Movies

Box Office 2024: Top 10 Highest-Grossing Movies of the Year So Far

Box Office 2024: Top 10 Highest-Grossing Movies of the Year So Far
Image credit: Universal Pictures, Warner Bros.

From films that only do well at the domestic box office to global hits for many years to come.

Summary

  • 2024 doesn't start off as strong as 2023 at the global box office.
  • However, it promises to be much more stable in terms of commercially successful premieres (despite the failure of Madame Web ).
  • The absolute leaders at the global box office remain Dune: Part Two and Kung Fu Panda 4.

At this point, the start of 2024 for the global film industry is unfortunately not being driven by the same commercial successes as last year, whose start was marked by the still ongoing theatrical runs of Avatar: The Way of Water and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and followed by high-profile (and not always unambiguous) premieres such as Quantumania, China's Full River Red and The Wandering Earth 2, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Still, the new year has already started off with some pretty good financial numbers that promise to make 2024 probably an even bigger year for movies than the previous one (especially if there are no more WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes).

We can already see the absolute hits that will not leave the list of highest-grossing movies of 2024 in the coming months, or possibly the whole year — these are, of course, Dune: Part Two, which is now in its third week at the top, and Kung Fu Panda 4, which has unexpectedly become the second highest grossing movie.

Without further ado, let's take a look at all of the top-grossing films at the global box office in the nearly three months of the year 2024.

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Top-Grossing Global Box Office Films of 2024 (So Far)

1. Dune: Part Two — $498.1 million

2. Kung Fu Panda 4 — $177.2 million

3. Bob Marley: One Love — $169.1 million

4. The Beekeeper — $152.6 million

5. Mean Girls — $104.4 million

6. Argylle — $95.4 million

7. Madame Web — $97.5 million

8. Night Swim — $53.5 million

9. Imaginary — $22.4 million

10. Ordinary Angels — $18.1 million

Of course, a top 10 like this will change over time, depending on how well each of the following films performs financially in each subsequent week of its theatrical run. What's more, some of these movies (the ones still in theaters) have held positions on the list of most profitable new releases for several weeks now, so motion pictures like Ordinary Angels ( released February 23), Imaginary (released March 8), (released March 8), and possibly Night Swim (released January 5) have a good chance of falling off the list (of course, the failed Argyle and Madame Web will definitely slip into financial oblivion). After all, there are plenty of potential blockbusters for the rest of March and April — Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The First Omen, Monkey Man, to name a few.

A Little About These Movies'

But let's get back to the top-grossing films as of the second decade of March. According to Box Office Mojo, January is the most profitable month of 2024 so far. It has a cumulative gross of $495.6 million based on 98 releases.

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Notably, Wonka was still the top-grossing film, but of all January releases, The Beekeeper and Mean Girls were the top two (though 2004's Mean Girls was more profitable, grossing $30 million more worldwide). It's also worth noting that Mean Girls outperformed The Beekeeper domestically, grossing $72.4 million to $65.8 million, but it seems that global audiences are much more appreciative of Jason Statham, for whom this is his highest-grossing and most profitable role since 2018's The Meg.

As for February, it managed to gross almost $362 million at the worldwide box office based on 123 releases. Fun fact: February 2024 was less profitable than February 2023 (27.5% lower), but this was due to the impressive box office performance of Quantumania, which despite its commercial failure still managed to gross $476.1 million. Also in February, Bob Marley: One Love, which despite mixed reviews from critics, did well financially, beating out The Beekeeper and Mean Girls. Madame Web was clearly aiming for the same heights, but it failed to recoup its budget, so its position on the list of top-grossing films is very relative.