Disney Decimates the Competition on its way to $13.2 Billion Record in 2019
January 3, 2020
The preliminary final numbers for 2019 have been announced and we had record-breaking results. Overall, the worldwide box office hit $41 billion, with a $30 billion international and $11 billion domestic break-down. Of that total, Disney was responsible for $13.2 billion, or 32% of the worldwide total. This does include its Fox releases, but the studio earned $11.1 billion by itself. This breaks the previous record of $7.6 billion, set by Disney in 2016. It doesn’t just break the previous record; it practically redefines the industry.
How did this happen? In part, it is because Disney had a once-in-a-lifetime year with the MCU and Star Wars franchises having culminating installments, which helped them dominate the 2019 worldwide box office. Their success was also spread out across the company with at least one $1 billion hit from each of they five major studios: Marvel Studios, Disney Animation, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and of course Walt Disney Pictures itself. Of the nine films released in 2019 that have or will cross $1 billion (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a safe bet to get there), seven were released by Disney. They not only broke the record for most $1 billion hits in a single year by a single studio, they broke the previous industry-wide record for most $1 billion hits in a single year all by themselves.
However, they couldn’t have broken the total box office record alone. They had help from the other studios, even though nearly all of them had off years. Sony was the only other one of the Big Six studios that had a better-than-average year, but even then its biggest hit, Spider-Man: Far from Home was part of the MCU. Warner Bros.’ biggest hit of the year was Joker, which did reach $1 billion, but its next-biggest hit was It: Chapter Two, didn’t even get halfway there. Universal didn’t even had a single $1 billion hit, coming closest with Hobbs and Shaw, which missed expectations by a serious margin. Fox only existed as a separate studio for part of the year and its biggest hit, Alita: Battle Angel, didn’t even manage a spot in the top 20 on the yearly worldwide box office chart. Finally, the less said about Paramount, the better. Their biggest hit was Rocketman, which earned less than $200 million worldwide. (They didn’t handle Terminator: Dark Fate’s international releases.) Lionsgate had two films top Rocketman worldwide (John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and Knives Out, and Focus Features beat it with Downton Abbey. STX Entertainment managed two $100 million hits domestically, a feat Paramount could manage once this year. I will be shocked if Paramount isn’t restructured or bought out within a few years.
- 2019 Worldwide Box Office Chart
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Filed under: International Box Office, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, It: Chapter Two, Terminator: Dark Fate, Joker, Downton Abbey, Knives Out, Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic Universe