Iron Man 3 Rules Banner Year at Box Office

In Hollywood’s biggest box office year ever, Iron Man 3 reined supreme, topping the charts both domestically and worldwide.

The Marvel film brought in $409 million in the U.S. and $1.2 billion worldwide, far outpacing the global runner-up, Universal’s Despicable Me 2, which brought in $919 million globally.*

But Warner Bros. was the big winner of the year, with $5.04 billion in global ticket sales fueled by films like Man of Steel, Gravity and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

All of the top three grossing studios (Warner Bros., Disney and Universal) saw their best years in their history with Disney taking the No. 1 spot in worldwide market share with $4.73 billion, followed by Universal with $4.04 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Disney’s close second is notable for the fact that it released half as many films as the year’s No. 1 studio–10 films to Warner Bros.’ 19.

For the first time ever the total box office topped $11 billion, according to Rentrak, but the milestone was due more to higher ticket prices than audience size, with North American attendance remaining flat after 10 years of decline.

With the exception of Gravity, all of the films in this year’s top 10 earners (both domestic and worldwide) were attached to major licensing programs, with the Disney–the world’s No. 1 licensor according to License! Global’s exclusive Top 150 Global Licensors report–taking four of the 10 domestic spots and three on the worldwide ranking.

 *Source: Box Office Mojo