The 10 Highest-Grossing Movies of 2024

There’s nothing new under the sun or under the marquee of your local multiplex theater, at least not where 2024’s highest-grossing box office numbers are concerned. Nine of the ten top earners are sequels with the lone exception being an adaptation of Broadway’s most-successful musical—itself a clever take on a 100-year-old classic book, which spawned a classic movie. There are no Oppenheimers here, though there are a few films our critics loved. There are also some terrible animated films which rested on the laurels—and recognizable titles—of their much-better predecessors. I’m just saying that most everyone over the age of 12 who suffered through Despicable Me 4 or Deadpool & Wolverine probably would have loved Thelma if they had given it a chance.

Anyway, here are the highest-grossing movies of 2024 as voted on by the global currencies of planet Earth.

10. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Worldwide Box office: $451 million
Director: Tim Burton
Stars: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Paste Review Score: 7.0

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice takes director Tim Burton back to what he does best: silly-scary horror-comedy that at once feels lovingly homespun and vibrantly realized. His ambitions aren’t high with this 35-years-later sequel, but they don’t have to be. In returning to a world with a solid foundation but relatively unexplored fringes, mysterious enough to expand on the rules of the afterlife or make them more pliable to his liking, Burton seems keen to let loose. His work isn’t bogged down like so many of his later films. It’s a trifling diversion, but it’s also Burton’s most comfortable, freewheeling and satisfying movie in years. As implied, this is a Beetlejuice sequel through and through, bearing all the meaning that may have to you depending on your relationship to the original material. To me, it means a thinly sketched-out story with broad ideas of characters that exist to deliver an assembly line of clever, gross and funny sight gags which, to be fair, the film is packed to the brim with. This sequel’s existence harkens back to a time where something like this was released out of Hollywood without much in the way of pomp, nor circumstance. Though, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice acts as something of an inverse to its predecessor: Whereas the first film follows a relatively simple throughline of small-town domesticity coming crashing down under the sudden cognizance of life after death, its sequel is defined by an excess of storylines, all vying for their claim to a meager slice of the 100-minute runtime. —Trace Sauveur

9. Venom: The Last Dance

Worldwide Box office: $477 million
Director: Kelly Marcel
Stars: Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach, Stephen Graham
Genre: Superhero, Action
Rating: PG-13
Paste Review Score: 5.8

From the outset, parsing these Venom movies has been a game of “Go With It.” A film series starring Marvel’s most gnarly Spider-Man foe without Ol’ Web-Head himself? Go with it. When the Venom symbiote chomps on a human head, as he is wont to do, wouldn’t the head go into the stomach of his jittery human host, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy)? Nah, just go with it. And what, exactly, was the deal with Eddie drinking tequila in a Marvel 616 bar during the end credits of Spider-Man: No Way Home? What did we just say?! As the final level in this game of go-along, Venom: The Last Dance is still figuring out what a Venom movie needs to be, a tricky juggling of tone and spectacle that will be amusing enough for those tuned into this series’ squishy, uncomplicated rhythms and a numbing headache for folks bewildered by the chaotic and often rudderless existence of a Venom trilogy. —Jarod Jones

8. Kung Fu Panda 4

Worldwide Box office: $548 million
Director: Mike Mitchell
Stars: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Viola Davis, James Hong, Bryan Cranston
Genre: Animation, Kids
Rating: PG
Paste Review Score: 6.5

Kung Fu Panda 4, which continues the journey of Po (Jack Black) by putting him through similar motions as the other sequels: Having become the Dragon Warrior, protector of the Valley of Peace, Po is called upon to fulfill some other, suspiciously similar role for which he feels reluctant and unprepared before rising to the challenge. In this installment, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) informs Po that he must select a successor, so that he may ascend to the title of Spiritual Leader, which sounds an awful lot like the teaching position he was expected to assume in Kung Fu Panda 3 (and is little-mentioned here). Po, having repeatedly mastered his command of kung fu, is reluctant to set aside his title so soon, and welcomes the distraction provided by the Chameleon (Viola Davis), a shapeshifting wizard who seeks to absorb the skills of past Po nemeses from the spirit realm. Forestalling his responsibility to name a new Dragon Warrior, he teams up with Zhen (Awkwafina), a wisecracking thief, to track down and neutralize this more immediate threat. Po’s adoptive and biological fathers (James Hong and Bryan Cranston, respectively) follow after them, worrying for Po’s safety, and also presumably as a cost-saving measure to pad out an ensemble now lacking the Furious Five (the characters usually voiced by Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, David Cross and Lucy Liu only appear via brief and mostly-silent cameos, though there is a visually pleasing sort-of-stop-motion component to their being essentially written off early on). Their devotion to Po is sweet, but not especially funny or even thematically purposeful. That’s true of much of the movie; despite the comic dynamo at its center, it’s more cutely amusing than laugh-out-loud hilarious. —Jesse Hassenger

7. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Worldwide Box office: $571 million
Director: Adam Wingard
Stars: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Rating: PG-13
Paste Review Score: 5.1

How funny is it that, in the wake of Godzilla Minus One’s critical acclaim and success at the Oscars, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire seems like the outlier. Both Minus One and Japan’s previous effort, 2016’s Shin Godzilla, were serious, somber movies. Suddenly Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire being a proudly, unabashedly stupid movie makes it seem like it’s the one that doesn’t fit with the franchise, when in reality the majority of the nearly 40 Godzilla movies are quite silly. So the timing of the latest American kaiju romp’s release shouldn’t be held against it, as some of the most beloved giant monster mashes are quite dumb. If only Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was a little better at being dumb. Thank goodness for the little things, like a bit when Kong, fed up with Baby Kong being a little stinker, uses the little monkey as a makeshift club to bludgeon the other apes that are attacking him. There are fleeting moments like this when the movie’s dumbness is sublime. Most of the time, it’s just plain ol’ dumb. It’s what you want from a movie called Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, though, so maybe it’s actually on me for wanting more. —James Grebey

6. Wicked

Worldwide Box office: $648 million
Director: Jon M. Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum
Genre: Fantasy, Musical
Rating: PG
Paste Review Score: 8.5

It’s more than fair to say that the Broadway show Wicked is pop-u-lar. With more than one-and-a-half billion greenbacks earned since its debut back in 1995, the Stephen Schwartz penned musical with a book by Winnie Holzman based on Gregory Maguire’s novel has proven that its verdigris is more than skin deep. Ever since its storming the stage there’s been talk about a film version, with the project wrapped in development for these many decades, with generation upon generation of fan continuing to embrace its story of perseverance and powerful transformation while wanting something … more. At long last director Jon M. Chu has managed to get the pieces in place for a big-budget telling of the Wicked Witch of the West’s origin story, employing a mix of grand theatrical sets and CGI to both expand the stage musical and to bring this story to millions more around the world. For those not already versed in the storyline, Wicked: Part One traces the early connection and complicated friendship between G(a)linda (Ariane Grande), a pink-frocked, privileged student with a cutting soprano and arrogance to match, and a green-skinned tempestuous young woman named Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) whose dark demeanor and gift for empathy make her a direct contrast to her newfound companion. —Jason Gorber

5. Dune: Part Two

Worldwide Box office: $714 million
Director: Denis Villenueve
Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, Souheila Yacoub, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: PG-13
Paste Review Score: 9.4

Set aside the complicated calculus of food, shelter and family needs. It’s time to shell out the big bucks and head to the local IMAX. To borrow from Nicole Kidman’s AMC commercial more explicitly, though you might not be “somehow reborn,” there will be “dazzling images,” sound you can feel and you will be taken somewhere you’ve “never been before” (at least, not since Dune). As befits a Part Two, Villeneuve’s film picks up in medias res, with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and the Fremen encountering and dealing with a murderous Harkonnen hunting party while trying to reach the Fremen stronghold. From this encounter, Villaneuve nimbly guides the narrative from one key moment to the next, a veritable dragonfly ornithopter of plot advancement (with a few slower moments to allow the burgeoning relationship with Paul and Zendaya’s Chani to breathe). If the outcome of each narrative stop feels very much fated, that in turn feels appropriate given the messianic prophecy undergirding the entire tale. Dune: Part Two’s production design is as much center stage as its star-studded cast. Villaneuve pummels the viewer with the sheer scale and brutal, industrial efficiency of the Harkonnen operation—well, it would be efficient if not for those pesky Fremen—yet all of it is engulfed in turn by Arrakis itself. Meanwhile, the sound design and throbbing aural cues evoke the weight and oppressiveness of a centuries-spanning empire, the suffocating cunning of “90 generations” of Bene Gesserit schemes and the inescapable gravity Arrakis and its spice-producing leviathans exert on both. For those torn on whether it’s worth venturing forth to the multiplex, consider Dune: Part Two a compelling two-hour-and-forty-six-minute argument in the “for” column. And that “indescribable feeling” you get when “the lights begin to dim?” That’s cinematic escape velocity, instantly achieved. Next stop, Arrakis.–Michael Burgin

4. Moana 2

Worldwide Box office: $906 million
Directors: David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller
Stars: Auli‘i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Hualālai Chung, David Fane, Rose Matafeo, Awhimai Fraser, Gerald Ramsey, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda
Genre: Animation, Kids
Rating: PG
Paste Review Score: 6.5

