Box Office Data Visualization
While many believed that COVID was the beginning of the end for movie theaters, 2022 and 2023 have proven otherwise, with December’s Avatar: The Way of Water becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all-time, with an impressive $2.3 billion haul, and several other recent hits, movies have returned to the theaters for the foreseeable future. For those who are unaware of the subject, box office hits are movies that attract a large audience and generate significant revenue. Each year, many films are released, but only a few become box office hits. Some of the information used is based on domestic box office, which refers only to the United States and Canada.
Although Avatar (2009) currently holds the worldwide box office record with an unheard of $2.9 billion gross, 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the highest-grossing film at the domestic box office, making over $936 million domestically. Despite the rise in streaming services, the box office remained steady until 2020. The year 2020 was an unprecedented year for the film industry due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic resulted in the closure of cinemas worldwide, which led to a significant decline in box office revenues. Many films were delayed or released directly to streaming platforms, resulting in a significant shift in how movies were distributed and consumed.
As many thought theaters would not survive after the pandemic, several hits came out in later 2021 and 2022, declaring theaters “officially not dead.” The long delayed James Bond film, No Time to Die was less successful than its two predecessors, but was still a commercial success, grossing $160.9 million domestically and $774.2 million worldwide, which is impressive considering the still lower box office of early to mid-2021. However, it wasn’t until December 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home that movie theaters were officially considered “back” and “alive.” The film made $814 million in the USA and Canada alone and made $1.9 billion worldwide. Some attribute Spider-Man: No Way Home’s as “the movie that saved that saved theaters.” Other hit films came out in 2022, such as Top Gun Maverick, further proving that theatrical runs are still crucial for a movie’s success.
In terms of domestic box office, Top Gun Maverick is the highest-grossing non-comic book movie since 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The long delayed Top Gun sequel earned over $718.7 million domestically and more than twice that much when combined with the international box office. Although it is safe to say that people still go to movie theaters, the box office spreadsheet is not adjusted for ticket price inflation. In terms of ticket sales, 1939’s Gone with the Wind holds the domestic record. Despite this, many recent hits previously mentioned still rank high on the domestic records with or without inflation considered.