The top films released in 2018 by worldwide gross are as follows:
Avengers: Infinity War grossed $2 billion worldwide, becoming the fourth movie to surpass the milestone, and
4th highest-grossing film of all time.
Black Panther,
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,
Incredibles 2, and
Aquaman have each grossed over $1 billion, making them among the highest-grossing films of all time, with
Incredibles 2 becoming the
2nd highest-grossing animated film of all time.
2018 box office records • The
Marvel Cinematic Universe became the
first film franchise to gross more than $14billion with the release of
Black Panther, and the first franchise to release five billion-dollar-grossing films (with
Black Panther joining
The Avengers,
Iron Man 3,
Avengers: Age of Ultron, and
Captain America: Civil War). Two months later, the MCU became the first film franchise to gross more than $15billion and $16billion with the release of
Avengers: Infinity War, which became the sixth billion-dollar-grossing film in the franchise, and also the first film in the franchise to earn $2 billion; and the MCU also became the first film franchise with two billion-dollar-grossing films released in the same year (with
Black Panther and
Avengers: Infinity War). Two months after that, the MCU became the first film franchise to gross over $17billion with the release of
Ant-Man and the Wasp. •
China set an all-time biggest global one-month record in February with ($1.6 billion), calculating revenues from both local and foreign films. The record breaking number was largely attributed to the
Lunar New Year holiday. The previous global monthly box office record was set in July 2011 in North America with $1.395 billion and the previous highest-grossing month in China was August 2017 with ($1.17 billion). The highest-grossing films in China during the month were the domestic films
Operation Red Sea,
Monster Hunt 2, and
Detective Chinatown 2, and the
Indian film Secret Superstar. • For the first time in history, February recorded $1 billion ticket sales in North America, fueled largely by the success of Disney/Marvel's
Black Panther which represented 43% or $428.8 million of the entire month's ticket sales. The previous February record was in 2012 with $818.4 million. • In China, the combined opening weekend numbers of
Monster Hunt 2 (),
Detective Chinatown 2 (),
The Monkey King 3 (),
Operation Red Sea () and
Boonie Bears: The Big Shrink () amounted to a record breaking () or weekend with online ticket sales, which is more than double the feat achieved in 2017 () and 2016 () during the same time period. The previous weekend record was set in North America during the weekend of December 18–20, 2017, when the combined grosses of several films resulted in led by
Star Wars: The Force Awakens debut. • The same weekend, China also set a new
IMAX opening record when the combined IMAX earnings of the three films recorded , led by
Monster Hunt 2 and
Detective Chinatown 2 (). Despite declining revenue from Hollywood films, Chinese box office growth was driven primarily by domestic Chinese films, led by
Operation Red Sea and
Detective Chinatown 2, along with non-Hollywood foreign films, led by Indian
Bollywood films
Secret Superstar and
Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
Studio records •
Walt Disney Studios became the fastest studio ever to reach $1 billion for the year at the domestic box office; it reached this goal in 117 days on April 27, 2018, beating its own record of 128 days set on May 7, 2016. • Walt Disney Studios also grossed over $7 billion worldwide and $3 billion domestic, making it its 2nd time after
2016. It passed Disney's 2016 domestic gross and it's in 2nd place this year. • With
Incredibles 2,
Pixar became the first animation studio to have three animated films (
Toy Story 3,
Finding Dory) each surpass $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
Film records •
Black Panther grossed $202million in its opening weekend and $242.16million over the four-day holiday weekend, breaking the record for a February opening weekend and a
Presidents' Day weekend, surpassing
Deadpool ($132.4million and $152.2million in 2016), and recording the biggest opening weekend and total for a film directed by a
black filmmaker, surpassing
The Fate of the Furious ($98.8million by
F. Gary Gray in 2017). It also became just the fifth movie ever to gross more than $200million
domestically in its opening weekend (joining
The Avengers,
Jurassic World,
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and
Star Wars: The Last Jedi). On Monday, February 19, the film grossed another $40.17million, breaking the record for a Monday gross and surpassing
Force Awakens ($40.11million on December 21, 2015). The subsequent $242.16 million four-day opening weekend became the second-biggest four-day gross ever, only behind
The Force Awakens' $288.07 million. On February 23–25, the film grossed another $111.7million, recording the second-biggest second weekend gross behind
