Disney collected one third of all domestic box office revenue in 2019

Mickey is the mighty, mighty mouse. As reported by Variety, Disney’s 2019 projects trampled box office records by pulling in $11.1 billion worldwide. If you include the films released by 20th Century Fox, which Disney recently acquired for $71.3 billion, the Mouse’s movies gathered 38 percent of all domestic grosses for the year, according to market screener company ComScore.

Several of Disney’s films crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office last year, including Captain Marvel (1.13 b), Avengers: Endgame (2.8 b), Aladdin (1.05 b), Pixar’s Toy Story 4 (1.07 b), and Frozen 2 (1.26 b). Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has already earned $815.7 million worldwide and is fully expected to crack the big 1B in the near future as well. Thrilled Disney Co-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Alan Horn and Co-Chairman Alan Bergman released a statement in response to  the news. “We are very proud of our Studios team and the extraordinary slate of films they delivered to fans all around the world in 2019,” they said. “This was a year like no other!”

Image: Disney

For the last three years, the top 10 films in the United States and Canada have sequels, remakes and superhero flicks, something Disney does very well. But even though the studio is riding high, it doesn’t mean everything is rosy in Hollywood. Comscore also reports that Disney’s 2019 success hasn’t helped buoy the movie theater marketplace’s current decline: the overall North American box office take dipped 4.4% below 2018’s numbers. This is because while the blockbuster films are making golden hay, the big-budget losers are crashing and burning more spectacularly than before (Cats or Dumbo, for example).

Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: ENDGAME..Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.)..Photo: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2019

So what’s next for the company? How will Disney fare without a new Star Wars movie in 2020, or without a Marvel movie that pays off a huge storyline that’s been building for the past decade? Slowly decreasing movie ticket sales are now probably a fact of life, as more people opt to stay home and choose from the increasing variety of streaming options. Can the good times for Disney continue to roll?

John Fithian, the president and chief executive of the National Association of Theater Owners, sees the future as bright, predicting the streaming juggernauts will negatively impact broadcast TV, cable and DVD sales, but not the silver screen. “This may sound counter-intuitive,” Fithian says, “but with the launch of Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock, we’re more confident of the symbiotic relationship of streaming and theatrical than we were before. The people who stream also go to the movies a lot.”

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