Disney dominated the 2025 box office. Can it retain the crown in 2026?

Blue aliens, a family of superheroes and a city of boosted talking animals the Walt Disney Company at the top of the national box office in 2025.

Full-year ticket sales in the United States and Canada increased about 4% from 2024 to $9.05 billion. Disney accounted for the largest share of that haul with $2.49 billion in ticket sales, or 27.5 percent, according to Comscore data.

Its closest competitors were Discovery Warner Bros.which totaled $1.9 billion nationally, or 21%, and Universalwhich brought in $1.7 billion, or 19.7%. Together, these three studios accounted for nearly 70% of the domestic box office market share.

No other studio has surpassed $1 billion in domestic ticket sales or accounted for more than 7% of total box office revenue.

“(Warner Bros., Disney and Universal) have the advantage of having at least two distinct, successful sub-brands – such as Marvel under Disney, New Line under WB and Illumination under Universal – under their umbrella, which allows these studios to dominate at least in terms of overall box office and the percentage of the market they control,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Comscore.

Disney’s exceptional performance was achieved thanks to an already popular intellectual property. Four of its films were among the top 10 highest-grossing domestic releases of the year, including the live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” a sequel to 2016’s “Zootopia,” another entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Fantastic Four: First Steps” and a third “Avatar” film.

“Most box office years are dominated by known intellectual property rights and non-original content; films that enjoy brand recognition that theoretically gives those films an advantage in terms of marketing and potential box office success,” Dergarabedian said.

In fact, nine of the ten biggest films at the domestic box office came from existing intellectual property. Warner Bros.’ “Sinners” was the only original track to make the list.

“In 2025, there have been big-budget originals that have done incredibly well… but lest anyone think that trend is dying out, 2026 appears to eclipse 2025 in terms of the number of high-profile sequels and known intellectual property on the list for the year,” Dergarabedian said.

This is especially true for Disney.

The studio is preparing to release its first Star Wars film in theaters since 2019 titled “The Mandalorian and Grogu” after the popular characters from its series “The Mandalorian” on Disney+; “Toy Story 5” hits theaters in June, followed by a live-action “Moana” in July; then the highly anticipated “Avengers: Doomsday” arrives in December.

A new Spider-Man movie will also hit theaters in 2026, but as part of a deal with Sony to make the character part of Disney’s MCU, Sony keeps the majority of the box office profits while Disney makes the merchandise sales.

The box office will also get a boost from Warner Bros. “Supergirl” and “Dune: Part Three,” Universal’s “Minions 3,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “The Odyssey,” Lionsgate’s “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” and Sony’s third “Jumanji” film.

“As we look ahead to 2026, there is a lot of optimism,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analysis at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory “The roster is chock-full of top franchises, some fan-driven and some family-focused, alongside filmmaker-driven tentpoles… as well as an inevitable crop of strong or potentially surprising performers from horror, comedy, indie and other genres.”

Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.