The 2020 field workplace was dominated by outdated films, early blockbuster success

The studio with the best box-office haul in 2020 was one which delayed most of its movie slate to 2021.

After CNBC combed by information from Comscore, Sony emerged as the highest earner in a 12 months marred by a worldwide pandemic. The studio represented 22.2% of the home movie market, with just below $500 million in ticket gross sales.

“Should you want a logo of simply how uncommon 2020 was on the field workplace, you want look no additional than the truth that Sony’s ‘Unhealthy Boys For Life,’ a mid-January launch, would stay on the prime of the field workplace chart for your complete 12 months,” mentioned Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

The movie garnered $206.three million, a far cry from the $858.three million in gross sales that “Avengers: Endgame,” the top-grossing movie in 2019, scored.

Sony’s market share was bolstered by ticket gross sales from “Jumanji: The Subsequent Stage” and “Little Ladies,” which have been each launched in 2019. The “Jumanji” sequel was the fourth-highest grossing movie of the 12 months, whereas “Little Ladies” was the eighth.

Actually, in the event you solely take a look at the field workplace from when the pandemic compelled theaters to shut by the tip of the 12 months, Sony solely garnered round $29 million after March 20.

“The field workplace 12 months of 2020 had a break up character,” Dergarabedian mentioned. “It boasted a robust performing pre-pandemic market, however its trajectory was severely impacted in mid-March when theaters have been sidelined. It then struggled by spring, summer season and fall with a severely restricted variety of open theaters and a putting dearth of recent films.”

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic has crippled the home field workplace, forcing studios to postpone blockbusters and place different main function movies on premium video on-demand or branded streaming companies.

Studios that have been capable of launch movies earlier than the pandemic shut down film theaters in March held onto their box-office beneficial properties and remained prime earners for the 12 months, in accordance with information from Comscore. These studios’ box-office totals have been additionally boosted by movies that had been launched in 2019 however continued to play in cinemas in early 2020.

Actually, the lion’s share of the $2.2 billion 2020 field workplace was generated in the course of the first three months of the 12 months. From Jan. 1 by March 19, the U.S. and Canadian field workplace tallied $1.eight billion in ticket gross sales, Comscore information revealed. The remaining $400 million was collected between April and December.

“The pandemic profoundly modified the fortunes of studios and their movies that have been both reduce off in midstream again in March or have been rescheduled for 2021,” Dergarabedian mentioned. “That unexpected and unlucky flip of occasions took what began off as a promising and probably record-breaking 12 months on the multiplex and turned it into one of many hardest ever for the enterprise.”

Common was the second-highest grossing studio in 2020, garnering 21.9% of the market share. The field workplace distinction between Sony and Common was solely $5.eight million.

Common delayed the vast majority of its films till late 2020 or early 2021. Nonetheless, as theaters started to reopen and it turned extra clear that audiences weren’t returning en masse, the studio shifted its technique.

It struck offers with a number of main theater chains within the U.S. and Canada that will permit it to shorten the size of time its movies wanted to be in cinemas. This allowed the studio to put its movies on premium video on-demand or on its streaming service Peacock sooner and monetize its movie amongst shoppers who weren’t keen to depart their houses.

The majority of the Comcast-owned studio’s box-office share got here from the struggle drama “1917,” which was launched in late 2019. The movie acquired a greatest image Academy Award nod in February 2020, which lured moviegoers to see it in droves. The movie collected $158 million in 2020, making it the studio’s highest-grossing movie and the home field workplace’s second-highest grossing movie for the 12 months.

Common had two main releases previous to the theater shutdown, “Dolittle,” which took in $78 million, and “The Invisible Man,” which introduced in $70 million.

The corporate additionally had a handful of movies come to theaters in the course of the pandemic, together with “Trolls World Tour,” “Freaky” and “The Croods: A New Age.” Collectively, these movie garnered just below $50 million.

The studio additionally benefited from the rereleases of “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park,” which added round $10 million in ticket gross sales to the corporate’s whole. These movies, which initially debuted in 1975 and 1993, have been among the many prime 20 highest-grossing movies that have been performed in theaters between the tip of March and December 2020.

In 2019, the Walt Disney Firm launched seven movies that surpassed $1 billion globally and held almost 40% of the market share of the home field workplace. It had scored greater than $four billion in ticket gross sales between its Disney movie distribution and its newly acquired 20th Century Fox properties, essentially the most of any studio.

Only one 12 months later, Disney’s share shrunk to 20%, taking it from the highest box-office earner to third-best after bringing in simply $442 million.

Disney had a packed movie slate heading into 2020. Between its Disney manufacturing studios and its newly acquired Fox studio, the corporate was set to launch round two dozen movies. Nonetheless, the pandemic prompted the corporate to make new plans.

For essentially the most half, Disney displaced its 2020 titles, which included two main Marvel movies, the Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson-led “Jungle Cruise” and an adaption of Stephen Sondheim’s “West Facet Story.”

Whereas the vast majority of Disney’s movies have been pushed into 2021, the corporate did provide up its live-action model of “Mulan” on its streaming service Disney+ for $30 in September and positioned its Oscar-contender, Pixar movie “Soul,” on the platform without cost.

Whereas Comscore separates Disney and 20th Century as two totally different distributors, CNBC has chosen to mix their ticket gross sales as a result of they’re each owned by Disney. Collectively, they’ve the third-largest market share, or about 20%.

In response to Comscore’s information, Disney as a solo distributor garnered $255 million in ticket gross sales final 12 months, whereas 20th Century tallied $187 million. Had these figures not been mixed, Disney would have had the fourth-largest market share and 20th Century would have been fifth.

Warner Bros., which bought $258 million in ticket gross sales final 12 months, would have been third. In contrast with a mixed Disney and 20th Century, Warner Bros. is fourth.

Disney’s highest-grossing movie of 2020 was “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which was launched in late December 2019. The movie tallied $128 million in 2020 and was the fifth-highest grossing movie on the home field workplace.

Like that of Sony, the vast majority of Disney’s whole field workplace got here from movies launched to start with of the 12 months or holdovers from 2019. “Onward,” “Name of the Wild,” “Frozen 2” and “Spies in Disguise” all contributed to its haul within the early months of 2020.

“The New Mutants” was Disney’s highest-grossing theatrical launch in the course of the pandemic. The movie reported round $32 million in gross sales.

Disney additionally had a variety of rereleased movies that contributed to its tally, together with “Hocus Pocus,” “Star Wars,” “The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas” and “Black Panther.” These titles accounted for almost $30 million of Disney’s haul.

Disclosure: Comcast is the mum or dad firm of NBCUniversal and CNBC.