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2019 was a feast or famine year at the box office, as studios doubled down on event blockbusters and some smaller titles became historic duds. It all resulted in the domestic box office taking in $11.45 billion for the year, a 4% decline from 2018's record-breaking tally of $11.88 billion.
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For a year that was expected to be even bigger than 2018 with the output from Disney ("Avengers: Endgame," "The Lion King," "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"), and other event titles that included "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," "Dark Phoenix," "Men in Black: International," and "Cats" (none of which did anything at the box office), the result is concerning for an industry that sees streaming services hot on its tail.
What 2018 had that 2019 lacked were enough titles that performed beyond expectations ("A Star Is Born," "A Quiet Place," "The Meg") to add onto the event releases ("Black Panther," "Avengers: Infinity War," "Deadpool 2"). In 2019, if a title came out that audience wanted to see ("Avengers: Endgame," "Spider-Man: Far from Home") they came out in droves. Anything else and they stayed home.
But that doesn't mean there weren't any surprises. A number of original titles found box-office glory, and the origin story of a DC Comics villain had the industry in awe.
Here are the winners and losers of the 2019 box office:
It feels inevitable. Every end of the year, we bow down to the great and powerful Disney. But to be the man you have to beat the man (or mouse, in this case) and no one has come close to doing that for years.
In 2019, the Mouse House had close to a 33% market share of the domestic box office, with six titles in the top ten of best earners of the year. That includes the top four: "Avengers: Endgame" ($858.3 million), "The Lion King" ($543.6 million), "Toy Story 4" ($434 million), and "Captain Marvel" ($426.8 million). And all those titles earned over $1 billion at the global box office (Disney actually has 6 total that hit the milestone this year).
Then Disney closed out the year with a "Star Wars" movie.
"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" brought in $176 million at the domestic box office in its first weekend. That's the third best opening of the year (behind, you guessed it, Disney movies "Avengers: Endgame" and "The Lion King"). And for any other studio that would be amazing. But that's how high the expectations are for Disney and "Star Wars." The movie didn't open as big as the two others in the Skywalker saga, "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi," which in many ways makes the movie look like a lackluster performer.
But never underestimate "Star Wars." The movie brought in $32 million on Christmas Day, the second-best performance ever (behind the $49.3 million done by "The Force Awakens"). And "Skywalker" has already passed the $500 million mark at the global box office in just eight days.
In total, Disney/Fox's 2019 global box office is over $12.7 billion.
So, yeah, it's good to be the king of the box office.
Loser: STXfilms
With duds "UglyDolls," "21 Bridges," "Poms," and "Playmobil: The Movie," STX's offering this year did not find much audience interest.
The mini-major that prides itself on being talent friendly and making movies that the big studios are no longer interested in found hits like "The Upside" (over $125 million worldwide), and "Hustlers" ($156 million, plus award season buzz for star Jennifer Lopez), but the titles that didn't work were major busts.
The $45 million-budgeted "UglyDolls" — starring the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Pitbull, and Blake Shelton — only brought in $32.4 million worldwide. The Diane Keaton comedy "Poms" only brought in $16.4 million worldwide. Chadwick Boseman's first movie since "Black Panther," "21 Bridges," suffered multiple release date changes and then only had a $38 million worldwide take.
But "Playmobil" was the hardest pill the swallow for STX. The movie had one of the worst openings of all time, taking in $668,000 on 2,337 screens. To date, the movie has only brought in $1 million domestically ($12.6 million international).
In some of these cases, like "Playmobil," STX didn't have any equity in the project. But the company logo is still at the start of the movie, and that's not good when you're in a business where perception is key.
Winner: "Joker"
It was an up-and-down year for Warner Bros. (see next slide), but one of its wins was historic. I don't think even the most optimistic executive would dream of a gritty movie like "Joker" doing the business it did at the box office. It's a testament to how the studio released the movie and an example of just how hungry audiences are for unique ways to dish out superhero IP.
Made on a $55 million budget, Todd Phillips' origin story of the Clown Prince of Crime made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, the first R-rated movie to ever hit that mark. The movie also has the record for biggest October opening ever at the domestic box office ($96.2 million).
Loser: "The Goldfinch"
But in a twist that's so cruel you would think the Joker himself was behind it, Warner Bros. also had a big bust this year with one of its titles. The release of "The Goldfinch" was the worst by any of the big studios for a movie opening on at least 2,500 screens. The movie had a $2.679 million debut on 2,542 screens. That's a pre-screen average of only $1,053.
The movie's lifetime worldwide box office is $9.932 million.
Winner: Original movies
Now, the above winners are clear evidence why the studios are focused so much on sequels and superhero movies. But, thankfully, original movies found success in 2019, too.
Lionsgate's "Midway" and Disney/Fox's "Ford v Ferrari" both won the domestic box office their opening weekends. And "Ferrari" earned over $100 million at the domestic box office. Specialty titles like Focus Features' "Downton Abbey" ($189.7 million worldwide), and Neon's "Parasite" ($122.6 million worldwide) also found major coin. And one of Sony's biggest earners this year was Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood," which is also one of the director's biggest box office hits ever, taking in over $372 million worldwide.
But the big winner on the original releases was Universal, which had three titles that hit number one at the domestic box office: "Abominable" ($20.6 million), "Good Boys" ($21.4 million), and "Us" ($71.1 million).
Loser: Amazon Studios
2019 will probably be the last time you'll read about Amazon consistently being in the box-office game. It seems its new plan going forward is to focus more on getting titles to its Prime customers quickly, meaning limiting its theatrical runs to only a few weeks and not reporting box-office numbers.
That's what the company began to do with its end-of-the-year titles like "The Report" and "The Aeronauts." This change came after its big Sundance purchase, "Late Night," had a dismal theatrical run, only bringing in $22.3 million worldwide (to compare, its previous big Sundance acquisition, "The Big Sick," took in over $56.4 million worldwide).
Folks at Amazon will tell you that box office is not the only way they measure a movie's performance. And if that sounds familiar, it's because that's exactly what Netflix has been saying for years. It's becoming clear that with the streaming field getting more crowded, theatrical is being used by these services more as a marketing tool than a way to get revenue.
2020 will be an interesting year at the box office if the studios (which are also launching streaming services through the conglomerates that own them) start to give hints that they want to inch toward that same thinking with some releases.
