In a sudo-sequel to my article Survive Till 25 in which I lament about the financial state of Hollywood. Looks like I was wrong. Which I’m honestly happy to be. Why am I retracting my doomer mentality? On November 29th, 2024, box office sales matched the insane sales of Avengers Endgame’s opening week in 2019.
Fuckin avenger’s man, am I right?
Anyways. What makes this last black Friday so interesting is that it wasn’t just one movie, but a trio:
I was in that 100 million dollar mix by going and seeing Wicked. I have my few nitpicks, mostly the intensely muted color pallet. (Which is an odd choice to honor the legacy of the first ever color film, but i digress) I’m also a little disappointed that it’s a part 1 to a story that doesn’t really feel like it needs two parts. However, the film was amazing. Cynthia Erivo was fantastic as Elphaba. Meanwhile, Ariana Grande shined in every scene as Glinda. Probably some of my favourite acting to date from the both of them. It’s hard to fuck up Defying Gravity and I had no question in my mind that Erivo wouldn’t deliver. She absolutely exceeded all expectations.
Moana 2 is likely being carried by parents taking their children. It has fine reviews, but not amazing ones. This is likely due to the strange decision made one year before release to make the 5 episode mini series into a feature length film. Hey, did you guys know that TV animators are paid less than film animators? Interesting. Despite it all, the movie is making great money and got an A- on CinemaScore’s poles. So good enough.
Finally, Gladiator II, which only shortcoming is its potentially massive budget (340 million by the worst estimates) but it’s making its money back and is the highest grossing film in Denzel Washington’s filmography.
Many times this year, the box office bombs baffled audiences, looking at you Disney, but there might actually be light at the end of this tunnel. Is it disheartening that there wasn’t a single totally original movie? Yes, obviously. I just don’t believe that “uncreativeness” is what’s hampering movie sales. Just bad movies. None of these films are in the ballpark of bad and hopefully the lesson of 2024 is “just make good movies”.