Largely thanks to the cinematic behemoths that were Beauty and the Beast ($504m) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($423m and counting), Disney has once again won the race to be crowned the domestic box office champions with $2.27 billion in the studio account.
At the time of writing, Disney held a 21.3% market share, ahead of Warner Bros. with $18.9% and a domestic gross of $2.02 billion.
The figures, released by box-office analysts comScore, broke down Disney’s largest earners for the year; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($389.8m), Thor: Ragnarok ($309.1m), Coco ($167.3m), and Cars 3 ($152.9m). With Star Wars still packing them out over the festive period, their final tally is set further distance them from Warner Bros.
Despite the disappointing returns for the studio’s tentpole Justice League ($223.6m), they still beat Disney to the $2 billion mark, thanks to the colossal performances of Wonder Woman ($412m), It ($327m), and Dunkirk ($188m).
Universal had a great year with sleeper hits like Get Out ($175m), Split ($138m), and Girls Trip ($115m), which added to their blockbuster line-up of Fate of the Furious ($225.7m) and highest earner, Despicable Me 3 ($264m), to secure the third spot on the list with $1.49 billion.
Fox finished in fourth spot, with Logan ($225m) leading their charge toward a $1.37 billion US total. This was ahead of Sony, who swung into fifth position off the back of Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s $334m. Their only other title to join the $100m club was Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver with $107.8m, although this is likely to change within the next few days as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle continues to perform well.
Overall the 2017 US box office will be down by $270m (2.5%) from last year. Do you think this is a reflection on audience fatigue from the kind of films on offer? Or are streaming services making people change the way they consume their movies? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
