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We can knock Disney all we want over less-than stellar post-Covid results on Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm titles, but the fact of the matter is the brands are still delivering, making the theatrical motion picture studio the continued box office leader with $3.4 billion worldwide for the period of Jan. 1-July 2.
That breaks out to $1.35 billion domestic and $2.05 billion abroad, and this is off of seven theatrical releases so far in 2023. Exhibitors can continue to give thanks that the former practitioner of theatrical day-and-date on streaming is no longer doing so and committed to a theatrical window, thus seeing the financial vibrancy of a downstream model post-pandemic. The riches of that trigger concession sales for theater owners and other exhibition ancillary businesses and beyond (i.e. Imax).
Disney’s global take so far this year is 3.9x that of Paramount’s ($871M with five movies), 3.8x that of Warner Bros ($898M with six movies) and 3.1x that of Sony ($1.1 billion with 15 movies) and more than Paramount and Warner Bros combined. Universal is second for the year to date with an estimated $2.89 billion off 14 titles, propelled by Illumination’s Super Mario Bros at $1.33 billion, the highest grossing film of 2023 YTD.
Disney is also leading at the U.S./Canada box office towering ahead of Universal ($1.13B), Sony ($589M), Paramount ($398M) and Warner Bros ($264M). As we told you a few days ago, Disney is also No. 1 at the summer stateside box office with $811M, generating 44% of the near $1.9 billion season for May 1-July 2.
In the Disney Marvel Studios box office war with Warner Bros. DC, the last three Marvel movies —Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 combined totaled $2.1 billion worldwide which blows away DC’s trio of Black Adam, Shazam: Fury of the Gods and The Flash which did $773M worldwide. GOTG3 is the second highest grossing movie of the year at $837M, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at $476M is bigger than Black Adam‘s $393.2M last year.
Among the top 20 grossing films of the year to date, Disney owns five of them: GOTG3 ($837M), Little Mermaid ($525M, No. 5), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($476M at No. 6), Elemental at No. 12 with $188M and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with $131M at No. 16.