Disney hit a major box office milestone, crossing the all-time record for global ticket sales for a single studio. After this weekend, the company has surpassed $7.67 billion worldwide, smashing the benchmark previously set by Disney in 2016 with $7.61 billion. Also this weekend, Disney became the first studio to hit the $5 billion mark overseas with an estimated $5.09 billion to date.
The studio’s achievement is especially significant considering it’s only July, and Disney still has “Frozen 2,” a “Maleficent” sequel and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” on deck for the remainder of the year.
Already, the company holds five of the top six biggest films of the year globally with “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.79 billion), “Captain Marvel” ($1.1 billion), “Aladdin” ($1 billion), “The Lion King” ($962 million) and “Toy Story 4” ($917 million). Three of its movies have already crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and “The Lion King” and “Toy Story 4” are expected to cross that threshold soon.
Since officially acquiring Fox’s film assets earlier this year, Disney owns over 40% of the domestic marketshare, more than double its closest competitors, Warner Bros. and Universal, each holding roughly 13%.
Not everything Disney touches is gold — the studio did stumble with “Dumbo” and Fox’s “X-Men” spinoff “Dark Phoenix” — but overall, it’s good to be Disney.
