The Box Office

In 2018, Disney dominated the box office with a 26 percent market share, including having the top three and five of the top ten movies.  With over $3 billion in box office receipts, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Incredibles 2 accounted for nearly $1.99 billion or 64 percent of the Disney’s total.  Ant-Man and the Wasp and Solo: A Star Wars Story added another $430 million or 13.9 percent. 

As a sharp contract, Lionsgate had a very disappointing year with just a 3.3 percent share of box office receipts and its top movie, A Simple Favor, bringing in $53 million (ranked #52).  In a recent memo to employees after announcing the lay-off of 25 (of 1,600) employees, Joe Drake, chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, wrote "We are constantly looking at ways to better align our company with our industry's evolving landscape and therefore the needs of the audience and our customers.  We couldn't be more thrilled about what 2019 has in store for us as a company, our exciting upcoming film slate, the new leadership team, as well as the agility that has always been a cornerstone of the company, allowing us to implement new ideas quickly and efficiently." 

With the stock trading about half its value from a year ago, 2019 will need to be a pivotal year for Lionsgate.  If it doesn’t materialize, expect that, by the end of the year, it will be owned by a tech/media company looking to add or scale content production assets.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2018&p=.htm