Member News Category: Box Office

Creative Community

World of Reel: Sean Baker Calls on Directors to Demand 90-Day Theatrical Windows

Thank you, Sean Baker. We need more filmmakers to stomp for this cause, and last night, as he was accepting his DGA award, Baker called on all filmmakers to demand that studios give “at least” 90-day theatrical exclusivity on their films.

Let’s do whatever we can do to expand that theatrical window. Demand it. We make films for the big screen. Let’s expand it to at least 90 days […] Let’s get it back to the way it used to be.

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International Box Office

Deadline: ‘Ne Zha 2’ Crosses $1B At China Box Office; First Movie Ever To Milestone In A Single Market

Shortly after setting a new benchmark as the highest-grossing movie ever in a single market worldwide, Chinese smash Ne Zha 2 has become the first movie ever to cross $1B in a single market.

As we noted earlier (see below), the writing was on the Great Wall that Ne Zha 2 would reach the milestone in China where the running gross is RMB 7.58B ($1.04B) as of 11:30am Beijing time on Sunday, according to Maoyan.

In other milestones, Ne Zha 2 is also the first non-Hollywood movie to join the billion-dollar club, and has swiftly cracked the all-time Top 10 chart of animated films globally. It is also the 13th film to ever surpass $1B outside of North America.

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Distribution

Deadline: ‘Moana 2’ Buoys Disney’s Latest Quarter As Studio Profits Surge

Moana 2 helped float a solid fiscal first quarter for Disney with studio profit riding the strong box office of the animated sequel that’s topped $1 billion worldwide. The quarter, which ended in December, also featured Mufasa: The Lion King at $653 million. The prior-year period included The Marvels and Wish.

The studio division swung to a $312 million profit from a year-earlier loss of $244 million on revenue up 34% to $2.2 billion. Last quarter, Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine made a splash. Analyst Alan Gould has noted that the biggest fundamental change at Disney of late is that “the studio is executing creatively again,” and studio success can lead to higher consumer products sales, theme park interest and streaming engagement.

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Release Schedule

Deadline: Chinese New Year Box Office Sets All-Time Record With $1.3B As ‘Ne Zha 2’ Looks To Make Global History 

Ushering in the Year of the Snake, China’s Spring Festival 2025 has set a new record for box office during the annual holiday period. Total Mainland grosses reached RMB 9.51B ($1.3B) from January 28-February 4. This outstrips the previous record of RMB 8.02B.

The new milestone was expected once Chinese New Year turnstiles kicked into gear in earnest on January 29, with the biggest gross for a single day in China at RMB 1.8B ($247.5M) across all titles. Momentum did not falter over the following week, with each day through yesterday clocking more than RMB 1B ($137.5M).

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Global Box Office

Variety: ‘Moana 2,’ Once Destined for Streaming, Crosses $1 Billion at Global Box Office

“Moana 2,” originally conceived as a television show for streaming, is officially a billion-dollar box office smash.

The animated sequel has generated $445 million domestically and $567 million internationally, bringing its grand total to $1.009 billion globally after eight weekends of release. “Moana 2” is Disney‘s third 2024 release to join the billion-dollar club following “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” capping off a stellar 12 months for the film studio. None of its rivals fielded a single $1 billion release in 2024, though Universal was closest with “Despicable Me 4” ($969 million).

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Release Schedule

Deadline: A24 Sets Nationwide Release For Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza’s Iraq War Pic ‘Warfare’

A24 has set a nationwide theatrical release for Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Iraq War feature Warfare for April 11.

Last year, on the second weekend of April, A24 released Garland’s dystopian political thriller Civil War which wound up their biggest stateside opening at $25.5M and their second highest grossing movie ever with $127M worldwide.

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The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 4’ Set for Spring 2027 Release

The fourth movie in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is set to speed into theaters with a wide release on March 19, 2027.

Paramount Pictures had long been eyeing a spring 2027 for Sonic the Hedgehog 4, the latest installment in the series that is based on the popular Sega video game and combined has surpassed $1 billion in box office to date. The most recent movie in the series, Sonic 3, bowed last month.

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Domestic Box Office

The Hollywood Reporter: How F-Bombs and Family Fare Saved the 2024 Box Office

For much of the past two decades, if not longer, Hollywood relied on PG-13 fare to rally the masses. Slapping a big-budget event pic with a PG rating could alienate older kids, teens and young adults (the latter are the most frequent moviegoers). Case in point: Remember the choice to change the rating from PG to PG-13 for the fourth and fifth Harry Potter movies? The franchise saw a spike in grosses for films that had the more mature rating.

The past year upended this long-held theory, with PG fare — including Universal’s smash hit Wicked — accounting for as much as 30 percent of domestic ticket sales, a record according to Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “2024 is the year that PG-rated movies showed their undeniable appeal for all age groups and demographics,” he says. “It’s the pizza of ratings, and everybody loves it.” Adds Paramount worldwide president of distribution and marketing Marc Weinstock, “this shows there will l always be an audience for family movies. Look at this holiday. You have four PG movies at the top of the chart.”

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Golden Globes

People: Wicked Wins Cinematic and Box Office Achievement Award at 2025 Golden Globes

“We all fell in love with movies at some point. We were all in the dark when we saw something that changed our brains and made us see a perspective we’ve never thought before, or opened a culture that we never believed existed before and made us drop everything and risk everything to be here in this town right now. I think about that and I think about how beautiful that is,” Chu said.

“This is for you, the fans out there who came to the movie theaters, who bring their friends and family and stay in the dark. We saw your videos, we saw your singalongs, we saw your makeup, your hair products, your bakery items. And it shows us how important making this stuff is,” he concluded.

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Box Office

Associated Press: ‘Moana 2′ sails to a record $221 million opening as Hollywood celebrates a moviegoing feast

Michael O’Leary, president and chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said the weekend showed what’s possible when “all the pieces of the puzzle come together” in compelling big-budget movies with marketing muscle.

“We’re very optimistic that this weekend is the start of what we believe is a full-on charge into the future,” he said.

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Marketing

Deadline: Creating Big Waves: How Disney’s Marketing Brought The Masses Back For ‘Moana 2’; Sequel’s Promo Campaign Worth $100M+

When it came to opening a sequel to a classic animated movie, Disney didn’t rest on their laurels in selling Moana 2.

Already, the original 2016 2x Oscar nominated movie has a built-in faithful; the pic being one of the most viewed Disney movies on Disney+. Expanding the brand to a worldwide audience, the Burbank, CA lot executed a multi-prong, bespoke D-Day global marketing campaign, one whose stunts arguably rivaled that of Universal’s blitzkrieg for Wicked. While that Broadway musical adaptation had LEGOs, Mattel dolls and pricey consumer fashion attire, Moana 2 roared with a drone show over the Thames river, projection mapping on the cliffs of Capri, Italy, an immersive 3D LED Tunnel 360° “Gallery” in Florence, Italy; a big digital splash around Korean’s Shinsegae department store, as well as beach-themed takeovers.

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