Global cinema box office sales finished 2024 on a strong festive footing, meaning the year reached $8.74 billion in ticket sales.
While this marked a 3.4% year-over-year decrease, it was a significant improvement from what was close to a 27% decline seen at the midpoint of the year.
Disney was a key element in the respectable performance for movie theatres, bringing in $2.2 billion at the domestic US box office, accounting for about 25%.
Internationally, Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS, ETR:WDP) saw ticket sales of $3.23 billion, making the studio the first to surpass more than $5 million at the global box office since the Covid pandemic changed habits for cinema-goers and studios.
Disney animation 'Inside Out 2' topped the box office, raking in $653 million domestically and more than $1 billion globally, followed by 'Deadpool and Wolverine', which generated $636.7 million domestically.
In fourth place was another animation, 'Moana 2', which brought in $404 million domestically for Disney and more than $900 million globally.
Universal accounted for 21.6% of the domestic box office share, driven by the musical 'Wicked' which was the third highest-grossing film of the year with $432 million in domestic ticket sales.