When it comes to overall movie admissions, 2019 wasn't a great year. U.S. movie admissions declined steeply, earning some of the lowest numbers in years.
According to Variety, admissions "slid 4.6% last year to 1.24 billion, the second lowest admissions number during the current century." North American box office for the year alone declined 4.1% to $11.4 billion. These numbers came despite the earnings of box office juggernauts like Avengers: Endgame generating $858 million domestically, falling just behind the record set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens earning $936 million domestically.
The other four biggest domestic earnings of the year came from Disney as well. The Lion King earned $543 million, Toy Story 4 pulled in $434 million, Frozen 2 with $430 million and Captain Marvel ranked in $426 million.
Notably, Avengers: Endgame became the highest grossing movie of all time, surpassing Avatar's $2.7897 billion benchmark. Frozen 2 has also pulled in impressive numbers for Disney thus far, becoming the highest grossing animated film of all time.
Ticket sales peaked in 2002, pulling in 1.57 billion. Other notably high sale numbers include 1.52 billion in 2003 and 1.48 billion in 2004. 2017, on the other hand, brought in the lowest numbers with 1.236 billion, the lowest earnings since 1995.