Disney dominated the box office this year, producing eight out of the 10 highest-grossing films. There's no question that the Mouse House has had a banner year. From releasing their highly anticipated streaming service Disney+, which exceeded 15 million subscribers in its first five days, to having six movies cross the billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office, it's been a year filled with endless achievements. Disney also became the first studio in history to surpass $10 billion at the worldwide box office, proving that the Mouse House is a force to be reckoned with in the film industry.
Alongside these accomplishments, 2019 also saw Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox assets. The acquisition was done primarily to add Fox assets to Disney's ever-growing library on Disney+. Because of this, franchises such as X-Men and Fantastic Four are now back under the Marvel umbrella. This is also perfect timing since Marvel is working on expanding their cinematic universe with even more shows and films that are available on the streaming service. This now makes it possible to shuffle X-Men and Fantastic Four into the mix as well. If anything, all of these moves throughout this year have shown that Disney is an ever-growing, prominent figure in the industry, and this year's end-of-the-year box office numbers offer up even more proof.
According to The Verge, 80% of the highest-grossing films from this year were produced by Disney. These films include Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, Aladdin, The Lion King, along with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Spider-Man: Far From Home, which was co-produced with Sony. Interestingly enough, "everything belongs to a franchise, or is designed to potentially start a franchise," echoing how Disney "began the decade with two key purchases: Marvel Entertainment in 2009 and Lucasfilm in 2012." Those two purchases, which amounted to $8 billion, have certainly paid off for the Mouse House as "Marvel Studios has made more than $28 billion at the box office" and Star Wars has found massive amounts of success on Disney+ with The Mandalorian. According to Kevin Mayer, Disney's head of direct-to-consumer products, "We are not embarrassed by the fact that we have big blockbuster movies that people enjoy [...] If you look at the box office success, that’s an indicator of how popular and how embraced these films are by real audiences."
This record surpasses Disney's previous from 2016, where they had produced 50% of the year's highest-grossing movies. Mayer's comment is certainly accurate, though, considering that Disney does own some of the biggest franchises in the world at this point. Not only are these franchises beloved by many, but their numerous record-breaking box office numbers are a sure sign that they won't be stopping anytime soon. Although next year's slate of Disney movies isn't as widely anticipated as the major franchise-enders that released this year, the slate for Disney+ is already ramping up to see even more success in the new year.
The Mouse House's current domination of the box office serves as a very good sign for the company's future but brings into question what the cinema will look like in the years to come. Considering Disney thrives on reboots and sequels, it'll be curious to see how long that lasts. Many movie-goers crave original storytelling, and hopefully, those original stories from other production companies can still find a spotlight as Disney continues to take up cinema's center stage.
Source: The Verge