Disney Crosses $4 Billion at the Box Office for the Third Consecutive Year
For the third consecutive year, The Walt Disney Studios have crossed the $4 billion threshold at the box office.
After a difficult 2023 that saw films including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Haunted Mansion, and The Marvels underperform, the studio has dominated theaters in 2024.
Image: Disney
Here is a look back at Disney’s successes so far this year.
How We Got Here
The year began with Disney’s release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
The fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes franchise, the film grossed $397.4 million at the global box office. In addition to making money, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes proved that there was still an audience for the 20th Century Studios franchise.
Photo: 20th Century Studio
Building on the success of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Disney released Inside Out 2 on June 14.
A true return to form for Pixar, the film was an absolute blockbuster, finishing its box office run with a $1.675 billion haul.
Image: Pixar
By the time the dust had settled, Inside Out 2 had become the most commercially successful Pixar film and the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
Enter ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’
Less than two months after Inside Out 2 took theaters by storm, Deadpool & Wolverine was released. After much talk about the decline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the onset of superhero fatigue, Deadpool & Wolverine quited the noise by becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. Still in theaters, the film has grossed $1.287 billion.
Photo: Marvel
Finally, there is Alien: Romulus. The first installment in the Alien franchise to be released since Disney purchased 21st Century Fox, Fede Alvarez’s sci-fi thriller has now crossed $300 million at the box office.
Alien Romulus. Photo: 20th Century Studio
That number gives Romulus the second-best box office total for an Alien film, behind only Prometheus.
Happy Days Are Here Again
In 2023, Disney released 17 total films and grossed $4.83 billion at the global box office.
Photo: Disney
So far this year, the studio has eclipsed the bulk of that total with just four films. Perhaps even more impressively, Disney still has both Moana 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King set to hit theaters before the end of the year. Both films have a realistic chance of grossing $1 billion.
After being bested by Universal Studios at the box office last year, Disney has reclaimed its former glory with authority. Additionally, they did so by releasing massive films from Pixar, Marvel Studios, and 20th Century Studio.
Photo: Disney
If 2024 has proven anything, it is that no one has the kind of box office firepower that Disney has.
