‘Avengers’ and Other Blockbuster Sequels Push Domestic Box Office to Best Ever Quarter

Q2 of 2018 saw domestic grosses of $3.32 billion, a new industry record

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Thanks to a series of highly anticipated blockbuster sequels that started with “Avengers: Infinity War” in late April, the second quarter of 2018 has set a new record for the highest grossing quarter in domestic box office history with $3.32 billion.

That’s the sort of quarter you get when you have the biggest opening in industry history, as “Avengers” started the boom period with a $257.6 million opening and has since contributed a total $672 million to domestic receipts.

“Avengers” led seven films that grossed more than $100 million in tickets in the period.

The others include “Deadpool 2,” which became the fifth R-rated film to gross over $300 million with a domestic total of $309 million; and “Incredibles 2,” which grossed $425 million in the quarter and will set a new domestic record for animated films this week. Even “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which made industry headlines for its weak numbers, contributed $206 million to this quarter’s record total.

The quarter was also bookended by two noteworthy openings. After “Incredibles 2” opened in June, it was immediately followed by “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” which opened to $148 million and gave the box office back-to-back $100 million-plus openings for the first time ever outside of holiday weekends. The openings of “Incredibles 2” and “Fallen Kingdom” have also kicked off weeks where total box office revenue passed $400 million.

Meanwhile, on the front end of the quarter, the long-struggling Paramount got in on the box office boom with John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place,” which grossed $187 million and became the studio’s biggest domestic success in nearly three years. Women also came out in droves for Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s “Ocean’s 8,” which earned $112 million.

After 2017 yielded the worst summer for the industry in more than a decade, theater owners reassured investors that numbers would rebound the following year with more heavily-anticipated titles on the slate. The second quarter of 2018 has proven their predictions right, as quarterly numbers came in 23 percent ahead of 2017’s while the year-to-date totals crossed $6 billion before the end of June for the first time ever.

“Movie-going is not dead and consumers are not spending their entire lives on their couches with the various streaming offerings,” wrote B.Riley financial analyst Eric Wold. “Moviegoers want a complete experience and the enhanced theater experiences are helping to provide that and grab market share and increase frequency.”

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