A life-size model of the new Marvel Universe movie “Deadpool & Wolverine” presented by Disney is seen in Shanghai, China, on July 26, 2024.
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The Hollywood franchise craze is just beginning.
The 2024 box office has been flooded with sequels, prequels and remakes, with the top 10 titles this year all coming from existing intellectual properties. That trend will continue, and grow, in 2025.
The industry’s top studios are returning to familiar characters and settings to drive movie ticket sales, a strategy that’s hardly new, but it seems to be gaining traction.
Looking at the 2025 calendar now, between 50% and 70% of films from the six major studios – Universal, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony and Lionsgate – will be related to the existing IP. Of course, the 2025 slate isn’t set in stone and the studio could add more non-franchise titles in the coming months and years.
“There’s a recognition by the studios that known commodities are what audiences love the most,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
Top 10 domestic film releases of 2024 (so far)
- “Inside Out 2” – $652.9 million
- “Deadpool & Wolverine” – $631.3 million
- “Despicable Me 4” – $360.7 million
- “Dune: Part Two” – $282.1 million
- “Twisters” – $267.5 million
- “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” – $250.3 million
- “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” – $196.3 million
- “Kung Fu Panda 4” – $193.59 million
- “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” – $193.57 million
- “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” – $171.1 million
Of the top 20 domestic releases in 2024, only two are considered original content – Paramount’s “IF” and Neon’s “Longlegs.”
Others are generally sequels to major blockbuster features, new and old, or tied to popular books (Sony’s “It Ends With Us”), television shows (Universal’s “The Fall Guy”) or based on popular historical figures (Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love “).
A “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” billboard is seen at night in Times Square on September 04, 2024 in New York City.
Craig T Fruchtman | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Even before Hollywood was disrupted by the pandemic and the meteoric rise of streaming content, the domestic box office was heavily dependent on franchise titles. For Universal, Warner Bros., Sony, Lionsgate, Paramount and 20th Century Fox (which has yet to join Disney), franchise films accounted for 33% to 62% of total releases in 2019. Disney was the only leader, with nine . of its 10 films come from established IP.
However, as consumers become more aware of where and what they spend, studios have invested in sequels, prequels and remakes.
This has been seen especially in the animation space, with 2024 participants like Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” as well as Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” and “Kung Fu Panda 4.”
“Family audiences who use budget-driven calculus when choosing to buy movie tickets want the comfort of people they know,” Dergarabedian said. “Indeed, this trend is seen across all age demographics as mature audiences also use this rationale.”
Look at the last quarter of the year:
The rest of the blockbuster franchise releases in 2024
October
- “Joker: Folie à Deux” (Oct. 4)
- “Smile 2” (Oct. 18)
- “Venom: The Last Dance” (October 25)
November
- “Gladiator 2” (Nov. 22)
- “Wicked: Part One” (Nov. 22)
- “Moana 2” (Nov. 27)
December
- “Kraven the Hunter” (December 13)
- “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” (December 13)
- “Mufasa: The Lion King” (December 20)
- “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” (December 20)
These types of titles have pushed the domestic box office to $6.3 billion through the first nine months of the year, according to Comscore, as “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Inside Out 2” and “Despicable Me 4” — plus several breakout hits — have helped buoy the box office. .
While it is 11.3% drop from the end of the year and lags 25% behind the pre-pandemic level, the haul is better than box office analysts have expected. Writers and actors attacked the 2023 production and pushed many titles to later dates in the calendar, many until 2025, leaving the 2024 slate sparse.
“2025 will once again be emblematic of the IP-and-nostalgia-driven status quo for Hollywood, but it is not necessarily a dirty word,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory. “Some of the best-received box office hits in recent memory are sequels or films based on existing brands and still have a variety of original content.”
Franchises and movies based on IP in 2025 (to date)
Universal
- “Wolf Man” (January 17)
- “The Dog People” (January 31)
- “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” (February 14)
- “How to Train Your Dragon” (June 13)
- “MEGAN 2.0” (June 27)
- “Jurassic World: Rebirth” (July 2)
- “The Bad Guys 2” (August 1)
- “Nobody 2” (August 15)
- “Downton Abbey” sequel (September 12)
- “Gabby’s Dollhouse” (September 26)
- “Black Phone 2” (Oct. 17)
- “The Basics: Part II” (Nov. 21)
- “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (December 5)
Disney
- “Captain America: Brave New World” (February 11)
- “Snow White” (March 21)
- “Lightning*” (May 2)
- “Fantastic Four: First Steps” (July 25)
- “Tron: Ares” (Oct. 10)
- “Zootopia 2” (Nov. 26)
- “Avatar: Fire and Ashes” (Dec. 19)
Sony
- “Paddington in Peru” (Jan 17)
- “The Karate Kid” (May 30)
- “28 Years Later” (June 20)
- Untitled Spider-Man Universe Movie (June 27)
- Sequel to “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (July 18)
- Sequel to “Insidious” (August 29)
Lionsgate
- “Den of Thieves: Pantera” (Jan. 10)
- “Michael” (April 18)
- “Ballerina” (John Wick) (June 6)
- Sequel to “Dirty Dancing” (Summer 2025)
- “Saw XI” (September 26)
- “Now You See Me 3” (Nov 14)
Warner Bros.*
- “Minecraft” (April 4)
- “Superman: Legacy” (July 11)
- “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (September 5)
- “Mortal Kombat 2” (October 24)
- “The bride!”
Paramount
- “The Smurfs Movie” (February 14)
- “Mission Impossible 8” (May 23)
- Movie “Naked Gun” (July 18)
- “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” (December 19)
* Warner Bros. has six untitled “event” movies on the calendar. It’s not clear if it has anything to do with the franchise or the current IP.
While 2024 and 2025 boast franchise-rich film slates, Wall Street doesn’t expect to top $10 billion in domestic ticket sales until 2026. The domestic box office hasn’t hit that benchmark since 2019, before the Covid pandemic. Last year, it raked in just over $9 billion.
The 2025 film calendar ends with the third Avatar movie in mid-December, meaning ticket sales will drop until 2026. Then the summer begins with the Avengers team-up movie, followed by the Star Wars “Mandalorian” movie on Memorial Day weekend. Another Star Wars movie will wrap up Disney’s big year in December 2026.
Add in another “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the fifth “Toy Story,” the fifth “Shrek,” another Hunger Games movie, a flick of Supergirl, another Batman movie from Matt Reeves and the possible release of the third “Dune” movie and 2026 is in track to a staggering box office haul.
And, although Hollywood’s biggest studios rely on familiar titles to lure audiences back to theaters, some non-franchise features have been standouts at the box office in recent years.
“Next year offers new original films from filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Paul Thomas Anderson, JJ Abrams’ production company Bad Robot, and Ryan Coogler, which can stand out among the various franchise films,” said Robbins.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
