2019 was a record-breaking year for Disney. According to Variety, the studio managed to earn over $3,7 billion at the domestic box office. That’s a staggering 33,2 percent of all domestic gross revenue. For comparison, Disney’s chief competitor Warner Bros. earned less than half of that – $1,56 billion or 13,7 percent of domestic box office grosses. Behind Warner Bros. are Universal with $1,51 billion (13,4 percent) and Sony with $1,34 billion (11,9 percent). Far behind all of them is Lionsgate with $776 million or 6,8 percent of domestic box office market share.
This has been the first time since 1999 that a single studio dominated the market in this way. And even though the total domestic market gross in 2019 was lower than 2018 – $11,1 billion compared to 11,9 in 2018 – Mouse House managed to bite a lion’s share of it. This was chiefly thanks to a series of blockbusters that each passed the one billion dollar mark: Avengers: Endgame ($2,8 billion), The Lion King ($1,66 billion), Frozen II ($1,26 billion), Captain Marvel ($1,13 billion), Toy Story 4 ($1,07 billion) and Aladdin ($1,05 billion). It is only a matter of time before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker also joins this group. Disney’s strategy of producing remakes and reboots of preexisting properties is paying off handsomely.
