More than half of the films produced by top studios are existing IP | Wilnesh News

Hollywood’s franchise craze has just begun.

The 2024 box office has been inundated with sequels, prequels and remakes, with the top 10 films of the year all coming from existing intellectual properties. This trend will continue and expand in 2025.

The industry’s top studios are returning to familiar characters and settings to drive movie ticket sales, a strategy that’s not new but seems to be growing exponentially.

If you look at the current 2025 calendar, 50% to 70% of the movies coming from the big six studios — universal, disney, warner bros., Paramount, sony and Lionsgate ——will be related to existing intellectual property rights. Of course, plans for 2025 aren’t entirely certain, and the studio may add more non-franchise games in the coming months and next year.

“Studios have recognized that known goods are what most audiences prefer,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

Of the 20 highest-grossing domestic films of 2024, only two are considered original content: Paramount’s “IF” and Neon’s “Legs.”

The rest are mostly sequels to blockbusters old and new, either with popular books (Sony’s “This Is Over”), TV shows (Universal’s “The Fall Guy”) or based on popular historical figures (Paramount’s “Bob…” Marley: A Love”).

Even before Hollywood was disrupted by the pandemic and the meteoric rise of streaming content, the domestic box office relied heavily on franchises. For Universal, Warner Bros., Sony, Lionsgate, Paramount and 20th Century Fox (which has not yet merged with Disney), franchise films accounted for 33% to 62% of total releases in 2019. The exceptions are 9 out of 10 movies from mature IPs.

However, as consumers become more discerning about where and how they spend their disposable income, studios are investing in flashy sequels, prequels and remakes.

This is especially evident in animation, where new releases for 2024 include Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” as well as Universal Pictures’ “Despicable Me 4” and “Kung Fu Panda 4.”

“Family viewers are making budget decisions when choosing whether to buy a movie ticket, and they want the comfort of familiarity to be with them,” Dergarabedian said. “Notably, this trend appears to be trickling down to all ages. segment of the population, because adult audiences are also using this reason.”

Take a look at the last quarter of the year:

In the first nine months of this year, the domestic box office for such films, which include “Deadpool and Wolverine,” “Inside Out” and “Despicable Me 4” — has reached $6.3 billion, according to Comscore. A number of breakout hits – helped boost the box office.

Although it was down 11.3% from last year and 25% behind pre-epidemic levels, the box office performance was better than analysts’ expectations. A writers’ and actors’ strike in 2023 brought production to a standstill and pushed many films back to calendar dates, many of them into 2025, leaving the 2024 slate sparse.

“The year 2025 will once again become emblematic of the current state of Hollywood driven by intellectual property and nostalgia, but that’s not necessarily a dirty word,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory. “Some of the most popular box office hits in recent years have All are sequels or movies based on existing brands and still have a variety of original content.”

Despite a slew of franchise releases in 2024 and 2025, Wall Street doesn’t expect domestic box office revenue to top $10 billion until 2026. . Last year, it had revenue of just over $9 billion.

The 2025 movie calendar will launch the third “Avatar” movie in mid-December, which means box office revenue will continue into 2026. Then there’s an Avengers team-up movie coming out that summer, followed by a Star Wars movie called The Mandalorian over Memorial Day weekend. Another Star Wars movie is set to round out Disney’s big year in December 2026.

Plus a second Super Mario Bros. movie, a fifth Toy Story, a fifth Shrek, another Hunger Games movie, a Supergirl movie, Matt Reeves ’s other Batman movie and the possible release of a third Dune movie in 2026 are expected to do amazing box office numbers.

And while Hollywood’s biggest studios rely on familiar titles to lure audiences back to theaters, some non-franchise films have still performed well at the box office in recent years.

“Next year, there will be new original films from filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Paul Thomas Anderson, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and Ryan Coogler that may Stand out among many series of movies.

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