Top Franchises Lead Summer Box Office

As the summer movie season comes to a close, all five of the films that have topped the U.S. box office have featured major licensing programs.

April 6, 2018

Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron

lead season's highest-grossing films.

As the summer movie season comes to a close, all five of the films that have topped the U.S. box office have featured major licensing programs.

Disney subsidiaries Marvel and Pixar produced three of the summer's top five biggest earners: Marvel with

Avengers: Age of Ultron

and

Ant-Man

, and Pixar with

Inside Out

Avengers: Age of Ultron

also topped charts around the world, bringing in a total of $1.4 billion worldwide.

Of course the big news of the summer was Universal's record-breaking season with

Jurassic World

topping both domestic and international lists and bringing in $1.6 billion worldwide. Rounding out the summer's top five domestic movies was another Universal release,

Pitch Perfect 2

. Internationally, Universal has set a record for the highest-grossing year ever, bringing in a total of $3.89 billion with four of the five top-earning international 2015 films to-date.

Four of the top five U.S. summer films were supported by wide-reaching, global licensing programs (details available

below). The only exception was the more niche, adult comedy

Pitch Perfect 2

. Universal took a more targeted approach to the merchandising for this film with partnerships such as a

limited edition apparel line at Express.

U.S. Summer* Box Office