For a while, Disney was the undisputed ruler of the box office. In 2019 alone, Disney earned more than $10 billion worldwidemaking it the first studio ever to do so. Then 2020 came along and turned the movie business on its head in a big, bad way. Cinemas were shut down for months due to the pandemic, and recovery was much slower than hoped. Still, thanks to the enormous success of “Moana 2,” Disney has now achieved something no studio has managed since 2019, with three of its 2024 films surpassing the $1 billion mark worldwide.
With another surprisingly strong weekend in the books, “Moana 2” has now grossed $1.01 billion worldwide. Handover of “Jurassic World Dominion” ($1 billion) as the eighth-biggest film of the pandemic era. More importantly, it now joins its Disney counterparts “Inside Out 2” ($1.69 billion) and 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($1.33 billion) as members of the 1- Billion dollar clubs is. No other studio had a film reach that milestone last year, although Despicable Me 4 ($969.1 million) came pretty close.
There are some important insights here. For one thing, 2022 was the only year after 2020 that three $1 billion films were released in theaters, thanks to “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($2.3 billion) and “Top Gun: Maverick” ($1.49 billion), which joined “Dominion.” In this case, three different studios shared the wealth. However, in 2024, Disney dominated the market with three high-profile sequels. In the case of “Moana 2” is a film that was originally intended as a Disney+ series.
Disney’s decision to release “Moana 2” in theaters instead was A) a great decision and B) a turning point in the ongoing streaming wars. Investing so much money in high-profile direct-to-streaming content could be a thing of the past. In doing so, Disney was able to both reclaim its seat on the throne and give the industry the big boost it desperately needed after a difficult start to the year caused by the SAG and WGA strikes in 2023.
Disney is once again the king of the box office
All told, Disney grossed $5.46 billion worldwide in 2024, which was the highest total of any studio. Of course, that’s still a far cry from the $10 billion you’re seeing In 2019, when “Avengers: Endgame” grossed $2.8 billion and briefly became the biggest film of all time. A total of nine films exceeded the $1 billion mark this year, including “Aladdin” ($1 billion), “Toy Story 4” ($1.073 billion), “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise Skywalkers ($1.074 billion) and Joker ($1.078 billion), Captain Marvel ($1.12 billion), Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.13 billion), “Frozen II” ($1.45 billion) and “The Lion King” ($1.65 billion), with seven of those coming directly from Disney.
On the one hand, this shows how far the box office still has to come before we reach pre-pandemic levels again. On the other hand, Disney has shown that with the right films, people still enjoy leaving the house and going to the cinema. In particular, “Inside Out 2” became the greatest animated film of all time and helped prove that Pixar’s name still means something. The jury is still out on whether studio originals like “Elio” can do that, but it’s still nice to see.
To that end, it’s easy to take a half-empty view of the dominance of sequels like Deadpool & Wolverine. The biggest original film of 2024 was IF ($190 million), and its budget prevented it from being a smash hit. However, everything is relative. If the success of these sequels can enable the existence of films like “Longlegs” or “Anora” by taking the pressure off them and helping theaters stay in business, then so be it.
Either way, Disney is proving its ability to be an absolute force in the pop culture landscape. With a slate that includes Captain America: Brave New World, Lilo & Stitch, Zootopia 2, and Avatar: Fire and Ash, don’t be surprised if the Mouse House is back at the top in 2025 .
“Moana 2” is now in cinemas.
