It’s fair to say that Universal Pictures are having an even bigger year at the box-office than even they could have anticipated, with the studio setting a new record this weekend for the quickest amount of time a studio has reached $5 billion at the worldwide box-office.
20th Century Fox were the original record holders having reached the milestone in late November last year, whereas Universal has managed the feat in just seven months. As of this weekend, Universal has a total gross of $1.7 billion domestic with another $3.29 billion earned in international markets.
And if the cumulative gross wasn’t enough, two of the studio’s biggest hits this year have crossed significant marks: juggernaut Jurassic World has now passed the $600 million domestic total, in the fastest time of just 36 days. It now stands as the fourth highest grossing film of all time in the US, behind James Cameron’s one-two of Avatar ($760.5 million) and Titanic ($658.7 million) and Marvel’s The Avengers ($623.4 million), although the film may well pass the latter two in the coming weeks. Jurassic World’s global cume is now $1.49 billion and it is well on course to be the year’s biggest film across the world.
In addition, those loveable Minions has already passed the $500 million mark at the worldwide box-office after just two weeks on release, and the film is on course to become the fourth release of the year to pass the $1 billion mark, as well as topping the $970.8 million made by 2013’s Despicable Me 2.
Universal has also enjoyed success across the globe with four of its other films in 2015: Fast & Furious 7 ($1.51 billion), Fifty Shades of Grey ($569.7 million), Pitch Perfect 2 ($280 million) and Ted 2 ($127.5 million) have all helped to earn the studio the unprecedented success.