Disney’s “Black Panther” has gone straight to the top of the North American box office in its opening weekend. Image: Courtesy of Marvel Studios
Disney posted its second-best year at the box office ever, raking in $7.325 billion (around P385 trillion) 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 ten highest grossing films of all time.
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 media company 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 theaters.
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”. KM
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