Global 2019 B.O. At $41B+, Foreign Hits Record $30B+ As Domestic Finally Clicks Past $11B Thanks To Great Holiday Stretch With ‘Skywalker’ – Update

2nd Update, Sunday 4:11PM: Comscore reports tonight that global box office is at $41B-plus with international at an all-time high of $30 billion-plus, for the first time ever.

We might gripe that streaming is encroaching on theatrical stateside, but it’s certainly thriving and booming abroad. Comscore gave shoutouts to such pics as Avengers: Endgame ($1.9M foreign B.O.), The Lion King ($1.1B overseas), Frozen 2 ($796.3M), Spider-Man: Far From Home ($741.3M) and Captain Marvel ($701.4M) as big drivers outside U.S./Canada.

In regards to domestic, which is currently at $11.26B, Comscore says that a strong second half of the year saw the 11% deficit (vs. 2018) back in April drop to the current -4%.

1st Update, Sunday 10:53AM: Well, that took some time.

Finally, the 2019 domestic box office –which was loaded with mega Disney IP such as the second-highest grossing domestic title of all-time Avengers: Endgame ($858.3M), along with the Burbank, CA studio owning seven of the top ten pics of the year (all in excess of $362M-plus) –has crossed $11 billion. That’s the fifth time the U.S./Canada B.O. has crossed that mark consecutively since 2015 when Star Wars: Force Awakens opened. Shockingly throughout the year, despite all the big franchises, the 2019 stateside ticket sales continued to pace behind 2018, which set a record year at the B.O. (sans Star Wars in Q4) with $11.88 billion. Through this past weekend, the current domestic B.O. counts $11.26B for the period of Jan. 1-Dec. 29, -4.4% when compared to the same frame in 2018.

Last year we crossed the $11B mark in early December taking 343 days, a record pace. This year we hit the mark in 360 days, a day sooner than 2016 crossed $11B.

Per ComScore, the domestic B.O. crossed $11B on Thursday, just prior to the weekend with all titles (led by Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with a $72M second weekend) ringing up an estimated $195.8M in the post Christmas 3-day, +4% from a year ago. Disney-Fox product accounted for 53% of this past weekend’s receipts totaling $104.1M.

Overall, Comscore is projecting $11.4B for 2019, which would be 4% behind 2018. That’s poised to be the second-highest annual domestic box office gross ever behind 2018.

And that’s nothing to complain about.