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 has been No. 1 at the global box office, from 2016-2022.
Disney’s moola was made off of 16 theatrical releases.
Universal is the No. 2 studio of 2022 with $3.9 billion worldwide, with $1.649 billion stateside and $2.251 billion offshore, and that’s with the biggest slate of any studio (also including their Focus Features label).
We told you last week before Dec. 31 that 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 global, $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 eighth 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.
The re-release of Avatar added to Disney’s 2022 box office with a global gross of $76M. Other contributing releases included Death on the Nile ($138M global), and the breakout horror hit Barbarian ($45M global), both from 20thCentury Studios, plus Brahmastra Part One: Shiva ($47M global) from Star Studios.
Also, Searchlight Pictures released the critically-acclaimed The Banshees of Inisherin (98% Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score), which has proven to be a frontrunner during awards season, as well as The Menu (89% Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score and still in release), which has earned $72M globally, to date. Other titles this year from Disney included Strange World from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Searchlight Pictures’ Empire of Light and See How They Run, and The Bob’s Burgers Movie and Amsterdam from 20th Century Studios.
Ahead for this year, Disney has Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Little Mermaid, Elemental, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Next Goal Wins, A Haunting in Venice, Wish, from its labels which include Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Studios.