The Walt Disney Studios is first with 5 films over $1 billion in the same year

Now that Toy Story 4 has toed over the $1 billion mark at the global box office, The Walt Disney Company has become the first ever movie studio to have 5 films in one year that earned more than $1 billion.

1) Avengers: Endgame: $2.796 billion
2) The Lion King: $1.345 billion
3) Captain Marvel: $1.128 billion
4) Aladdin: $1.035 billion
5) Toy Story 4: $1.001 billion

What stands out for me among this list is that only one is original. Two are “live-action” remakes and two are sequels. That said, even Captain Marvel was part of a longer series of movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the first chronologically according to movie time). No wonder Disney is so big on these remakes and sequels (as is the rest of Hollywood for that matter).

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. And this shows what a good job Disney CEO Bob Iger and Walt Disney Studios chair Alan Horn have done building up franchise movies around a winning recipe of well-known stories (preferably owned lock, stock and barrel, by TWDC).

Only one other film, Sony’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, has managed to break the $1B barrier the box office this year.

Disney might even add one or two more movies to that list before the year is out. Likely candidates include:

Maleficent 2 on October 18
Frozen 2 on November 22

There is an outside chance that Ad Astra, a Brad Pitt film Disney picked up when it bought Fox, might take off at the box office picking up the end of Summer crowds on September 20. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker launches too late in 2019 to reach the one billion threshold before 2020 begins — we might count it anyway — but there’s little doubt it will start Disney’s next year off on the right foot.

Bonuses for everybody! What do you say Bob?