wild Robot earlier), but when reflecting on the entirety of 2024, The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim will be an omission from the conversation. Despite playing in over 2,600 locations in the United States and Canada, the feature only made $4.6 million in its first three days of release. That ranks it as the 74th biggest opening weekend of 2024 behind Rupert Sanders' The Crow.
This weekend may have been mostly about disappointments at the box office, but hopefully there will be some reinvigoration on Friday with the big screen arrivals of the aforementioned Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic The Hedgehog 3. Which one will win the box office? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to find out, and check out our 2024 Movie Release Calendar to discover all of the titles still to arrive on the big screen in what remains of the year.
