It's been a big year at the movies. So much so that 2019 is going to wind up as one of the biggest years ever at the U.S. box office. It's been a year defined by massive event movies, sequels and superheroes. It's been a year that saw one of the biggest media mergers in history, with Disney purchasing Fox in a landmark $71.3 billion deal. That deal is set to define the box office for years to come and, if 2019 was any indication, rival studios will be struggling to play catch up.

As of this writing, U.S. ticket sales have totaled $11.26 billion and it's projected that the year will finish up with a total between $11.36 billion and $11.4 billion. At present, 2018 is the biggest year ever for ticket sales in the U.S., with $11.9 billion. In 2016, U.S. ticket sales hit $11.38 billion, so depending on how the year shakes out, 2019 will sit in either the two or three spot. Quite a few titles released in late 2017, such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Last Jedi, that rolled over into 2018 helped boost ticket sales for the year. Overall, movies released in 2017 accounted for $958.1 million in ticket sales in 2018. For the sake of comparison, 2019 saw $671.6 million in ticket sales from 2018 releases that rolled over.

Amazingly, Disney accounts for seven of the top ten highest-grossing movies released in 2019 in the U.S. Eight, if we count Spider-Man: Far From Home, which was produced by Disney's Marvel Studios, but distributed by Sony. Avengers: Endgame leads the pack with $858.3 million. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, despite only just hitting theaters on December 20, has already grossed $289.7 million, good enough to push Us out of the top ten for the year. The only two non-Disney movies to crack the top ten were Warner Bros. releases in the form of Joker ($333.4 million) and IT Chapter Two ($211.5 million).

Disney also had massive hits like Frozen 2, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4, The Lion King and Aladdin contributing to the massive year. Worldwide, Disney set a new record by becoming the first studio ever to bring in $10 billion in ticket sales in a single year, a record that very well may never be broken. Other major hits that helped put butts in seats at movie theaters in 2019 were Hobbs & Shaw ($173.8 million), John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum ($171 million), How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World ($160.7 million), The Secret Life of Pets 2 ($158.2 million) and Detective Pikachu ($144.1 million).

Movies such as Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ($141 million) and M. Night Shyamalan's Glass ($111 million) represented wins for original filmmaking in a year that was very franchise heavy. Knives Out ($89.9 million) and Good Boys ($83 million) also helped out in that department. This news comes to us via CNBC.