Box Office in U.S. Suffers Big Decline in 2019 Despite Disney Dominance

2019 was a record year Disney — in fact, no studio has ever made more in a single year than the haul Disney raked in last year. Despite that, the overall box office ended up in worse shape after theaters nearly ended up seeing the worst attendance yet in the 21st century. In a new release from the National Association of Theater Owners, admissions to domestic movies were down 4.6 percent last year over the year before.

According to NATO, Americans bought 1.24 movie tickets throughout the year, leading to an overall box office total of $11.4 billion domestically. The 2018 box office, on the other hand, saw $11.86 billion filter in. The only year with worse numbers since 2000 was 2017, where 1.236 tickets purchased. In comparison, ticket sales peaked at 1.57 billion in 2002, the highest numbers of the past three decades.

Domestically, Disney walked away with a third of the entire box office market, grossing $3.8 billion between 13 movies, receipts which include Avengers: Endgame's $858.37 million total. The Burbank-based outfit finished with seven of the top eight movies of the year, including Endgame, the Lion King, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen II, Toy Story 4, Captain Marvel, and Aladdin. Sony's Spider-Man: Far From Home ($390.5 million) was sandwiched between Captain Marvel and Aladdin. Rounding out the top ten include Warner Brothers' Joker ($333.9 million) and Sony's Jumanji: The Next Level ($235.9 million).

Warner Brothers (13.86 percent), Sony (12.1 percent), and Universal (11.54 percent) were the only other Hollywood studios to finish in the double-digits when it comes to market share. Interestingly enough, Paramount — the last of the Big Five studios — finished sixth in market share with a gross of $563.9 million.

Lionsgate, a mini-major that's found solid footing in genre films over the past decade, edged Paramount out with receipts totaling $797.5 million domestically. Lionsgate's biggest performers included John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum ($171 million) and Rian Johnson's Knives Out ($130 million).

In its annual report, NATO also suggested the average ticket price jumped up to $9.37 from 2018's average of $9.03.

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