How family movies saved the 2024 box office, from Inside Out 2 to Moana 2

Moana 2 is rapidly becoming an enormous cinematic success story. In the US, it opened over the long Thanksgiving weekend and, in the process, earned the highest global opening ever for an animated film at $389m (£306m). The numbers are absolutely eye-watering and there's a very good chance that, if Moana 2 maintains its legs in the run-up to Christmas, it could find itself near the top of the overall 2024 box office.

This sensational financial success shows that Disney was absolutely right to change tack and transform Moana 2 from a Disney+ TV series into a big screen sequel. The proof of the pudding is in the millions of pounds. But Moana 2 is part of a broader truth about this year at the box office. It's the family movies that have saved us.

Up until the start of June, things were looking pretty tough at the box office. Dune Part Two had been a massive hit at the beginning of the year and Godzilla x Kong did decent business in March, but overall revenue at the multiplexes was around 25% behind the equivalent period in 2023 (via The Hollywood Reporter). Then, Pixar unleashed Inside Out 2.

Pixar's sequel smashed all expectations at the box office, riding strong reviews and very positive word of mouth — an A grade courtesy of audience pollsters Cinemascore — to financial success. By the end of its run, Inside Out 2 had earned $1.7bn (£1.3bn). It's still sitting pretty to this day as the highest-grossing movie of 2024 and Moana 2 will have to really push to beat it before the end of the year.

Inside Out 2 busted a lot of the myths that had been building up around box office. The received wisdom was that families had been trained during the pandemic years to expect big animated blockbusters to arrive on streaming within weeks of their big screen debut. Therefore, audiences were inclined to stay at home rather than shell out as much as £100 a time on a family trip to the cinema, once you factor in travel costs and sweet treats on top of rising ticket prices.

Read more: Inside Out 2 has entered the all-time box office history books (The Independent, 2 min read)

But Inside Out 2 wasn't the only film this year that showed the power of families. During the time where the box office was seriously flagging, Kung Fu Panda 4 kept the industry ticking over. Released in March, the long-awaited fourth movie in the franchise managed a global haul of $549m (£431m), showing that the 16-year-old franchise still has relevance for young audiences.

In the summer months, though, another fourquel — if that's even a word we use — did even better business. Against the Mouse House's devastating one-two punch of Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine — one of the only adult-focused movies to genuinely soar at the box office this year — the ever-reliable minions managed to carve out space for themselves.

Despicable Me 4 netted a very impressive $969m (£761m) in a very competitive box office period. In fact, it's a mark of the franchise's reliability that it was a little disappointing to see it fall short of the billion-dollar milestone.

Read more: Steve Carell thinks parents will relate to Despicable Me 4 (Yahoo Entertainment, 4 min read)

It would be easy to look at all of this and say that sequels are the answer. But that hasn't always proved true for Hollywood this year. In fact, the summer of sequels in Hollywood proved to be something of a mixed bag. Only six American releases have broken the $500m (£393m) mark worldwide this year — though Moana 2 will certainly do it, probably by the time you read this — despite the onslaught of sequels coming thick and fast throughout 2024. They don't always work, but playing to the family market often does.

Another movie that will almost certainly defy gravity enough to break that milestone is Wicked. With a PG certificate and a marketing campaign that has dominated Gen Z-focused platforms like TikTok, the lavish big screen musical is contributing along with Moana 2 to a record-breaking November at the box office.

Read more: Wicked director teases 'epic' Part Two is about 'consequences' (Yahoo Entertainment, 4 min read)

By focusing on a family audience and positioning itself as the winter's biggest four-quadrant blockbuster, Wicked has shown that you can get families into the multiplex in massive numbers. At a time when many in Hollywood are gloomy about the prospects of cinemagoing returning to pre-pandemic levels, family movies are showing the way forward.

It seems that there's a Field of Dreams principle when it comes to great family movies at the cinema. If you build it, they will come.

Moana 2 and Wicked are in UK cinemas now.