Warner Brothers and Disney remain in a tight battle for the worldwide crown for 2013. We will keep updating this over the next few weeks and declare a winner after the overseas grosses are fully counted. The most significant films still grossing overseas are The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (for Warner Brothers) and Frozen (for Disney). For a complete ranking of 2013 films individually by worldwide performance click here.
TOTAL NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE. Looking at wide-release films in North America (those that play on at least 400 screens at some point), 2013 totals over $10.3 billion, less than 1% behind last year’s pace but 4% above the prior four-year average 2009-2012 ($9.946 billion). Each year below is defined as the first Monday after New Year’s Day through the Sunday after New Year’s Day the following year. The past week generated $302 million in wide-release North American box office, 15% below the 2009-2012 average for the same week ($355 million) but 7% above the same week last year ($281 million between 12.31.2012 and 1.6.2013). (The most recent week’s numbers are based on weekend estimates, which are usually at worst a couple of percentage points off from the final weekend tallies.)
| North American Box Office YEAR TO DATE | ||
| (billions) | Weeks 1-52 | |
| 2013 | $10.359 | Jan 7-Jan 5 |
| 2012 | $10.432 | Jan 2-Jan 6 |
| 2011 | $9.495 | Jan 3-Jan 1 |
| 2010 | $9.812 | Jan 4-Jan 2 |
| 2009 | $10.045 | Jan 5-Jan 3 |
Over the past six weeks, 2013 is 23% above the same six weeks in 2012 and 19% above the four-year average in the same time frame ($1.269 billion), a very strong finish for 2013.
| North American Box Office LAST SIX WEEKS | ||
| (billions) | Weeks 47-52 | |
| 2013 | $1.515 | Nov 25-Jan 5 |
| 2012 | $1.233 | Nov 26-Jan 6 |
| 2011 | $1.157 | Nov 21-Jan 1 |
| 2010 | $1.256 | Nov 22-Jan 2 |
| 2009 | $1.429 | Nov 23-Jan 3 |
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