Domestic Box Office Hits $6 Billion in Record Time Thanks Largely to Marvel Movies

The North American box office has hit $6 billion before July for the first time ever and Marvel is largely to thank.

As reported by Deadline, the box office was at the milestone mark as of yesterday's receipts with ComScore and NATO both confirming that it's a record. For comparison, the box office last year this time was at $5.647 billion.

This year four of the current Top 10 grossing films have opened prior to May and of those four, two of them, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, are Marvel films and account for nearly a quarter of the North American box office thus far with $1.37 billion.

"It just shows you how powerful the first quarter of the year can be," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore said. "Black Panther and Infinity War have made up 23 percent of the North American box office to date. It has been all about the superheroes in 2018."

Extending that superhero dominance, a little further, Deadpool 2 with its $305.6 million has also been a contributor to the early arrival at the $6 billion mark. The film is also the third to feature a Marvel property that has grossed over $300 million at the box office. While the Ryan Reynolds-starrer is separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- X-Men/Deadpool films are produced by Fox as opposed to Marvel studios -- it certainly still contributes to Marvel's dominance at the box office.

And Marvel isn't finished at the box office his year. Ant-Man and the Wasp opens next week while Sony's Venom will open in October. While neither of those films are expected to bring in the huge hauls Black Panther and Infinity War has -- the first Ant-Man film brought in $180.2 million in North America -- their contribution still matters.

As for the rest of the Top 10 films at the North American box office thus far this year, Incredibles 2, The Greatest Showman, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Solo: A Star Wars Story, A Quiet Place, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom round out the list.

What do you think about Marvel's box office dominance this year? Let us know in the comments section below.