It looks like 2018 will be the best year in the domestic box office ever. Mega-blockbusters like Avengers: Infinity War , Black Panther , and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom have contributed to the stellar numbers being reported for the year.
Cinemablend is reporting that 2018 will beat the previous record-holding year of 2016, which boasts a domestic gross of $11.377 billion. Those numbers were largely contributed to by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($532.1 million), Finding Dory ($486.2 million), Captain America: Civil War ($408 million), The Secret Life of Pets ($368.3 million), and The Jungle Book ($364 million.)
The 2018 box office is currently sitting at $11.127 billion with two more weekends to go. This means the box office will only need to make a little over $250 million in the next few weeks to become the highest-earning year of all time. According to Cinemablend , the next few weeks could bring in well over $800 million. While that might seem like a hefty total, it’s really not when it comes to December numbers.
A mix of blockbusters and sleeper hits drove the 2018 domestic box office to new heights, despite some big flops https://t.co/v1cjz0JyuX pic.twitter.com/udPXSPJTOf
— Variety (@Variety) December 13, 2018
The $800 million projection comes from 2014 December box office numbers. This was the last year without a Star Wars movie release in the month, just as with 2018. From December 12-31 in 2014, the domestic box office brought in $832 million. This was thanks to late releases from movies like American Sniper , The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 .
Next weekend has three huge debuts coming from Aquaman , Mary Poppins Returns, and Bumblebee . Box Office Pro is tracking projections for Aquaman ‘s opening weekend at $69 million, $36 million for Mary Poppins and $21 million for Bumblebee . That would be a cool $126 million (just half of what 2018 needs to make it to number one) added to the yearly total with eight more days to go in the year.
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Smaller totals will help 2018 reach its record-breaking goal as well. Numbers will continue to roll in from newcomers like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which had an incredible opening weekend itself. The Grinch is also pulling in double-digit numbers every weekend since its release in November, with fellow animated feature Ralph Breaks the Internet continually earning over $9 million each weekend.
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Whether 2018 can break the $12 billion barrier remains to be seen, but all signs are pointing to a record-breaking year all thanks to moviegoers (and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.) The record might not last for long as 2019 is going to see some of the highest-earning movies of all time with premiers from Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: Episode IX, Captain Marvel , Spider-Man: Far From Home , Toy Story 4 , Frozen 2 , The Lion King , Aladdin , and The Secret Life of Pets 2. That combination of movies will surely make for the highest earning year of all time.
