Summer box office boosted by 'Inside Out 2' and 'Deadpool and Wolverine'

Box office analysts and theater owners braced months ago for the possibility that the summer movie season could be the worst in a decade.

Thanks to some anthropomorphic thrills and a foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking antihero, the domestic summer box office grossed $3.6 billion in ticket sales. While that's a 10% drop from the same period in 2023, it's a notably better result than anyone in the industry expected.

“In the wake of a $4 billion 'Barbenheimer'-fueled summer 2023, expectations heading into May were tempered as the industry prepared for what would undoubtedly be a more modest summer 2024 revenue result,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

Heading into the summer movie season, which begins the first weekend in May and runs through Labor Day, the domestic box office was down 22% from a year ago and lacked the traditional opening of a Marvel Cinematic Universe film.

In fact, it was the first time since 2009 that the summer box office didn't have a blockbuster superhero movie to kick off the season, and it showed.

Disney and Marvel Studios have consistently delivered this highly lucrative film season over the past two decades. In fact, only two Marvel franchise films that opened in early summer generated less than $100 million in their opening weekend, not including the pandemic years.

This year, the top movie of the opening weekend of summer was Universal's “The Fall Guy.” And despite strong marketing efforts and good reviews, the film failed to boost ticket sales. The film grossed less than $28 million during its U.S. debut and stalled below $100 million during its domestic run.

Warner Bros. George Miller's “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” also opened. The action-packed film grossed just $67 million in its domestic run.

Meanwhile, Disney's “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” exceeded expectations, grossing $171 million during its run.

But it wasn't until mid-June that the box office saw a real surge in viewers. Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2” broke records and marked the comeback of the troubled animation studio. Through Labor Day, the film was the highest-grossing summer movie, taking in $650 million at the box office.

“Fortunately, the gloom of May turned into a much-needed boost in June, when a string of films that exceeded box office expectations set off a chain reaction that lasted into August,” Dergarabedian said.

Summer got another boost with “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which arrived in late July. The third installment of the Deadpool franchise — and the first in Disney’s MCU — broke records for an R-rated film, grossing more than $600 million domestically over the holiday weekend.

Universal and Illumination's “Despicable Me 4,” Universal and Illumination's “Twisters” From Sony “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” also made big contributions to the summer box office alongside hits like Disney's “Alien Romulus,” Sony's “It Ends With Us” and From Paramount “A Quiet Place: Day One.” Fathom's 15th anniversary re-release of “Coraline” also boosted the total with $31 million in ticket sales.

These titles also contributed to the more than 900 million dollars in cumulative ticket sales for the month of August, marking the highest figure for an August since 2016.

Box office analysts expect summer momentum to carry over into the fall, ultimately bolstering overall third-quarter box office results.

“Our confidence in a better-than-expected third-quarter result is bolstered by a strong slate of September releases, including 'Beetlejuice' (on track to gross over $80 million in its opening weekend), the horror title 'Speak No Evil' and the animated films 'Transformers One' (on track to gross over $40 million in its opening) and 'The Wild Robot,'” Roth MKM analyst Eric Handler wrote in a research note published Tuesday. “If September ends in the low double-digits compared to last year, the quarter would end in the low single-digits.”

It's unclear whether the full-year box office will reach 2023 levels (last year's two labor strikes, which halted production, continue to weigh heavily on the film slate), but there are plenty of compelling titles set to hit theaters in the coming months.

“There may not be a pound-for-pound juggernaut like 'Inside Out 2' or 'Deadpool & Wolverine,' but the stable of sequels to compelling franchises like Beetlejuice, Transformers, Joker, Smile and Venom offer plenty for moviegoers, theaters and studios to be excited about over the next two months,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.