Chris Evans in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.
Image Credit: Supplied
Published in Gulf News, on Jan 03rd, 2019,
It remains the only studio to ever post more than $7b in annual box office receipts
Disney posted its second best year at the box office ever, raking in $7.325 billion (Dh26.9 billion) worldwide for everything from ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ to hit animated sequel ‘Incredibles 2’ and the latest ‘Star Wars’ film.
Disney remains the only studio to ever post more than $7 billion in annual box office receipts. In 2016, it recorded its best year at $7.6 billion.
“Thanks to the support of fans of Disney, Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm around the world, it’s been a monumental year for The Walt Disney Studios,” chairman Alan Horn said in a statement.
In North America, Disney made nearly $3.1 billion, a new industry record, thanks to the runaway success of ‘Black Panther’, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Incredibles 2’ — now all among the top 10 highest grossing films of all time.
[ads1]
Each one earned more than $600 million in the United States and Canada.
Cumulatively, those three films alone made $4.64 billion worldwide.
Other successes on the Disney slate include Marvel superhero flick ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’, ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ and ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ — which has already made more than $200 million around the world and is still in theatres.
In 2019, Disney has another massive year ahead on the silver screen, with ‘Captain Marvel’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’ leading the Marvel charge in the spring, and ‘Frozen 2’ due at year’s end, along with ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’.
New versions of animated classics ‘Dumbo’, ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Lion King’ are yet to come, as is Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 4’.