Never before has one studio so dominated
summer at the movies. The Walt Disney Co.
accounted for about half of all ticket sales in
U.S. and Canada theaters on the season, which
came to a close last Sunday with the Gerard
Butler action thriller “Angel Has Fallen” topping
the box office for the second weekend.
Summer ticket sales finished 2% behind last
year, according to data firm Comscore, a slight
downturn that came despite an unprecedented
display by Disney. The studio’s approximate $2.2
billion in domestic summer box office is greater
than that of all the major studios combined.
Summer, which for Hollywood runs from the
first weekend in May to Labor Day, traditionally
ends with a whimper as few new releases seek
to draw audiences over the holiday weekend.