The Force was strong with The Walt Disney Co. at the 2017 box office.
As the year came to a close, the studio’s latest “Star Wars” flick, “The Last Jedi,” crossed $500 million in domestic ticket sales and more than a billion dollars worldwide.
That strong finish pushed North America’s 2017 box office over $11 billion — marking only the third time that domestic ticket sales have crossed that threshold.
Hollywood’s New Year celebration was muted, however, by a couple of sobering statistics: The domestic box office was down 2.3 percent from last year’s record high of $11.4 billion, and admissions are expected to drop to the industry’s lowest levels in more than two decades.
Disney (NYSE: DIS), however, is toasting another boffo year.
As “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” climbed to the top of the year-end domestic box-office charts, it replaced another Disney title, “Beauty and the Beast.” The studio claimed three of the North America’s five highest-grossing films in 2017, with four in the top 10.
“Jedi” also balanced the books on the studio’s $4.06 billion purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012. Between “The Force Awakens,” “Rogue One” and now “The Last Jedi,” Disney’s post-acquisition “Star Wars” releases have made more at the global box office than the studio paid for George Lucas’ company.
This simplistic stat doesn’t factor in how much Disney spent to make these films or market them, nor exhibitors’ cut of ticket sales on the movies. And it doesn’t take into account how much more the studio has made from ancillary revenue streams such as merchandise and theme park attractions.
Disney ended the year with $2.4 billion in North American ticket sales and 21.2 percent of the domestic market share, followed by Warner Bros. with $2 billion and 18 percent market share.
Burbank, Calif.-based Disney operates the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom theme parks in Orlando.