Disney Has Unprecedented Third of Box Office Sales This Year

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 6:29PM EST · Published Sep 3, 7:16AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Disney Has Unprecedented Third of Box Office Sales This Year — © Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) has posted a record year in studio market share, while the overall industry has posted a record year in ticket sales. Disney movies have owned a third of all tickets sold in the United States in the period from January 1 through August 31. If it comes close in its efforts to keep the lead, Disney will post an annual market share not matched in any year in the 21st century.

Total ticket sales this year were $8.3 billion through the first eight months. The 2018 annual number should blow by the $11 billion-plus posted by the industry in the previous three years. At the current pace, 2018 ticket sales could actually top $12 billion. Blockbusters set to be released late in the year virtually guarantee this.

Disney’s primary Buena Vista studio has sold $2.7 billion in tickets this year, for a market share of 33% exactly. Universal, owned by Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), has a share of 13.1%, followed by AT&T Inc.’s (NYSE: T) Warner Bros. at 11.9%. After that Sony/Columbia has a share of 9.6%, followed by 20th Century Fox at 9.0%.

[nativounit]

Disney’s success has been built by three movies. So far this year “Black Panther” has brought in an unexpected $700 million. The title character is an obscure member of the huge cast of Marvel comic heroes. “Avengers: Infinity War” has posted ticket sales of $679 million. It is another movie based on comic book heroes. “Incredibles 2,” the sequel to a movie made in 2004, is another unexpected hit because the original is 14 years old. It is an animated movie.

Most years, the top studio based on share has 15% to 20% of the market. Disney has a chance to come close to doubling that.

[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.