Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom brought in a disappointing $40 million at the box office this four-day holiday weekend. Comscore Sr. Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the state of the box office.

"We've had a very interesting year at the box office. Maybe the most unusual we've ever seen," Dergarabedian says. With Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and other superhero films recently underperforming at the box office, "it really has the industry rethinking, what is it that audiences want?"

"Great time to be a moviegoer. Little bit tougher for the theaters right now. But I think January we'll see a lot of these movies that are opening now, we'll find out what their ultimate performance is cause it's a traffic jam out there with all these movies in this... holiday marketplace," Dergarabedian adds.

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Video Transcript

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: We've had a very interesting year at the box office, maybe the most unusual we've ever seen. And with the-- you know, this "Aquaman" movie and some other superhero movies underperforming a bit, it really, I think, has the industry rethinking, what is it that audiences want? And even though the box office is slower at this particular Christmas than it's been in the pre-pandemic era, where we would routinely see 150 million plus for the four-day holiday weekend, we're going to be at around 96 million for the three days and probably 135 million for the four days, Friday through Monday.

But there's an amazing array of films out there. You have "Aquaman" as we've been talking about. "Migration" is out there, "Anyone But You," "Ferrari," "The Color Purple," "The Iron Claw." I mean, there are so many big movies that are opening right now. So in other words, to be a moviegoer right now is great, but the box office is down a bit. We're at about $8.7 billion year-to-date domestically, trying to get to $9 billion. We have a few days to go through the 31st. That's where Comscore will be calculating the full-year box office.

We're in the home stretch. Great time to be a moviegoer. A little bit tougher for the theaters right now. But I think January will see a lot of these movies that are opening now. We'll find out what their ultimate performance is, because it's a traffic jam out there with all these movies in this Christmas marketplace or holiday marketplace.

BRAD SMITH: So how does the performance of some of the movies that we've been tracking over the course of this year influence what that slate looks like going into, maybe not next year, because many of those are already fully edited, they've perhaps even thought about their press junkets already and whatnot, but maybe two three years out from now?

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Yeah. Well, you know, the strike impact was huge. And, in fact, very famously, the latest "Mission Impossible" movie moved from the summer of '24 into '25. There was a lot of disruption to the production schedule. That will have an impact down the road.

I think that the bigger takeaway for me is that when the movies are out there, people want to go. But there are certain genres and films that haven't performed as well as expected. While also this past weekend, you had two Indian films and two Japanese films in the top 10. So I don't know if there's a zeitgeist shift or something like that, but some of the tried and true genres or brands that didn't do as well this year, I think that's a signal to the industry that people want something different like "Five Nights at Freddy's." That was something that opened to $80 million. But there have been other big franchise films that didn't open as big as expected.

So I think the big takeaway and to answer your question, yes, there will be an impact certainly in 2025 with all the impact of production delays and those types of things. But I think the bottom line is that people love going to the movie theater. They just need a really compelling reason to go considering how many options they have for entertainment on their home screens.