New York. – Every year there are highs and lows in cinemas, but in 2019, no one made up to the occasion of Walt Disney Co. This was the third consecutive year where the top 10 films screened in theaters in the United States and Canada were sequels, adaptations or superhero films. In an industry so influenced by intellectual property today, the Disney studio excels in its own league. In 2019, Disney dominated the U.S. box office more than any other, capturing 38% of the national audience.
The main films of the year were all from Disney and had to be seen in the sixth. Disney’s Marvel Studios produced the Sony Pictures premiere “Spider-Man: Far From Home”.
Disney amassed $13 billion at the box office in 2019, including a record $1 billion. Once “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” (724.8 million accumulated through Sunday) inevitably reaches that figure, it will be the seventh in the studio to reach 1 billion in 2019. The others were “Avengers: Endgame” (the one with the most revenue, with 2.8 billion), “The Lion King”, “Captain Marvel”, “Aladdin” “Toy Story 4” and “Frozen II”.
Disney’s unprecedented market share included films from 20th Century Fox, the 84-year-old studio Disney acquired in March for $71.3 billion. Despite Disney’s considerable power, box office revenue in the United States and Canada generally dropped 4.4 percent from last year, according to data from Comscore.Y as the giant screen experience shrinks, the small one is growing. Streaming services proliferated in 2019 with the launch of Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus. Amazon also modified its release strategy. Netflix released its most ambitious slate, including a couple of aspiring awards, with Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” which were released only in a few theaters. The so-called streaming war will intensify in 2020, when NBCUniversal launches its Peacock service and WarnerMedia debuted with HBO Max.
While some see a twist in ticket sales as an indicator of streaming impact, John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Film Owners, believes that streaming impacts open and cable television more, or even to the DVD market, but not to the movie theaters. Last year’s box office (which followed a decline in 2017, its lowest level in two decades) set a record at $11.9 billion. Disney, the market leader for the past five years, again topped the list with “Black Panther”, “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Incredibles 2”.
Overseas, however, the business is growing. For the first time, revenue at the international box office surpassed $30 billion for the first time in 2019. Next year or in 2121, China will surpass North America as the main market for movies. James Bond, Wonder Woman and The Rock return in 2020, but there could also be some volatility.
