Although 2016 has been a dumpster fire of a year for much of the U.S., one place in the country is having a banner year: Hollywood. The U.S. box office has already made $10 billion in 2016, a benchmark that has never been reached before December.
The previous record for reaching $10 billion was 2013, when the box office hit the number on December 7. In 2015, it wasn’t met until December 18. Nevertheless, 2015 was a record year for the film industry in another way. In the last month of the year, the box office was able to push its income up to $11.12 billion overall, thanks largely to Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens being released December 18.
It’s unclear if 2016 will be able to break 2015's overall income record, even with the upcoming release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is expected to gross $130 million during its opening weekend. Nevertheless, 2016 has seen many high-grossing films, including several hits from Disney.
Disney’s Finding Dory topped the box office, grossing $486.2 million. The mouse's Captain America: Civil War is in second place at $408.1 million, followed by Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets at $367.6 million, Disney’s The Jungle Book at $364 million and Fox’s Deadpool at $363.1 million, reports Variety. (It's worth noting how many of the top earners were sequels or reboots.)
Variety speculates that if 2016 were to beat the 2015 box office record, the upcoming Universal-Illumination movie Sing, which comes out December 21, will need to be a hit as well. Given that Sing is a non-controversial cartoon comedy about an animal singing contest that features a star-studded cast and the music of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, that seems like a distinct possibility.
