2018 Top 10 movies in US
Here is the list by gross sales in US, according to boxofficemojo.com
| Rank | Movie Title (click to view) | Studio | Total Gross / Theaters | Opening / Theaters | Open | Close | ||
| 1 | Black Panther | BV | $700,059,566 | 4,084 | $202,003,951 | 4,020 | 2/16 | 8/9 |
| 2 | Avengers: Infinity War | BV | $678,815,482 | 4,474 | $257,698,183 | 4,474 | 4/27 | 9/13 |
| 3 | Incredibles 2 | BV | $608,581,744 | 4,410 | $182,687,905 | 4,410 | 6/15 | 12/13 |
| 4 | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | Uni. | $416,769,345 | 4,485 | $148,024,610 | 4,475 | 6/22 | 10/4 |
| 5 | Deadpool 2 | Fox | $318,491,426 | 4,349 | $125,507,153 | 4,349 | 5/18 | 10/18 |
| 6 | Aquaman | WB | $270,596,781 | 4,184 | $67,873,522 | 4,125 | 12/21 | – |
| 7 | Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch (2018) | Uni. | $269,848,350 | 4,141 | $67,572,855 | 4,141 | 11/9 | – |
| 8 | Mission: Impossible – Fallout | Par. | $220,159,104 | 4,395 | $61,236,534 | 4,386 | 7/27 | 10/18 |
| 9 | Ant-Man and the Wasp | BV | $216,648,740 | 4,206 | $75,812,205 | 4,206 | 7/6 | 11/1 |
| 10 | Solo: A Star Wars Story | BV | $213,767,512 | 4,381 | $84,420,489 | 4,381 | 5/25 | 9/20 |
* BV (Buena Vista) was the brand name which was historically often used for divisions and subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company, whose primary studios, the Walt Disney Studios, are located on Buena Vista Street in Burbank, California
Top 3 are all from Disney, as are #9 & #10, making Disney occupy half of the Top 10 seats of best-selling movies in US.
And according to ComScore, 2018’s movie business hit all-time benchmarks of $11.9 billion in North America and $41.7 billion globally, with Disney taking in nearly a fifth of that figure. (Variety)
Among Disney’s domestic box office of $3.09 billion, its top 3 got ~$1.99 billion (64.32%), top 5 got ~$2.42 billion (78.25%).
Besides, Disney’s movies in Top 10 all have rating of 7.0 or above, averaging at ~7.56 on IMDb (beating the Top 10 average of 7.35)
Overall…
Total US movie sales is barely growing. The figures below are not inflation-adjusted.
But the number of movie productions is increasing, partially due to a lack of funding after financial crisis (bottomed in 2009 with 521 movies that year).
As streaming is disrupting the market, increasing the number of production seemed to be a way to make up for the total revenue?
Then expenses are up and industry margin is low. It is a sure thing that movies are hard to survive alone.
Then no wonder the consolidation kicked in.
Disney bought Marvel for $4 billion in late 2009, bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion in late 2012. Before the financial crisis, Disney also got Pixar in a $7.4 billion in stock.
With the completion of $71 billion acquisition of Fox, Disney will add X-Men and Avatar to its list of movie series.
Warner Bros. will be under a new umbrella – AT&T’s, together with HBO and Turner.
Universal has been under Comcast since 2011.
Paramount is under Viacom and has teamed up with Netflix.
Movie is not a studio business anymore.