No surprise here: Walt Disney is the No. 1 studio at the box office, not just worldwide with $4.9 billion, but also domestic with $2 billion and overseas with $2.9 billion. This comes after an initial New Year’s weekend which saw Avatar: The Way of Water overperforming, that pic contributing close to $1 billion abroad. It’s the 7th consecutive year that Disney ahs been No. 1 at the global box office, from 2016-2022.
Disney’s moola was made off of 16 theatrical releases.
Am also hearing that Universal $3.9 billion worldwide for 2022, with $1.649 billion stateside and $2.251 billion offshore.
We told you last week before Dec. 31 hat Disney was eyeing just under $2 billion with $1.93 billion stateside, the most of any studio. Before Christmas, we also told you that Disney was rallying past $4 billion worldwide.
Disney had only three theatrical releases in China: Avatar 2, Death on the Nile and Encanto.
The Burbank, CA-based studio had four of the top eight movies of 2022 stateside with Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder), contributing to an estimated 27% domestic market share.
Six Disney films opened to No. 1 in U.S. and Canada: Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Barbarian and Death on the Nile.
Disney also had four of the top eight movies worldwide in Avatar: The Way of Water, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Thor: Love and Thunder.
Disney-produced titles account for the top five global debuts of the pandemic era, including four Marvel Cinematic Universe films (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Thor: Love and Thunder) and Avatar: The Way of Water.
Broken down the studio’s top pics for Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2022:
Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios) – $1,303M wwide, $401M domestic, $902M international (still in release) got an A CinemaScore, and 92% Rotten Tomatoes audience. It was the No. 1 offshore release of last year, the No. 2 worldwide release of 2022 and No. 3 of the pandemic era. It was also the fastest movie to hit $1 billion worldwide in 2022, the sixth film in history to reach $1B in its first two weeks of release and the fourth Disney release to reach $1B in its first two weeks. The sequel is also the highest-grossing 20th Century Studios feature since the first Avatar in 2009.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Marvel Studios) – $817M global, $436M domestic, $381M international (still in release). The Ryan Coogler directed title received an A CinemaScore, 94% Rotten Tomatoes Audience, 84% Rotten Tomatoes Critics. It’s the third highest grossing movie stateside of 2022 and it was No. 1 for five weekends in a row since opening, becoming the first film to accomplish this feat since the original Black Panther in 2018.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Marvel Studios) – $956M global, $411M domestic, $544M international with 85% Rotten Tomatoes Audience. It was the fourth highest-grossing global release of the year. It also had the biggest domestic opening weekend of 2022 ($187M); 11th largest domestic opening weekend of all time and reigned for 9 weeks in the domestic top 10. All-time worldwide, Doctor Strange 2 is the No. 11th Marvel Cinematic Universe title of all-time, worldwide.
Thor: Love and Thunder (Marvel Studios) – $761M global, $343M domestic, $418M international. It was the highest-grossing film in the Thor franchise domestically, and the eigth highest-grossing global release of the year. The pic lasted nine weeks in the U.S./Canada top 10.
Lightyear (Pixar Animation Studios) – $226M global, $118M domestic, $108M international. The movie had an A- CinemaScore, and ranked for five weeks in the domestic top 10. It was also the second highest opening for an animated movie in 2022 at $50.5M stateside after Universal/Illumination’s Minions: Rise of Gru‘s $107M.
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