Disney dominated the 2025 box office. Here's how it could keep the crown in 2026

Courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.Blue aliens, a family of superheroes and a city of talking animals boosted the Walt Disney Company to the top of the domestic box office in 2025.Full-year ticket sales in the United States and Canada rose about 4% from 2024 to $9.05 billion. Disney accounted for the highest share of that haul with $2.49 billion in ticket sales, or 27.5%, according to data from Comscore.It's closest competitors were Warner Bros. Discovery, which tallied $1.9 billion domestically, or 21%, and Universal, which took 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 surpassed $1 billion in domestic ticket sales or accounted for more than 7% of the total box office haul."[Warner Bros., Disney and Universal] have the advantage of having at least two or more distinct and successful sub-brands labels — such as Marvel under Disney, New Line under WB and Illumination under Universal — under their corporate umbrella that enables these studios to dominate at least in terms of the overall box office and percentage of the marketplace that they control," said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.Disney's standout performance came on the backs of already popular intellectual property. Four of its films were part of 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 entrant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with "Fantastic Four: First Steps" and a third "Avatar" film."Most years at the box office are dominated by known IP and non-original content; films that have the baked in brand name recognition that theoretically gives those films a leg up in terms of marketing and potential box office success," Dergarabedian said.In fact, nine of the 10 biggest movies at the domestic box offices were from existing IP. Warner Bros.' "Sinners" was the only original title to make the list."In 2025 there were some big budget originals that did incredibly well ... but lest anyone think that trend is going away, 2026 looks to eclipse 2025 in terms of the number of high-profile sequels and known IP on the slate for the year," Dergarabedian said. That's especially true for Disney.The studio is set to release its first Star Wars film in theaters since 2019 called "The Mandalorian and Grogu" after the popular characters of its "The Mandalorian" series on Disney+; "Toy Story 5" is will hit theaters in June followed by a live-action "Moana" in July; then the hotly anticipated "Avengers: Doomsday" arrives in December.A new Spider-Man film will also sling into theaters in 2026, but as part of a deal with Sony to have the character as part of Disney's MCU, Sony keeps the majority of box office profits while Disney gets 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 into 2026, there's plenty of optimism to go around," said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory "The slate is packed with top-tier franchises, some fan-driven and others family-oriented, alongside filmmaker-driven tentpoles ... plus an inevitable crop of strong or potentially surprising performers out of horror, comedy, indie, and other genres."Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.