The Walt Disney Studios has posted a global box office gross of $4.9 billion from 16 theatrical releases for the 2022 calendar year, including $2 billion domestic and $2.9 billion international. That figure puts the studio at #1 in the domestic, international, and global box office for 2022. This also marks the 7th consecutive year that the Walt Disney Studios has been #1 at the global box office (2016-2022).
Disney released 4 of the top 10 films of the year domestically, which includes #2 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($436.2M), #3 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($411.3M), #4 Avatar: The Way of Water ($400.5M), and #8 Thor: Love and Thunder ($343.2M). These 4 titles amounted to an estimated 27% of the domestic market share. Disney opened 6 films at #1 domestically, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($187.4M), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($181.3M), Thor: Love and Thunder ($144.1M), Avatar: The Way of Water ($134.1M), Death on the Nile ($12.8M), and Barbarian ($10.5M).
Globally, the same 4 Disney titles also ranked in the top 10 of the year, including #2 Avatar: The Way of Water ($1.4 Billion), #4 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($955.7M), #6 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($820.1M), and #8 Thor: Love and Thunder ($760.9M). The company only had 3 theatrical releases in the China market during 2022, which included Avatar: The Way of Water, Death on the Nile, and the 2021 domestically-released Encanto. Disney-produced titles have also accounted for the top 5 global debuts of the pandemic era, including 4 Marvel Cinematic Universe films (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Thor: Love and Thunder), as well as Avatar: The Way of Water.
Disney surpassed the $4 billion mark at the global box office in mid-December, driven by Avatar: The Way of Water. By year-end, the company nearly reached the $5 billion mark as Avatar: The Way of Water continued to add to its gross.
2022 Disney Highlights
Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios) – In Release
$401M domestic / $902M international / $1.3 billion global
Avatar: The Way of Water became the #1 international release of 2022, the #2 global release of 2022, and #3 global release of the pandemic era. It was the fastest film to reach $1 billion at global box office in 2022, the 6th film in history to reach $1 billion in its first two weeks of release, and the 4th Disney release to reach $1 billion in its first two weeks. It also marks the highest-grossing 20th Century Studios feature since the first Avatar in 2009.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Marvel Studios) – In Release
$436M domestic / $381M international / $817M global
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever became the third highest-grossing domestic release of the year, holding the #1 spot for five consecutive weekends, making it the first film to accomplish this feat since the original Black Panther in 2018.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Marvel Studios)
$411M domestic / $544M international / $956M global
In addition to becoming the 4th highest-grossing global release of the year, the film still holds the 2022 record for the largest domestic opening weekend of 2022 ($187M), as well as the 11th largest domestic opening weekend of all time. With 9 weeks in the domestic top 10, the sequel became the 11th highest-grossing MCU global release of all-time.
Thor: Love and Thunder (Marvel Studios)
$343M domestic / $418M international / $761M global
The highest-grossing film in the Thor franchise domestically, Thor: Love and Thunder is the 8th highest grossing global release of the year and spent 9 weeks in the domestic top 10.
Lightyear (Pixar Animation Studios)
$118M domestic / $108M international / $226M global
The space adventure Lightyear held 5 weeks in domestic top 10 and had the 2nd highest domestic opening for an animated film in 2022.
The strategic re-release of Avatar added to Disney’s 2022 box office with a global gross of $76M and other contributing releases includes titles such as Death on the Nile ($138M global), the breakout horror film Barbarian ($45M global), and Brahmastra Part One: Shiva ($47M global) from Star Studios. Disney’s Searchlight Pictures also released critically-acclaimed titles such as The Banshees of Inisherin and The Menu. Other titles released during the calendar year which helped to propel Disney to #1 include Strange World, Empire of Light, See How They Run, The Bob’s Burgers Movie, and Amsterdam.
Looking forward to the 2023 slate, Walt Disney Studios is set to release titles from all seven of its labels, including Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Studios. Along with all of the titles below, the studio’s 2023 slate includes, A Haunting in Venice (September 15th), Next Goal Wins (September 22nd), and the animated film Wish (November 22nd).
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (February 17th)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5th)
The Little Mermaid (May 26th)
Elemental (June 16th)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June 30th)
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