According to ComScore, the North American box office has hit nearly $6 billion in the first six months of the year alone, adding up to a more than 8% percent jump to ticket sales and marking the quickest that it has ever reached the figure in a calendar year.
“If you had to sum up the year so far, you could do it in one word — superheroes,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst of BoxOffice.com.
The three highest-grossing films of the year—“Avengers: Infinity War,” “Black Panther,” and “Incredibles 2”—all have that very important factor in common. According to other box office analysts, this summer could mark the second highest-grossing summer in history, and could catalyze year-end run that would top out at $11 billion in revenue—a major improvement from the lackluster showing of 2017 that was host to big films like “The Mummy” and “Transformers: The Last Knight," which failed to reel in the blockbuster numbers attached to predictions.
We’re seeing a nice year-over-year recovery,” said Eric Handler, an analyst with MKM Partners. “There seems to be more depth this summer. It’s really some terrific results.”
Handler adds that the effect isn’t just attributed to superhero films of the year, but can also be found in films that include “Oceans 8,” “Book Club,” and “A Quiet Place” with resonates with older audiences.
"When the movies are delivering, people want to go to the theater,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. “In 2018, Hollywood and studios have given people a really good reason to go out to the movie theaters.”