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Box Office

venom: the last dance movie

Rise of the Reasonably Priced, Moderately Successful Blockbuster

As it turns out, avoiding monstrous budgets and not always swinging for the fences can be a solid way to make money on a mid-sized global hit like ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ or ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’—with or without China’s occasionally significant (but far less reliable) returns.
Scott Mendelson • November 5, 2024
Scott Mendelson • October 29, 2024
Chris Hemsworth’s Box Office Poison
Chris Hemsworth
Why is Disney considering the Thor actor for ‘Prince Charming’ despite prodigious evidence that he has failed to lure audiences to theaters outside of his Marvel movies?
Scott Mendelson • October 22, 2024
‘Anora’ & The Perils of the Platform Release
anora movie
Sean Baker’s Cannes-winning dramedy wowed in six theaters this weekend, but in a world of fractured and fatigued audiences, can word of mouth still sustain a movie from a few screens to a few hundred?
terrifier 3
Scott Mendelson • October 15, 2024
Send in the Clowns!
The success of ‘Terrifier 3’ further proves that a mainstream theatrical release still trumps nontheatrical distribution—at least in terms of cash-in-hand revenue and pop culture impact.
Todd Phillips
Matthew Belloni • October 8, 2024
‘Joker 2’ Was a Flex, Not a Sabotage
‘Folie á Deux’ may repulse moviegoers, but Todd Phillips isn’t inflicting self-harm or sabotaging Warner Bros., he’s showing off his clout as a billion-dollar grosser.
Joker: Folie à Deux
Scott Mendelson • October 8, 2024
The Joker’s Sequelitis
At one point, a big-budget follow-up movie that grossed less than the original was an anomaly. But with The Marvels and now Joker: Folie à Deux, it’s becoming a trend.
Megalopolis
Scott Mendelson • October 1, 2024
Can Lionsgate Recover From an Epic Run of Mega-Flops?
With six bombs in a row, the ‘Megalopolis’ distributor has leaned on foreign presales to paper over an astoundingly bad slate of 2024 movies. Thankfully, at least, the next year is looking up.
transformers one movie
Scott Mendelson • September 24, 2024
‘Transformers’ & The Limits of I.P. Exploitation
Despite some incredible prerelease buzz around ‘Transformers One,’ the latest entry in the toy franchise proved to be another cautionary tale about what happens when a studio keeps exploiting franchises past their sell-by date.
beetlejuice beetlejuice
Scott Mendelson • September 10, 2024
The ‘Beetlejuice’ Boomerang
Not all legacy sequels work out, but ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ had a number of factors guiding its success—multigenerational appeal, the return of Tim Burton, and a pair of stars who are nearly as relevant now as they were more than 30 years ago.
franchise summer movies
Scott Mendelson • August 21, 2024
7 Lessons From Hollywood’s Good-Not-Great Summer
Overseas matters more than online controversies, younger moviegoers already want to relive their youth, audiences are hungry for old-school movie stars, and other revelations from this year’s better-than-expected blockbuster season.