Story of the Year
Sony Buys Alamo Drafthouse
Sony buying Alamo Drafthouse isn’t going to be the industry-changing story many reported it to be. I don’t think it will usher in a new era of studio ownership in exhibition. But it does stand out as the biggest story of the year for theatrical exhibition. Seeing Sony go from making an offer to acquire Paramount to pivoting and buying a midsized theater chain instead wasn’t on our 2024 bingo card. – Daniel Loria
Movie of the Year
Inside Out 2 (Disney)
Naming the highest-grossing movie of the year as the most important release for exhibitors in 2024 is obvious—but we really do need to emphasize just how important this title was for the movie theater business. It marked a turning point for the box office, which had gotten off to a terrible start in the first semester as it dealt with the hangover from the writers’ and actors’ strikes. Inside Out 2 single-handedly changed the narrative over its opening weekend. It also signaled a major turnaround for Disney in the postpandemic era, where it felt like the studio was struggling to find the success it once had when it dominated the global box office in the 2010s. – Daniel Loria
Exhibition Trend of the Year
Concessions Merchandising
The interesting thing about collectibles in theaters is the way they herald a transition in movie marketing. This merchandise is distributed by exhibitors, who are not always set up to meet the demands of a marketplace created by fan interest. You’ve seen many big and midsized exhibitors embrace the concept, but it’s not something they’ve necessarily been compelled to put a lot of resources into. The question now becomes, can this merchandising market grow? Can it be nurtured into something that supports the infrastructure required to turn it into a real business line for exhibitors? – Russ Fischer
Honorable Mention: Cinema Entertainment Centers
There has been a lot of conversation about the North American market being over-screened, and one of the clearest indications of this is the number of auditoriums at new sites. Instead of opening new 20 or 25-screen multiplexes, we’re seeing chains inaugurate 8 to 12-screen locations with amenities like bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, and gaming rooms. B&B Theatres even opened a new location with pickleball courts. We’ve seen the growth of cinema entertainment centers in the past, with pioneers like Cinergy and EVO Entertainment. This year, it felt like many more players embraced the concept. It’s not a national trend—this isn’t something you’ll see in major cities—but it’s a smart play for exhibitors with access to the real estate required in the right parts of the country. – Daniel Loria
Distributor of the Year
Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios
After struggling at the box office in the postpandemic era, Disney had a huge rebound in 2024. Every single one of its divisions performed well above expectations, with the exception of Lucasfilm, which didn’t have any releases scheduled this year. In the animation department, Walt Disney Animation Studios scored a huge hit with Moana 2, and Pixar had Inside Out 2. Meanwhile, 20th Century Studios finally felt like it was integrated into the Disney ecosystem. For a while, it felt like the only theatrical property we would see from that division would be Avatar movies. You had a huge hit like Deadpool & Wolverine—which also helped a somewhat ailing Marvel division—and solid $100 million-plus performers like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Alien: Romulus. – Daniel Loria
A fire was lit under Disney over the past two years with some of their big theatrical plays performing poorly and some movies going to streaming that probably could have been theatrical plays. We talk about the role Inside Out 2 plays for obvious reasons. But then there’s Moana 2, which signals that maybe Disney is realizing there’s a good reason to include theatrical in the business breakdown that leads movies to streaming. Moana 2 was originally planned as a streaming series, and its theatrical success has shown that theatrical and Disney+ are part of the same whole. – Russ Fischer
Honorable Mention: Neon
Ultimately, if we’re talking about distributor of the year, for me, it ends up being Neon. Look at the theatrical performance of movies like Longlegs, Immaculate, and Anora—it’s such a strong year for a small company. This is the year we saw Neon competing very strongly with A24 and brands like Blumhouse. And not just with one type of movie but with a diverse range of titles. I’m excited to see what they do next year. – Russ Fischer
Theatrical Marketing Campaign of the Year
Wicked (Universal)
Beyond the global press tour and a broad array of exhibitor-exclusive cinema merch, Wicked’s overall merchandising strategy reportedly launched some 100 brand collaborations that included Cynthia Erivo singing in Target commercials, an entire r.e.m. beauty line (Ariana Grande is the company’s founder), and themed Starbucks drinks. From Bloomingdale’s exclusive $1,500 Jimmy Choo crystal mesh Wicked slingback shoes to Walmart’s Great Value macaroni and cheese (with surprise pink or green sauce), the product tie-ins spanned an expansive and diverse economic range. Leading into its nationwide release, Fandango and E! News teamed to livestream the Los Angeles red carpet premiere across numerous platforms, and NBC aired an entire prime-time TV special, Defying Gravity: The Curtain Rises on Wicked, on the making of the film. – Chad Kennerk
