The Mouse House roared back to the top spot at the U.K. and Ireland box office in 2024, capturing a 20.9% market share with £221 million ($276.4 million) in ticket sales, according to Comscore’s year-end report.
The performance marks an uptick from Disney‘s 19.2% share in 2023, powered by three top 10 hits “Inside Out 2” ($74.1 million), “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($71.9 million) and “Moana 2” ($45.5 million), which is still on release. Disney’s comeback was fueled by a mix of franchise hits and awards contenders. Beyond its animated and superhero fare, the studio scored with prestige plays like “All of Us Strangers” and “Poor Things,” while franchise restarts “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and “Alien: Romulus” also delivered solid returns.
Universal Pictures held onto second place with a 19.5% share and $257.7 million in receipts, scoring three films in the top 10 with “Wicked” ($69.6 million), “Despicable Me 4” ($60.8 million), and “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($27.7 million). Last year’s leader Warner Bros. rounded out the top three with 16.4% of the market and $216.5 million in sales, led by “Dune: Part II” ($49.5 million) and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” ($32.9 million).
As previously reported, the overall U.K.-Ireland market essentially matched 2023’s performance, generating £1.06 billion in total box office, though still running 22% behind pre-pandemic 2019 levels. There are encouraging signs of recovery, with the territory seeing greater diversity in revenue sources – the top 10 films accounted for 38.6% of total sales, down from 40.5% in 2023 and 43.8% in 2022.
The year saw a dramatic shift in release patterns, with six of the top 10 highest-grossing films landing in the final two months of 2024. This marks a departure from traditional summer-heavy scheduling, exemplified by Universal’s “Wicked” which is still in release and expected to ultimately claim the year’s top spot.
“While the early months of 2024 were undoubtedly challenging for cinema operators here in the U.K. as elsewhere, the upswing in admissions we saw here over the summer and in particular during the closing months of the year confirm once again that when great films are available, audiences are ready to turn out in huge numbers for the big screen experience,” noted Phil Clapp, chief executive of the U.K. Cinema Association.
The distribution landscape also showed signs of democratization, with 180 different companies releasing films in 2024, up from 164 in 2023. The top 10 distributors’ collective market share decreased to 89.5% from 91.5% the previous year, suggesting a gradually widening playing field for independent players.
Local British and Irish productions and co-productions doubled their box office take to £246.3 million, representing 23% of total receipts. Studiocanal led this charge with hits like “Paddington in Peru,” which is still in release and tracking to surpass its predecessor’s £38 million haul from 2014.
The exhibition sector showed resilience with new cinema openings across four nations, including major sites from Everyman, Odeon, Picturehouse and Vue. Several venues initially marked for closure found new life through operators like Omniplex and Merlin, demonstrating continued faith in theatrical exhibition.
The total number of new releases (1,114) and saturation releases (200) exceeded pre-2020 figures, suggesting a robust pipeline for future growth. The theatrical window, while shorter than pre-pandemic norms, has largely stabilized as distributors returned to “cinema first” release strategies. The now-annual National Cinema Day further bolstered audience engagement, offering a celebratory highlight in August.
Andy Leyshon, chief executive of the Film Distributors’ Association, said: “Reaching box office parity with 2023 represents a decent overall performance for the U.K. and Ireland theatrical market. Amongst some notable highs, 2024 also had its challenges, but the last couple of months have shown us that cinemagoing remains in rude health with audiences keen to see the huge variety of films on offer.”