Disney sets all-time domestic box office record ahead of packed 2019 slate

Disney had a big 2018 — and its 2019 could be even bigger.

In a year that included Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Incredibles 2, the studio set a new domestic box office record, raking in $3.092 billion in 2018. Globally, it earned $7.325 billion, the second-biggest global total ever and just behind 2016’s record-setting Disney haul of $7.605 billion.

So far, Disney is still the only studio to ever cross $7 billion in a single year, and in 2018, it was bolstered by Marvel blockbusters like Infinity War ($2.049 billion globally) and Black Panther ($1.347 billion). (Those totals put Infinity War and Black Panther in the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time, unadjusted for inflation.)

The Pixar sequel Incredibles 2 ($1.24 billion worldwide) and Ant-Man and the Wasp ($623.1 million) added to Disney’s total, along with other big releases like Ralph Breaks the Internet and Mary Poppins Returns. Not every Disney film this year was a hit — A Wrinkle in Time only earned $132.9 million globally, while Solo: A Star Wars Story earned a franchise-worst total of $393.6 million — but in all, the studio had a banner year.

Looking ahead to 2019, Disney’s got another two Marvel films in the pipeline, the Brie Larson-starring Captain Marvel (March 8) and the top-secret Avengers: Endgame (April 26). Also in the works are live-action adaptations of Dumbo (March 29), Aladdin (May 24), The Lion King (July 19), and Artemis Fowl (Aug. 9), with Toy Story 4 (June 21) and Frozen 2 (Nov. 22) in the works on the animated side. Oh, and the studio also has a little film slated for December called Star Wars: Episode IX.

And with Disney’s acquisition of rival studio Fox expected to close early in 2019, the studio is on track to control an even bigger slice of the box office going forward — meaning the House of Mouse is just going to keep growing.

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• Disney becomes first studio ever to cross $7 billion at the global box office