Four-quadrant family movies ruled, which means…Disney ruled the box office
Family films, especially movies that appealed to all four moviegoing quadrants (essentially all moviegoers), including kids, dominated the top 10 of the box office. “A Minecraft Movie” pulled in $423 milloion in the U.S. alone. Disney’s live-action “Lilo and Stitch” was the only $1 billion Hollywood studio grosser for months. “Wicked for Good” may not have soared to the heights of the first installment, but it still earned over $326 million domestically. And “Zootopia 2” is on its way to hitting over $1.4 billion and has a shot at surpassing “A Minecraft Movie” as the domestic king. Throw in Universal’s own live-action animated adaptation of “How to Train Your Dragon,” which did a fantastic $373 million worldwide, and you have a recipe for consistent box office success. Essentially, sequels and remakes. Several other doubles and triples were also very profitable for Hollywood, including Universal and DreamWorks “Dog Man,” which made almost $100 million in the U.S. alone. Disney’s long-awaited sequel, “Freakier Friday,” made a fantastic $153 millioon worldwide. Universal even had success with “The Bad Guys 2,” which dominated overseas, earning $239 million globally, almost matching the original’s $250 million tally.
What’s Next: A slew of family-friendly titles, including “Toy Story 5,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” a live-action “Moana,” “Goat,” “Hoppers,” “The Cat in the Hat,” and “Minions 3.”
UK bans live event ticket resales
If there is one bipartisan issue that can unite Americans, it’s price gouging over live event tickets. Many music tours have surge pricing for in-demand concert dates, and for decades, scalpers have snatched up tickets with big price hikes for resale. In the United Kingdom, that is no longer the case. In November, the British Government banned the resale of sports, concert, or live event tickets for more than their face value.
What’s Next: Is the U.S. next? Is this something we’ll see on a state or federal level? It feels like artists and overall public sentiment would be in support of it, but Stubhub and Ticketmaster are likely hiring every lobbyist they can to shut it down. Or, maybe not?
Netflix found a massive new franchise with “KPop Demon Hunters”
It was supposed to just be another Netflix animated flick, a movie that kids home from school would enjoy in between their summer camps or scrolling social media. Maybe some K-pop fans would dive in, but it was initially seen as just another weekly drop of new content on the streamer. Instead, K-pop Demon Hunters became a legit once-in-a-blue-moon (or is that honmoon?) phenomenon. It’s currently the number one film all time on Netflix and a powerhouse single, “Golden,” and soundtrack album that dominated both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts for the rest of the year. And the three singers who voiced the fictional K-pop girls group HUNTR/X (performed by real-life artists EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and REI AMI) have been performing everywhere. The franchise became so popular so fast that Netflix could barely find ways to incorporate it into its new in-person Netflix houses or get merchandise on the shelves fast enough. For a company that is saying goodbye (at least temporarily) to “Stranger Things,” and effectively only has “Wednesday” and “One Piece” as broad, four-quadrant franchise players, it was a massive and surprising win.
What’s Next: Oscar nominations and Grammy Awards wins are on tap first. A movie sequel is in the works, but how fast Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation blow out this new universe is a major question mark. Whether the HUNTR/X trio releases new music as a musical act outside of the movies is also something to keep an eye on.
David Ellison makes Paramount and CBS political
New CEO David Ellison‘s father, tech giant and Oracle co-founderLarry Ellison, was known as a Republican donor and a Trump supporter. Most in Hollywood did not believe his son would capitulate to the president to gain favor with their business dealings. Like most billionaires, however, that’s exactly what both Ellisons have done (see the aforementioned “Rush Hour 4” deal). The biggest swing so far? Hiring Bari Weiss, a center-right or libertarian (take your pick) op-ed editor and writer, for the new position of editor-in-chief of CBS News. No one outside of Trump and his circle, perhaps not even their peers at Fox News, thought CBS News needed fixing. By putting in Weiss, who founded the independent online news source, The Free Press, Eillison has attempted to satisfy the Trump and MAGA world with more favorable reporting. This, after the previous Paramount regime, had already paid off Trump over a lawsuit claiming“60 Minutes” falsely edited an interview with Kamala Harris before the election. In less than three months, Weiss has let go of a disproportionate number of PoC employees at CBS News, staged a town hall with Ericka Kirk that was a ratings disaster, and pulled a “60 Minutes” segment on the El Salvadorian prison ICE is using to house detainees. The latter, seemingly at the administration’s request.
What’s Next: A post-New Year’s Eve exodus of “60 Minutes” staffers? How far do CBS News’ overall ratings need to fall before Weiss’ actions take some of the blame? At what point will Ellison realize this is all hurting the company’s bottom line with Hollywood creatives?
Netflix outsmarts Paramount
In August, Warner Bros. Discovery was not expecting to sell to any interested bidders in the foreseeable future. In June, the media company had announced a plan to split the company into two entities: “Streaming & Studios,” Warner Bros. Theatrical, Warner Bros. Television, and HBO, and “Discovery Global,” a new umbrella for their cable networks. A split similar to the breakup Comcast just executed with NBCUniversal and the new Versant spin-off. Then, after David Ellison completed the Paramount-Skydance merger, he decided he wanted to buy all of WBD and, well, all hell broke loose. In the four months that followed, Paramount aggressively forced the WBD Board to begin a sale process. What no one saw coming was that the winner would be a company that seemingly wasn’t in favor of theatrical releases, Netflix. A company not traditionally in the acquisitions game, but one that saw the value in submitting a $82.7 billion bid just for the Streaming & Studios component. Comcast also bid, and two other bidders reportedly took steps in the process, but, in a surprise to many, Paramount’s bid for all of WBD was dismissed over value and financial backing concerns. Dismissed after they started the entire upheaval in the first place. After using Wall Street media outlets to spin their acquisition as inevitable, Paramount and Ellison called foul after losing to the streaming giant, and, well, it hasn’t been a good look (“whining” has been a constant refrain). It should be noted that Warner Bros. picked the one buyer that, in theory, should lead to the least amount of layoffs in the short term.
What’s Next: A shareholder vote to seal the agreement, a potential Paramount lawsuit over the process (whether there are any legitimate claims is questionable), a long road to secure regulatory approval not just in the United States, but overseas as well and many questions over whether key Warner Bros creative stakeholders such as HBO’s Casey Bloys and WB’s Abdy and De Luca will stick around.
Box Office doesn’t jump
Did the U.S. box office hit the magic $10 billion mark it consistently reached before the pandemic? No. Did it even hit the $8.7 billion it reached in 2024? Nope. It does appear as though the domestic box office will come within a whisker of matching it by midnight on New Year’s Eve. That’s disappointing news for studios that hoped that a ton of movies would reach over $300 million domestically. Right now, only six have. In 2019, nine did. There was one notable silver lining, however. Moviegoing among Gen Z was up 25% compared to 2024. You can be assured that news piqued the attention of Hollywood’s studio chiefs.
What’s Next: Potentially, a 2026 to remember with “Avengers: Doomsday,” “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Toy Story 5,” “Minions 3,” “The Oddysey,” “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “Supergirl,” “Dune Part III,” a live-action “Moana,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” and “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” among others.