The Force Awakens ($149.2million on December 25–27, 2015) and becoming just the fourth film to gross more than $100million in its second weekend (joining
The Avengers,
Jurassic World, and
The Force Awakens). On February 27, the film became the first superhero origin film and the tenth film overall to gross $500 million domestically (doing so in 17 days, the third fastest film to reach the milestone behind
The Force Awakens and
The Last Jedi), surpassing
Wonder Woman ($412.6million in 2017) to become the highest-grossing single character superhero origin film; on March 9, the film reached $549.2million domestically, surpassing
The Dark Knight to become the highest grossing solo superhero film of all time. On March 16, the film became the seventh film to gross $600 million domestically (doing so in 31 days, the second fastest film to reach the milestone behind
The Force Awakens), and just the second superhero movie to do so (along with
Avengers). On March 24, the film reached a total domestic gross of to become the highest grossing superhero movie of all time, surpassing
The Avengers ( in 2012). On March 30, the film became the fifth film to gross $650 million domestically (doing so in 45 days, the second fastest film to reach the milestone behind
Force Awakens). On April 7, it reached a total domestic gross of to surpass
Titanic as the
third-highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada. On August 3, it reached a total domestic gross of $700 million, becoming the third film to reach the mark. • Black Panther also became the highest-grossing film of all time in West and East Africa, and the southern Africa region. • On March 9–12, Ryan Coogler's
Black Panther retained the #1 box office spot with a $40.8million fourth weekend (the fourth biggest, behind
American Sniper,
Avatar, and
The Force Awakens), while
Ava DuVernay's
A Wrinkle in Time opened at the #2 spot with a $33.1million debut, marking the first time in history that the top two spots of a weekend were both held by
black directors. •
Avengers: Infinity War grossed $258million in its opening weekend, breaking the record for biggest domestic opening weekend and surpassing
The Force Awakens ( in
2015). The film grossed $641million worldwide opening weekend, becoming the first film ever to open with more than globally and surpassing
The Fate of the Furious ($542 million in
2017). On April 27, the film grossed $106 million in its opening day, the second-highest single day gross behind
The Force Awakens ($119 million in
2015) to become just the third movie ever to gross more than $100 million in a single day (joining
The Force Awakens and
The Last Jedi); on April 28, the film grossed another , breaking the record for a Saturday gross and surpassing
Jurassic World ($69.6 million on 13 June 2015); on April 29, the film grossed another $69.2 million, breaking the record for a Sunday gross and surpassing
The Force Awakens ($60.5 million on 20 December 2015). The film became the second film of the decade to gross $2 billion, making the
2010s the first decade to have two films gross $2 billion. •
Bohemian Rhapsody, based on the life of
Queen's lead vocalist
Freddie Mercury, grossed over worldwide, setting all-time records for the highest-grossing
biopic ever, the
highest-grossing musical biopic, and the highest-grossing
drama film (without any action or fantasy). •
Secret Superstar, an
Indian musical drama film that had its China release in January 2018, grossed $29.2million in its opening weekend there, setting a record for an Indian film in China, surpassing
Dangal;
Bollywood superstar
Aamir Khan produced and starred in both films.
Secret Superstars first-week gross in China was $47million, also a record for an Indian film in the country, again surpassing
Dangal.
Secret Superstar was the fourth highest-grossing foreign film in China during JanuaryApril 2018.
Secret Superstar also became one of the most profitable films of all time, grossing () worldwide on a
limited budget of , with over %
return on investment (ROI). •
Incredibles 2 grossed $182.7 million domestically and $235.8 million worldwide in its opening weekend, setting records for the biggest domestic opening weekend for both Pixar and any animated film (surpassing
Finding Dory, with $135.1 million in
2016), the biggest worldwide opening for Pixar (surpassing
Finding Dory), and the
biggest opening weekend worldwide for an animated film (surpassing
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, with $218.4 million in
2009). It also set the record for the biggest opening for a PG rated movie (surpassing
Beauty and the Beast with $174.8 million in
2017). It became the first animated film to earn $500 million at the domestic box office, later the first animated film to earn $600 million at the domestic box office, earning just over $602 million and surpassing the previous record set by
Finding Dory by over $100 million. It is also the fastest animated film to gross $1 billion worldwide doing so in 46 days, surpassing
Minions (49 days). •
Bohemian Rhapsody became the
Highest grossing biographical films surpassing
The Passion of the Christ. ==Events==