May 2024's Box Office Disappointments Look Even Worse After Hitting 26-Year Low

Most of May’s biggest movies failed to meet box office expectations, and the results are even worse when taking a collective look at the month’s disappointing performance. Heading into the month, there was reason for optimism about the struggling 2024 box office getting a much-needed boost as the summer season began. The Fall Guy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, IF, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Garfield Movie, and other releases were viewed as having strong box office potential. The reality is that success has been more difficult to come by for most.

Concerns about how May 2024’s movies would do began almost immediately after The Fall Guy‘s opening weekend came in under projections despite rave reviews. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes fared much better, but any potential momentum was lost with John Krasinski’s IF also underperforming. The Memorial Day four-day weekend box office then hit a 29-year low after Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Garfield Movie barely made over $30 million a piece. One bad weekend is one thing, but May 2024’s box office as a whole makes these disappointments worse.

2024’s Movies Have The Lowest May Box Office Since 1998

2024 Is A 26 Year Low

The entire month of May only made $520 million at the domestic box office. This is the lowest mark for May dating back to 1999 when theaters sold $610 million worth of tickets. It came down to the final days of the month for 2024 to edge out 1998’s $510 million total. This does not include the record low marks set in 2020 or 2021 since shutdowns and protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic played a major role in May’s totals. By taking the COVID years out of the equation, 2024 is the lowest final total for the May box office in 26 years.

Seeing how much money May’s 2024 movies made at the box office is surprising considering the expectations for the released properties and how the last few years have been. 2022 and 2023 both saw May’s box office start to return to pre-pandemic levels. 2022 made $785 million thanks to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Top Gun: Maverick, and 2023 came in just under at $774 million behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Little Mermaid, and Fast X.

Instead of 2024 building on the success of 2022 and 2023, May’s domestic box office dropped 32% from the prior year. This happened even though there were more movies playing in theaters in May 2024 than last year. However, the 109 movies that contributed to 2024’s May box office are the lowest since 2001, with post-COVID years excluded again. There is a potential quantity shortage at work that could partially explain the current results, but that does not fully explain what went wrong with May’s 2024 movies.

Why So Many May 2024 Movies Struggled At The Box Office

There are lots of different factors to consider when determining why an individual title did or did not perform well at the box office. Marketing, competition, audience viewing habits, and more are all worth considering on a movie-by-movie basis. Explaining why so many different movies of varying genres, target audiences, and sizes all struggle requires a much broader view. Simply put, May’s 2024 movie slate lacked the types of major tentpoles that typically drive the box office to successful levels. Marvel, Fast & Furious, and Disney live-action remakes have become staples of the month, but all are missing in 2024.

However, the lack of typical competition should have meant that the movies that did come in May 2024 had a bigger window for success. The Fall Guy came relatively hot on the heels of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt being part of the Barbenheimer phenomenon. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes arrived only seven years after the last installment. IF followed John Krasinski delivering major hits with the A Quiet Place movies and Ryan Reynolds experiencing unexpected success with Free Guy. Furiosa could have built on Mad Max: Fury Road‘s $379 million haul. Each had expectations to do well.

There is no one all-encompassing explanation for why 2024’s biggest May releases tended to disappoint at the box office. Quick at-home viewing options like what happened with The Fall Guy‘s digital release typically do not help. There is still room for smaller successes, like The Strangers: Chapter 1 or Tarot giving horror more wins, but audiences have seemingly been trained to wait a few weeks to see a movie at home for a cheaper and easier experience unless it is viewed as more of an event film that enters the social and cultural dialogue.

May’s Low Box Office Totals Continue A Worrying 2024 Trend

The low totals for May 2024’s box office are certainly worrying on some levels, but it is part of a much larger troubling trend for the year. So far, three out of the five months in 2024 have had the lowest totals in over 20 years. Taking 2020 and 2021 out of the equation due to COVID-19, February posted the worst total since 1995, April had its worst month since 1997, and now May hit its lowest point since 1998. That leaves January and March as the only months of 2024 that performed better than recent years.

That perspective makes it clear that 2024’s May movies are not an outlier in terms of their general underperformance. There is a bigger trend at play that has left the box office going backward instead of moving forward to pre-pandemic levels. The reality is that Hollywood is still working to recover from the impact of the pandemic being followed so quickly by the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes and the work stoppage. Seeing movies immediately in theaters has become less important for a variety of reasons, and as long as that remains true, the box office struggles will continue.