Walt Disney Studios Garner 80% of 2019 Box Office
By Tess Farrand, Associate Content Editor
Walt Disney Studios trumped the box office in 2019 with a whopping 80% of the yearly total.
According to The Verge:
Glancing at Disney’s releases this year yields an unprecedented collection of guaranteed hits. Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home (Marvel Studios and Disney co-produced the film with Sony, but Marvel Studios had full creative control) brought an end the Infinity Saga. Toy Story 4 and Frozen 2 were highly anticipated next installments in adored franchises. Aladdin and The Lion King were remakes of some of Disney’s most popular ‘90s animated films, and The Rise of Skywalker is a Star Wars movie. It works out to more than $10 billion in global revenue.
The list reads like an algorithm spewed out movies people would pay $20 to watch. It also epitomizes Disney’s decade-long strategy. Everything belongs to a franchise, or is designed to potentially start a franchise. Even Frozen, released as a standalone movie in 2013 with a fully contained story, was brought back for a sequel and a series of smaller spinoffs because the demand was there. Plus, merchandise sales were through the roof.
To achieve box office success, Disney strategically released movies in different seasons in 2019.
March: CAPTAIN MARVEL, DUMBO (2019)
April: AVENGERS: ENDGAME
May: ALADDIN (2019)
June: TOY STORY 4, THE LION KING (2019)
July: SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME
October: MALEFICIENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL
November: FROZEN II
December: STAR WARS: RISE OF SKYWALKER
Disney also joined the ranks of Netflix and Prime video with streaming in November 2019. Disney+ launched and brought in a slew of classic and fresh content to home entertainment.
Movieguide® has been saying for years that more family-friendly content bodes well at the box office.
“It’s difficult to describe the momentous [year] that Disney is enjoying,” Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore told Variety in early December. “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.”
As 2019 draws to a close, Disney movies continue to soar. Disney’s latest STAR WARS flicked managed to gain over $177 million during its opening weekend.
As of this writing, Disney holds the top seven box office spots for 2019, followed by JOKER and IT CHAPTER 2 (Warner Bros.) and US (Universal).