Longlegs (Neon)
Neon launched the Longlegs marketing campaign in January 2024 with a series of cryptic and ominous short videos that ended with a series of eerie symbols. Although Nicolas Cage starred in the film, he never appeared in any of the subsequent marketing, which included more cryptic videos, posters, and ciphers. A mysterious billboard popped up in Los Angeles in June with a phone number. When dialed, the caller heard an unnerving message from the film’s title character, played by Cage. The phone number received over 250,000 calls across the globe in the first 48 hours of being posted. Following its record-breaking theatrical opening, Neon invited all those born on the 14th of any month to redeem free tickets for screenings in early August using a limited-time Atom Tickets promo code. The savvy marketing led Longlegs to become Neon’s highest-grossing film of all time. – Chad Kennerk
Box Office Surprise of the Year
Moana 2 (Disney)
While Moana 2’s box office success wasn’t a surprise by any means, its mere existence as a theatrical release caught everyone in the industry by surprise. Moana 2 wasn’t on the release schedule until February—and the resulting impact of its late addition was incredible. Moana 2 delivered a half-billion-dollar-plus injection of cash to the global box office in a down year compared to 2023. Domestically, the movie debuted less than a week after the opening weekend of Wicked and Gladiator II and drove the market to achieve the highest-grossing Thanksgiving weekend of all time. – Daniel Loria
Honorable Mention: Terrifier 3 (Cineverse)
We all expected a killer clown to dominate the box office headlines in October—but we didn’t think it would come from this movie. Panic set in after Warner Bros. missed the mark on Joker: Folie à Deux, leaving a gap in the market from rival studios who had avoided releasing films in its vicinity. Terrifier 3 saved the day using a grassroots marketing campaign and strong word of mouth to deliver an ultraviolent feast for horror fans nationwide. By the end of its run, the low-budget indie-horror darling came within $5 million of matching Warner Bros.’ Joker sequel at the domestic box office. – Daniel Loria
Box Office Disappointment of the Year
Joker: Folie à Deux (Warner Bros.)
It’s lazy to label big swings like Warner Bros.’ Horizon: An American Saga or Lionsgate’s Megalopolis as disappointments. It’s true neither film performed the way anyone wanted, but we’re talking about personal passion projects from filmmakers who weren’t driven by box office potential. These aren’t movies that came into the market with lofty expectations and left a hole when they didn’t perform. I won’t punish their ambition by calling these movies flops: Box office was never a relevant metric for these titles. However, the same can’t be said about Warner Bros.’ Joker: Folie à Deux. That movie had massive box office expectations and failed to deliver on every level. I don’t think the issue was that the movie was a jukebox musical … but that it insisted on being such an absolutely joyless, cynical, and dreadfully boring musical. There’s a time and place for alienating audiences, but it’s significantly less audacious when the film in question is set up to carry grosses for an entire month of the calendar. – Daniel Loria
Honorable Mention: Juror #2 (Warner Bros.)
Putting Juror #2 on this list isn’t a criticism of the film itself but of the fact that it was never given a chance to succeed in the marketplace. This is the sort of Clint Eastwood drama with Academy Awards potential that Warner Bros. has been able to knock out of the park in the past. On the high end, Eastwood’s The Mule came out with similar critical buzz in 2018 and took in $100 million. If you want to be conservative, Eastwood’s Richard Jewell came out in a similar corridor in 2019 and brought in $22 million. We can say the marketplace has changed—sure, the postpandemic market hasn’t been kind to adult-skewing dramas—but Focus Features was still able to deliver $31 million with Conclave in the same release corridor in 2024. Juror #2 is disappointing because of its missed potential: You can’t expect a movie to find an audience if the audience can’t find any showtimes. – Daniel Loria
Best F&B Collectible of the Year
Dune: Part Two Popcorn Bucket
The Dune: Part Two popcorn bucket marked a turning point in the entire merchandising collectibles conversation. We had seen inventive popcorn buckets break out in the last couple of years, but this one really broke through the culture at large. It felt like everyone got involved after Dune: Part Two. Now we’re seeing collectible popcorn buckets for all kinds of movies and a lot more circuits are getting involved in selling them. The important thing to remember is that not every movie needs a popcorn bucket; chains could get into trouble pouring money and resources into selling collectibles for films that may not have the level of fandom that will drive demand for merchandise. The other thing to remember is that suppliers need to deliver a great product, they can’t just churn out ideas—it needs to be something that really stands out. – Chad Kennerk
Our Favorite Moviegoing Moments of the Year
