Disney Crushes Own Global Box Office Record With Historic $10 Billion
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Thanks to a record number of billion-dollar blockbusters, Disney has become the first studio in history to surpass $10 billion at the worldwide box office.
Through Sunday, the studio has generated $3.28 billion in North America and $6.7 billion overseas for a global haul of $9.997 billion and is expected to officially cross the benchmark within the next day. Disney smashed its own global box office milestone — set in 2016 with $7.6 billion — back in July after the success of “Avengers: Endgame” and “The Lion King.” All the more impressive, the studio hit the new high-water mark even before “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” the final chapter in the Skywalker saga, arrives in theaters Dec. 20.
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Those ticket sales don’t include Fox titles like “Ford v Ferrari” or “Dark Phoenix.” When accounting for movies it acquired after inheriting Fox’s film empire, that bounty is pushed to $11.9 billion.
In August, Disney established a new record for having five movies — “Avengers: Endgame,” “Aladdin,” “Toy Story 4,” “The Lion King” and “Captain Marvel” — cross $1 billion in a single year. “Frozen 2” has earned $920 million to date and will soon become the sixth title to join the elusive club in 2019, while “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” could make it seven.
Disney currently holds six of the 10 biggest movies of the year globally with “Avengers: Endgame,” the highest-grossing film of all time ($2.79 billion), as well as “The Lion King” ($1.6 billion), “Captain Marvel” ($1.2 billion), “Toy Story 4” ($1.07 billion), “Aladdin” ($1.05 billion) and “Frozen 2” ($920 million).
“It’s difficult to describe the momentousness [year] that Disney is enjoying,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore. “Disney has consistently put almost unfathomable numbers on the board by delivering a diverse and irresistible slate of films, while capitalizing on the goodwill and viewer loyalty that has been built up by years.”
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