Amid the global crisis facing movie theaters, Disney has found an oasis to emerge from the barren landscape the industry has become. The company has already exceeded $6 billion in global ticket sales this year, with the potential for more in the final days of 2025 at the box office, where the third installment of Avatar: Fire and Ash remains a major draw for audiences.
This marks the fifth time Disney's ticket sales have surpassed this threshold, unexplored by any other film company in the last decade, and the first time post-pandemic, amidst a further exacerbated crisis in theaters - their business has been reduced by 20 to 30% in countries like the United States and Spain. The flagship of children's cinema had closed the four years prior to Covid, between 2016 and 2019, surpassing this figure thanks to the boost from the successful Marvel Universe films at the box office.
However, superhero movies, especially Marvel ones, have been experiencing a decline in viewership in recent years. How then has Disney achieved these business figures? How is it possible to exceed $6 billion with this double crisis? Easy. Thanks to the success of animated films that have dominated the global box office in 2025. Just between the live-action version of Lilo & Stitch and the second installment of Zootopia, they have surpassed $2.3 billion in box office revenue, more than a third of Disney's total for the year. And there are still the results from Avatar to add, which in its first week alone has already grossed $450 million worldwide.
For four weeks, from late May to early June, Lilo & Stitch led the box office in the United States, including the Memorial Day weekend, a holiday in the country. During those three holiday days, the film, inspired by the animated TV series, grossed $330 million.
At the time, The Walt Disney Company's CEO, Bob Iger, described the film's reception as "tremendous," with a strong marketing campaign by the company. In fact, Lilo & Stitch broke the record for most pre-sale tickets, surpassing Minecraft: The Movie - another major box office success this year - and being the second-best live-action project in pre-sale ticket history for the studio, only behind the 2019 version of The Lion King.
In November, towards the end of the year, came the second major success for Disney's coffers. The second installment of Zootopia has been a phenomenon for movie theaters, especially outside the United States. Although the animated film did not reach 300 million in the U.S. and is not in the top 5 for ticket sales there, the international market has yielded tremendous results for the project directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard.
The success of Zootopia 2 in the international market, with over $993 million in revenue, is on the verge of surpassing a milestone only previously achieved by Inside Out 2, one of the recent animation sensations: the $1 billion mark outside the U.S. The film's performance indicates it may surpass this threshold in the coming days. Disney's project has been particularly well-received in China, a vast market that boosts viewer numbers, where it became the highest-grossing Hollywood film in its first 24 hours at the box office in the Asian country.
Despite premiering in the final weeks of the year, the third installment of Avatar has also achieved very good box office results. In just its first seven days, James Cameron's film is approaching half a billion euros in revenue. Confirming that the sci-fi film series has become a unique commercial product for Disney. It's worth noting that the first film, from 2009, remains the highest-grossing film in history with nearly $3 billion in ticket sales. The second is the third highest with over $2.3 billion in revenue in 2022. Figures that the newly released Fire and Ash also aims to achieve.