Wicked was the event movie of the year. The majority of my auditorium came to the theater dressed in shades of green and pink. There were bedazzled Wicked jean jackets, girls in witch costumes carrying brooms, and grandmothers in pink and green plaid. There was a level of excitement in that screening that I haven’t felt many times in the past. I also had a great time attending Fathom Entertainment’s 70th anniversary rerelease of White Christmas as a holiday treat to celebrate the season. Wearing Christmas sweaters and PJs, everyone who attended got into the spirit and applauded at the end of the film. – Chad Kennerk
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie more tailor-made for 4DX than Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters. The experience of watching it with a sold-out crowd at Regal’s Times Square location in the immersive seating technology—replete with splashing water, fog effects, and overhead fans mimicking the on-screen calamity—was so entertaining that it found a place on my year-end list of best movies as a result. – Daniel Loria
I really wish I’d gotten to see The First Omen on the big screen for the possession scene alone. As for moviegoing moments, watching the New Year’s Eve spectacular scene in The Substance with a live audience was wild. I didn’t expect the movie to go full Troma, and when it did, it delivered. – Rebecca Pahle
Our Favorite Performances of the Year
Among the most impressive performances of the year, Anthony Hopkins excelled in One Life, based on the true story of Nicholas Winton. Other exceptional individual performances include Jodie Comer in The Bikeriders, Colman Domingo in Sing Sing, and Lily-Rose Depp in Nosferatu. We also had some great pairings in 2024, particularly Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro sharing scenes in A Complete Unknown and Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande flying away with Wicked. – Chad Kennerk
Timothée Chalamet delivered in two leading roles that relied heavily on his performance in 2024. No one buys into Dune: Part Two if they don’t see Chalamet’s transformation of Paul Atreides from child to leader in that film, and he erased any doubts on his leading-man potential within the film’s first fifteen minutes. By the end of the year, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about his portrayal of the legendary Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown—a role where he both sings and plays guitar —considering it the sort of risk that can derail a biopic into cheap impersonation. Chalamet surprised me once again by blending into Dylan so seamlessly, particularly in the musical numbers, that it barely registered as a performance at all.
Margaret Qualley followed up a terrific performance in 2023’s Poor Things with an extraordinary trio of roles in 2024. She was memorable in supporting turns in Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist triptych Kinds of Kindness and Coralie Fargeat’s body horror allegory The Substance. Her best outing of the year, however, came in Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, an underseen but unforgettable comedic role that shows off her range. I love the roles she’s taking and the directors she’s working with.
Honorable mention goes to Nicholas Hoult, who seemed to pop out of nowhere in the fourth quarter with three splendid performances. His understated leading role in Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 anchors the film’s moral center, while his supporting roles in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu and Justin Kurzel’s The Order offered glimpses of a brooding intensity that can work across a variety of genres. He’s playing Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s Superman, emerging as the most interesting element in the upcoming film’s first trailer. – Daniel Loria
Two horror standouts this year. I have to give a shout-out to Demi Moore in The Substance and Nell Tiger Free in The First Omen. – Rebecca Pahle
Our Favorite Movies of the Year
Chad Kennerk’s Top 12 Movies of 2024
1. Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve / Warner Bros.)
2. Challengers (Luca Guadagnino / A24)
3. The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols / Focus Features)
4. Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar / A24)
5. Alien: Romulus (Fede Álvarez / 20th Century Studios)
6. We Live in Time (John Crowley / A24)
7. A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg / Searchlight Pictures)
8. Wicked (Jon M. Chu / Universal)
9. September 5 (Tim Fehlbaum / Paramount)
10. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross / Amazon MGM )
11. A Complete Unknown (James Mangold / Searchlight Pictures)
12. Nosferatu (Robert Eggers / Focus Features)
Daniel Loria’s Top 15 Movies of 2024
1. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross / Amazon MGM )
2. Civil War (Alex Garland / A24)
3. Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve / Warner Bros.)
4. Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger / Neon )
5. Pictures of Ghosts (Kleber Mendonça Filho / Grasshopper Films)
6. A Complete Unknown (James Mangold / Searchlight Pictures)
7. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude / Mubi)
8. The Substance (Coralie Fargeat / Mubi)
9. Twisters (Lee Isaac Chung / Universal )
10. Kinds of Kindness (Yorgos Lanthimos / Searchlight Pictures)
11. Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood / Warner Bros.)
12. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet / A24)
13. September 5 (Tim Fehlbaum / Paramount)
14. Strange Darling (J.T. Mollner / Magenta Light)
15. The Fire Inside (Rachel Morrison / Amazon MGM)
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