The studios belonging to Walt Disney Company have released six movies into theaters so far this year and, as of Friday morning, half of them have crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office. Following in the footsteps of Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, Disney’s live-action Aladdin has become the fourth billion dollar movie in 2019, 41st in box office history.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news on Friday, just one day after it was announced that Spider-Man: Far From Home (a Sony production but part of the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe) had crossed $1 billion. This marks the first time a film from director Guy Ritchie has reached that mark, which doesn’t come as a massive surprise. What may shock you however, is that this is the first time Will Smith has been a movie to cross the threshold.
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Despite mixed reviews, Aladdin got out to a strong start back in May, opening to more than $91 million at the domestic box office. It has hung around in theaters for a couple of months thanks to a few other lackluster releases, allowing it to gross north of $342.5 million here in North America.
Aladdin may have been the first of the Disney Studios proper films in 2019 to make $1 billion but it certainly won’t be the last. The Lion King has only been in theaters for about a week, yet it’s already well on its way to becoming one of the biggest films of the year, perhaps the biggest behind Avengers: Endgame.
The Lion King scored a monumental opening weekend of $191 million domestically, propelling it to a worldwide total of $713 million already. There’s almost no chance the Jon Favreau remake doesn’t hit $1 billion. Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 4 is also close to hitting the mark, with a current total of $868.5 million.
To top it all off, Disney is just getting started. The House of Mouse has two more sure hits in the bank for 2019 in Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. There’s almost no scenario in which both of those movies don’t pass $1 billion globally, meaning that Disney will probably end the year with seven films above the threshold.
Disney’s Aladdin is still playing in some theaters and will arrive on Blu-ray in September.