She is Moana! And, frankly, she deserves a little more respect than this. Moana 2, the sequel to the 2016 Disney movie about spunky teenager who saves her people with the help of a fast-talking, narcissistic demigod arrives at the same time as another long-awaited musical involving misunderstood mythical creatures. Although not as good as the original film (sequels rarely are), this second outing brings together all that fans loved about the original in a brand new story. And, frankly, the more we see of Disney heroines who can fend for themselves and not only don’t need a man to save them but also don’t need a romance as a central story point, the better. Set three years later, an older (but still wearing the same outfit!) Moana (once again powerfully and perfectly voiced by Auli‘i Cravalho) now has an adorable baby sister Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda). That’s right, not only are Moana’s parents (Temuera Morrison and Nicole Scherzinger) still alive in defiance of animated film precedent, they are procreating! A hero among her community, a bevy of younger girls known as the Moanabes (two of whom are voiced by Dwyane Johnson’s daughters) follow Moana around hanging on her every word, mimicking her every movement. After the song aptly titled “We’re Back,” Moana sets out on another adventure to save her people. —Amy Amatangelo

3. Despicable Me 4

Worldwide Box office: $969 million
Director: Chris Renaud, Patrick Delage (co-director)
Stars: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Sofia Vergara, Stephen Colbert, Miranda Cosgrove, Chloe Fineman, Steve Coogan, Chris Renaud, Dana Gaier, Madison Polan
Genre: Animation, Kids
Rating: PG
Paste Review Score: 2.0

Illumination has engineered a bulletproof animated children’s brand in the Minion-maddening Despicable Me franchise. Steve Carell’s cantankerous Gru could play Whac-A-Mole with his yellow pill-shaped sidekicks for 90 minutes and bank a billion dollars internationally. Despicable Me 4 is somehow worse than that hypothetical, and still packed sold-out theaters filled with screaming toddlers jonesing for their next banana-flavored hit. What feels like a collection of in-universe shorts is Scotch-taped together into Gru’s latest sequel, the lowest, squishy-rotten hanging fruit on the children’s animation tree—and I say that having suffered through a nearly fatal case of the Mondays from The Garfield Movie barely a month ago. —Matt Donato

2. Deadpool & Wolverine

Worldwide Box office: $1.34 billion
Director: Shawn Levy
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Matthew Macfadyen, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney
Genre: Superhero, action
Rating: R
Paste Review Score: 2.5

Shawn Levy’s threequel Deadpool & Wolverine, a film ostensibly about mourning the Disney-Fox merger, is just another example of the tiredness of the multiverse, of the Disney mega-monopoly that just won’t die (even if it’s already been in decline). The film is obnoxiously metatextual—in the sense that it exists within a larger universe, but also in the sense that it, by its own admission, recognizes that its characters are traversing multiverses to essentially create a theme-park confection (consisting of the superheroes Deadpool and Wolverine) that will return the Marvel Cinematic Universe to its peak level of entertainment and intrigue. But all of this is “self-awareness” without much else, and poking fun at itself doesn’t make up for what amounts to more of the same. Deadpool & Wolverine is another mind-numbingly corporatized CGI fest, divorced from any true emotional stakes. It’s a picture that would rather tell you how to feel than make you feel. —Hafsah Abbasi

1. Inside Out 2

Worldwide Box office: $1.70 billion
Director: Kelsey Mann
Stars: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Paul Walter Hauser, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ron Funches
Genre: Animation, Kids
Rating: PG
Paste Review Score: 7.9

No one, and I mean absolutely no one, looks back on their time in middle school and thinks, “Wow those years were great. I would love to go back.” Fraught with changing bodies, overnight growth spurts and outsized emotions, the years are turbulent both for the children going through puberty and for their parents trying to understand the stranger living in their house. But, curiously, not many movies and TV shows are aimed directly at this demographic. They either skew too old (Euphoria, a show designed to give adults everywhere nightmares) or too young (Disney’s delightful Descendants trilogy). Pixar to the rescue! Inside Out 2, the sequel to the Oscar-winning film, revisits Riley (now voiced by Kensington Tallman) in the full-blown throes of adolescence.

Like Toy Story 3 or the more recent IF, Inside Out 2 is also a reflection about what childhood things get lost as you get older. “Maybe this is what happens when you grow up. You feel less joy,” Joy says. More poignant than an out-and-out tearjerker, the observations of Inside Out 2 may still get adults a little misty. Life does not get easier as you get older. —Amy Amatangelo