Is the theater and film industry returning to normality after the pandemic? Looking at the box office numbers, the share that streaming platforms have acquired (albeit declining), or the change in Windows giveaways and public habits, among other things, we can safely conclude that this is not the case. With one exception, Disney was back at the top of the box office in recent 2022.
Disney with all its brands (Disney itself, Marvel, Pixar, Fox…) has been a clear leader in the global box office for years. The climax happened in 2019, just before COVID changed everything in the industry. That year, 8 of the 10 highest-grossing films with Avengers: Endgame they were led by the Disney label.
Then came the pandemic and change. Disney has taken refuge in 2020 and 2021 – or even tried – with premieres or straight to Disney Plus. with a surcharge (mulan) or premiering on its platform just four weeks later in theaters.
These probats have made 2020 a wasteland for Disney at the box office, when in fact for all Western production companies: and this is what 2020 will be remembered as the year when Chinese titles they dominated sales and collections.
| Year | Movies in Disney’s Top 10 | highest grossing film | greatest rival |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 8 | Avengers: Endgame | Sony (2) |
| 2020 | 0 | Eight hundred | Chinese cinema |
| 2021 | 2 | Spiderman: No Way Home | Universal (3) |
| 2022 | four | Avatar: Water Sense | Universal (2) |
Disney’s resurgence at the box office… to return to monopoly
2021 has already begun to change the playing field, although Universal with 3 titles has placed more titles in the top 10 than Disney. Now, in 2022 Avatar: Water Sensebecame the highest grossing film of the year despite its late release, and fully return Disney to its hegemony.
In addition to Avatarthe second part of Doctor Strange(4) and that of Black Panther(6) and Thor: Love and Thunder(8) were there other Disney components in the Top 10 where they stood out Top Shooter: Maverick (2, from Paramount) or Jurassic World: Dominion (3, from Universal).
Monopoly that affects the entire cinema
All this makes you return to the world box office to road to pandemicwhere this hyperpopulation of Disney blockbusters has affected not only the most successful films, but the ecosystem as a whole.
Disney’s strength at the box office is generating waves of expansion., and they particularly affect mid-range producers. Those mid-budget films that the data shows are the most in short supply since the big saga films.
This analysis, published by producer and analyst Stephen Follows, shows how, from 1997 to the present, the number of these medium-sized films (with a budget of 15 million to 50 million), mostly genre films, has remained virtually unchanged, fluctuating between 20 and 25% of all releases per year. However yesYour average budget has indeed dropped from 45 million in 1999 to 30 million today.
The data is especially striking when broken down by genre: fantasy and adventure are rapidly rising in terms of budgets, while romance and horror films, along with biopics, are plummeting.
Paradigm shift for stars and screens
But it would be illogical not to take into account in this map all the new actors and factors intervening in the film industry. The first, VOD offers operated by Netflixand the growing number of high-end films that premiere exclusively or in parallel on platforms of this type.
Four examples can shed light on this change and how mid-budget films have found their favorite place on the small screen. The first, Rome Oscar-winning Cuarón, whose exclusive premiere on Netflix in many markets has set a controversial precedent.
The trend continued with proper names such as Scorsese to be released in limited theaters in Irish to later offer it on the platform as well. Another casuistry may present it Annihilation, an Alex Garland film that, after it ended its run, was rescued by Netflix to great reviews. They are all pre-pandemic examples.
In short, companies like Netflix or Amazon are becoming more and more options for near-direct showing of big movies that may not be overwhelming at the box office, and they also make most of those romantic comedies or horror movies. and other genres that do not receive distribution.
What is the significance in this panorama of getting Disney mega-releases into the corner? The doses of this cocktail are difficult to determine, but in any case, it seems that cinema on the big screen is becoming more and more homogeneous, and part of this diversity is going to subscriber television.
Source: Hiper Textual
