Is normality returning to theaters and the film industry after the pandemic? Looking at the box office figures, the share that streaming platforms have gained (although it is contracting) or the change in the distribution by windows and the habits of the public, we can surely conclude among all that it is not. With one exception, Disney in recent 2022 was once again a wide dominator at the box office.
Disney, with all its brands (Disney itself, Marvel, Pixar, FOX…) had been a clear dominator of the world box office for years. The culmination occurred in 2019, just before COVID changed everything in the industry. That year, 8 of the 10 highest grossing films, with Avengers: Endgame in the lead, they had the Disney label.
After that came the pandemic and change. Disney took refuge during 2020 and 2021 —or also, tried— with the premieres, or direct on Disney Plus with extra payment (mulan) or with a premiere on its platform after just four weeks of exhibition in theaters.
Those probatinas made 2020 a wasteland for Disney at the box office, although in reality, for all Western production companies: and it is that 2020 will be remembered as the year that 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 | The Eight Hundred | Chinese cinema |
2021 | 2 | Spider-man: No way Home | Universal (3) |
2022 | 4 | Avatar: The Water Sense | Universal (2) |
The resurgence of Disney at the box office… to return to the monopoly
2021 has already begun to change the game board, although Universal, with 3 titles, placed more tapes in the top-10 than Disney. Now, in 2022, Avatar: The Water Sensehas arrived to be positioned as the highest grossing film of the year despite its late release and to 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 the other Disney components in a Top-10 where they stood out Top Gun: Maverick (2, from Paramount) or Jurassic World: Dominion (3, from Universal).
A monopoly that has an impact on all cinema
All this makes return to the world box office to the pre-pandemic pathwhere this hyperpopulation of Disney blockbusters affected not only the most successful films, but the ecosystem in general.
The power of Disney at the box office is generating its expansive waves, and these are especially affecting medium-level producers. Those tapes with medium budgets that, as the data shows, are the ones that are becoming most scarce since the rise of big sagas movies.
In this analysis Published by the producer and analyst Stephen Follows, it can be seen how from 1997 to the present the number of these medium-sized films (between 15 and 50 million budget), mostly genre films, has hardly changed, accounting for between 20 and 25%. of all releases per year. However, yesYour average budget has indeed fallen from 45 million in 1999 to 30 today.
The data is especially striking when broken down by genre, with fantasy and adventure booming in terms of budgets and romance and horror films, along with biographical ones, declining precipitously.
A 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 that are intervening in the film industry. First, VOD offers commanded by Netflixand the increasing number of high-level films that choose to premiere exclusively or in parallel on platforms of this type.
Four examples can shed light on this change, and how mid-budget genre films have found their favorite window on the small screen. The first, the Rome by Oscar-winning Cuarón, whose exclusive premiere on Netflix in many markets set a controversial precedent.
The trend has continued with proper names such as Scorsese, which will have a limited release in theaters in The Irish to later offer it on the platform as well. Another casuistry can represent it Annihilation, Alex Garland’s film that, after running out of distribution, was rescued by Netflix and received great reviews. All of them pre-pandemic examples.
In short, companies like Netflix or Amazon are becoming more and more options for the almost direct display of big movies that might not get overwhelming numbers at the box office, and they are also picking up a good part of those romantic comedies or horror films. and other genres that don’t get distribution.
How much weight does the cornering of Disney mega-releases have in this panorama? The doses of this cocktail are difficult to determine, but in any case, it seems that cinema on the big screen is becoming more homogeneous, and that part of that variety is going to subscription television.