Golden age of cinema still alive despite the onslaught of Netflix

HOLLYWOOD looked set for its second biggest ever year at the box office despite fears that cinemas are being eclipsed by streaming services such as Netflix.

Disney is the first of the six major Hollywood studios to take in more than $10 billion globally in a single year. Avengers: Endgame overtook Avatar as the highest grossing film, with ticket sales of $2.8billion. Five of the studio’s other films also passed the $1 billion mark – Frozen 2, The Lion King, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4 and Aladdin.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, released by Disney just before Christmas, is also expected to pass $1 billion. Previously, no studio had managed more than four billion-dollar films in a year.

The US box office total looked set to reach around $11.4 billion, just behind 2018’s record $11.8billion.

Disney films accounted for one third of all ticket sales in the US in 2019 but its dominance is unlikely to be acknowledged at the Golden Globes and Oscars awards.

With studios pouring resources into big “event” films, the more critically acclaimed projects were increasingly emerging on streaming services instead.

Marriage Story, nominated for several Golden Globes, was released by Netflix, as were Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, The Two Popes and Dolemite Is My Name.

And Disney’s success is in contrast to a series of flops from other studios. Box office bombs include a Charlie’s Angels remake, Doctor Sleep, Terminator: Dark Fate, Men In Black: International and Playmobil: The Movie, which only brought in a third of the $40 million it cost to make.

One of the biggest flops looked set to be Cats, released before Christmas, and savaged by critics, including The Telegraph’s Tim Robey, who awarded it zero stars out of a possible five.