How 2024 ushered in a new era for family films (2025)

For more than a decade Hollywood had been in the era of the superhero but over the last 12 months a new saviour of the box office has emerged.

Family films have roared back from a pandemic slump and will make almost $7 billion this year, fuelled by a series of hits aimed at parents and children.

The year’s biggest movie, Pixar’s Inside Out 2, has made $1.7 billion worldwide since its release in June.

A month later Despicable Me 4 grossed $968 million, while Moana 2 was released over the US Thanksgiving holiday in November, shattering holiday records in North America with a massive $225 million opening.

Moana 2 was a big hit over the Thanksgiving holiday in North America

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The Broadway adaptation of Wicked, another film aimed at families, has made $634 million worldwide while Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to 1994’s The Lion King, recovered from a slow start following its release before Christmas and has generated $327 million in global box office receipts.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3, based on the video game character, was also released before Christmas and has already grossed $211 million worldwide.

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The string of successes caps a remarkable turnaround for a genre that appeared in trouble. While all moviegoing suffered during the pandemic, family films were hardest hit.

Mufasa: The Lion King

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Parents were reluctant to expose their children to crowded spaces and studios released animated movies on streaming services, training families to expect to watch the biggest releases at home.

Experts track the change in fortunes to the 2023 blockbuster The Super Mario Bros Movie and the recovery has been supercharged over the past 12 months.

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The Super Mario Bros Movie helped to revive films for families

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David A Gross, who runs the film consultancy firm Franchise Entertainment Research, said family movies are likely to make about $6.85 billion this year, the highest since 2020.

“Coming out of the pandemic, the studios have re-embraced the theatrical movie business,” Gross said, noting that Hollywood has successfully reestablished family movies as must-see events in cinemas.

“Watching a movie at a theatre is still the premium experience of that story, and for the studios, it’s the most profitable. The studios had to re-orient audiences back to theatres, and they’ve done that.”

Family films have advantages over rival forms of entertainment competing for parents’ time and money.

A trip to the cinema is relatively inexpensive when compared to a day in Disneyland, for example, while two hours in a darkened room where talking is discouraged can offer tired parents a much-needed break.

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Wicked has made $634 million worldwide

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“It’s a bonding experience,” Mary McNamara, a culture columnist and critic with the Los Angeles Times, said of the cinema.

She added that with older children, being in the theatre means they cannot look at their phones as they would if watching a film at home.

“You’re all doing the same thing at the same time,” McNamara added.

“Going to the movies is fun and unless you have an actual home theatre you can’t recreate it with a big screen in your living room.

“In the movie theatre you’re seated together and experiencing the same thing in the dark with the silver screen. It’s magic.

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“And you can do it with your kids and your parents so now you have a multigenerational experience. Those are becoming rarer.”

McNamara laments that there are not more four-quadrant films — an industry term describing movies that appeal to men, women and those aged over and below the age of 25.

She suspects snobbery might be to blame, with studios believing only films aimed at mature audiences are taken seriously.

“Towards the end of the year, Hollywood wants to put forward its awards offerings, and they are almost never family films,” McNamara said.

The resurgence of family movies shows no signs of slowing down, with a series of promising films due for release in 2025.

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DreamWorks’s Dog Man will arrive in January, Disney’s live-action Snow White remake is set for March and Pixar’s Elio, a sci-fi fantasy, is due in June.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937 to massive commercial and critical success, highlighting family movies’ long and successful track record in Hollywood.

“Movies that use the power of the big screen to tell their stories are what separate themselves from other kinds of entertainment,” Gross said.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937

“When the storytelling is good, it uses visual images, music and ideas to stretch the imagination and connect emotionally.

“Animation has been a strong medium for a long time — it’s been happening for well over a century, and it’s hard to imagine it’s going to slow down.”