The Q1 2024 Studio Power Rankings

5. Paramount

Bottoming out the list after Q1 is Paramount who took a pretty big swing with Mean Girls and it did not pan out either critically, financially, or with viewers. Similarly they had a massive misfire with Bob Marley: One Love which was also not well received. They also do not have any major releases until May with IF and A Quiet Place: Day One which does make the long-term look ahead a bit of a question.

Wild Card For Q2: Last year the biggest problem for Paramount was that they had a reasonably strong release slate but gave all their movies terrible dates. It seems like they've done the same thing this year so their biggest wild card is whether they can make their money before their movies are immediately hit by competition. IF comes out the week before The Garfield Movie, Transformers One is sandwiched between Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and The Wild Robot, Smile Deluxe comes between Joker: Folie a Deux and Venom: The Last Dance, Gladiator 2 comes the week before Wicked, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 comes the same day as Mufasa: The Lion King. The biggest wild card for Paramount is whether they can stop metaphorically tripping over their own dick and actually give their films dates where they aren't immediately in competition within the same genre or target audience.

4. Sony

Sony is only not at the bottom of this list because Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was not quite as bad as it could have been. Madame Web was an abomination of a film that performed so poorly that it could spell the end of Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters. In Q2, Sony has Tarot, a horror movie releasing in a relatively dry period of horror films, The Garfield Movie, and Bad Boys: Ride or Die so they could have a relatively strong Q2.

Wild Card for Q2: There's a certain web-head who has been sidelined since 2021 that Sony should really acknowledge in the near future. Yes, this will be a coproduction with Marvel Studios but the as-of-yet untitled Spider-Man 4 could be announced sooner rather than later, especially if the rumored shoot is coming at the end of this year.

3. Universal

Universal had Kung Fu Panda 4 so even if Night Swim did not do well and Lisa Frankenstein did not set the world on fire, they're still in a more solid state than either Sony or Paramount. They also have some long term plans for one of their franchises with Jurassic World 4 shooting later this year (allegedly). While Abigail may look ridiculous, they do have a major release with The Fall Guy that is already sitting at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes that is set to headline CinemaCon.

Wild Card in Q2: Universal has not given a ton of information about some of their later films in 2024. The second trailer for Wicked will be essential for generating interest in the film. It will also be interesting to see how much Focus Features buys at the various mid-year film festivals to bring them to wider audiences.

2. Disney

Disney sits at number two because they spent Q1 setting the stage for the rest of the year. The trailers for both Deadpool and Wolverine and Inside Out 2 have generated a lot of interest. At the same time, they do have three strong releases on the horizon from 20th Century and Searchlight in the form of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Kinds of Kindness, and The Bikeriders so they are shaping up to have a reasonably strong 2024, even if Moana  2 and Mufasa may not be the best offerings in the back half of the year.

Wild Card in Q2: The ongoing drama over the proxy war to bring Nelson Peltz onto the board of directors will come to a head in April and, should the shareholders bring him on as a dissenting member of the board, this could be a major shakeup for Bob Iger and the various other studio heads. Could we see a Warner Brothers-style shelving of finished movies like Snow White or Elio or the upcoming New Jedi Order movie? Could the same fate befall projects on streaming like Ironheart? Peltz's recent comments regarding Disney being "too woke" are definitely concerning should he end up on the board.

1. Warner Brothers

This was a tough choice because I did not want to put Warner Brothers at the top of the list because of their repeated anti-art stances that have attacked the creatives behind the scenes. That said, Dune: Part Two and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire have done incredibly well at the box office and with viewers so it's hard to argue with that. They also have a strong Q2 release with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and an upcoming Lord of the Rings movie in December.

Wild Card in Q2: This is more for the entire rest of the year but the first release will be in Q2 so I'll count it here but Horizon: An American Saga is definitely a gamble. It is clear that WB is trying to capitalize on the success of Yellowstone for Paramount by releasing a two-part Western in theaters with Kevin Costner in the lead. As it stands, one of the biggest demographics to not return to theaters post-pandemic is the exact target audience WB is going for with this release so this is a bit of a gamble. At $100 million for both films combined, this will likely turn a profit as long as WB markets smartly and does not overinflate that part of the budget.