21 Dec –American film studio, Walt Disney Studios, has broken the record for the highest global ticket sales in a year with sales of more than USD 7 billion achieved this year. The record was previously held by Universal Pictures, who through the help of global hits such as "Jurassic World" and "Furious 7" made around USD 6.9 billion last year. The Guardian reported that the studio has become the first film studio to take USD 7 billion in global ticket sales in a year, breaking the ticket sales record set by rival Universal last year. Disney's latest release, a "Star Wars" movie spin-off together with previous worldwide blockbusters such as "Captain America: Civil Wars" and "Zootopia" were some of the few titles that played a major role in achieving this feat. Donnie Yen starrer, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" made almost USD 200 million globally on its opening weekend while "Captain America: Civil War", "Finding Dory" and "Zootopia" made more than USD 1 billion each by the end of their run. It has also been reported that starting from 2006, Disney had started buying blockbuster franchises, characters and talents in a bid to revitalise the business. Disney spent USD 7.4 billion in buying Apple founder Steve Jobs' Pixar, followed by a USD 4 billion capture of Marvel Comics' superhero universe, bringing in characters such as the X-Men, Captain America and Iron Man. Then, Disney went on to snap George Lucas' Lucasfilm, maker of "Star Wars" and the "Indiana Jones" franchises, in a USD 4 billion deal in 2012. Initially, Disney's move was written off by critics claiming that they overpaid for most of the franchises, but the production company had proved the doubters wrong.
From the looks of their upcoming movies where most of them are sequels, such as "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge", Disney is set to cement their place as the film industry's best production line.