By the end of Sunday, ComScore predicts the domestic box office will strike $10 billion in record time: 10 months and 11 days, Deadline reports.
Ticket sales in U.S. and Canada are ahead by 10 percent, compared to this time last year, and it’s evident we’re moving towards a fourth year that will pass $11 billion. We saw a leading year in 2016 with $11.4 billion; at this point, 2018 is ahead of the January to Nov. 11 period by 5.6 percent, with $9.5 billion.
The 2017 holidays allowed the top of the year to start off with a bang: $102.9 million in sales from 2017’s The Last Jedi carried over into 2018, which made a total of $620.1 million. There was also $235.5 million from Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which grossed $404.5 million from 2017 to 2018.
We also had a few surprises this fall, with Disney/Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp in July ($216.6 million), followed by Sony’s Venom ($206M), Warner Bros.’ A Star Is Born ($178M) and The Meg ($143M), New Line’s Crazy Rich Asians ($173.2M) and The Nun ($117.3M), Universal’s Halloween ($156.8M) and 20th Century Fox's Bohemian Rhapsody ($100M).
Marvel had this year’s biggest hits with Black Panther in February, which brought in $700 million—and it’s early summer favorite, Avengers: Infinity War which brought a total of $678.8 million.
This year still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Warner Bros is set to release Aquaman and Fantastic Beasts 2, which could open to $70 million next weekend, per Deadline. There’s also MGM’s Creed II, Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet, Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns, and Paramount’s Bumblebee to be released.
