Disney dominated 2025 box office. Can it keep the crown in 2026?

Blue aliens, a family of superheroes and a city of talking animals Walt Disney Company It will top the domestic box office in 2025.

In the United States and Canada, full-year ticket sales increased nearly 4% from 2024 to $9.05 billion. According to Comscore’s data, Disney had the highest share in this transaction with $2.49 billion or 27.5% in ticket sales.

Its closest competitors were Warner Bros. discoveryreached $1.9 billion or 21% domestically and UniversalIt generated $1.7 billion, or 19.7%. Together, these three studios accounted for approximately 70% of the domestic box office market.

No other studio has surpassed $1 billion in domestic ticket sales or accounted for more than 7% of total box office receipts.

“[Warner Bros., Disney and Universal] “They have the advantage of having at least two or more distinct and successful sub-brand labels, such as Marvel under Disney, New Line under WB, and Illumination under Universal, under their corporate umbrellas that allow those studios to dominate at least in terms of overall box office and the percentage of the market they control,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Comscore.

Disney’s standout performance came thanks to its already popular intellectual property. Four of his films were among the top 10 highest-grossing domestic films of the year; These include a live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” a sequel to 2016’s “Zootopia,” another entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Fantastic Four: First Steps” and a third “Avatar” movie.

“Most years at the box office have been dominated by known intellectual property and unoriginal content; films that generate brand name recognition theoretically give those films a boost in terms of marketing and potential box office success,” Dergarabedian said. he said.

In fact, nine of the 10 highest-grossing films at the domestic box office were from existing intellectual property. Warner Bros.’ The only original title on the list was “Sinners”.

“There were some big-budget originals that did incredibly well in 2025… but lest anyone think this trend is going away, 2026 looks set to eclipse 2025 in terms of the number of high-profile sequels and known intellectual property on the year’s slate,” Dergarabedian said.

This is especially true for Disney.

The studio will release its first Star Wars film in theaters since 2019, titled “The Mandalorian and Grogu” after the popular characters of “The Mandalorian” series on Disney+; “Toy Story 5” will be released in June, followed by the live-action “Moana” in July; followed by the highly anticipated “Avengers: Judgment” coming in December.

A new Spider-Man movie is also set to be released in 2026, but as part of the deal with Sony for the character to be part of Disney’s MCU, Disney gets merchandising while Sony keeps most of the box office profits.

The box office will also receive support from Warner Bros.’ “Supergirl” and “Dune: Part Three,” Universal’s “Minions 3,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “The Odyssey,” Lionsgate’s “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” and Sony’s third “Jumanji” movie.

“There’s a lot of optimism out there as we look to 2026,” said director of analytics Shawn Robbins. fandango and founder of Box Office Theory “This list is full of over-the-top franchises, some fan-focused, others family-focused, along with filmmaker-driven tentpoles…plus the inevitably strong or potentially surprising cast from horror, comedy, indie, and other genres.”

Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.