Box office revenue of top film studios in the U.S. & Canada in 2021

In 2021, Disney movies grossed around 1.17 billion U.S. dollars at the box office in the United States and Canada. Sony followed with a box office revenue of nearly 1.06 billion dollars. The highest-grossing movies in the U.S. and Canada that year were "Spider-Man: No Way Home", distributed by Sony, and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings", distributed by Disney.

A tepid comeback

After a sharp decline in 2020, the box office revenue in the U.S. and Canada grew by over 110 percent in 2021, reaching approximately. 4.5 billion dollars. The figure, however, still corresponds to less than 40 percent of the 11.3-billion-dollar box office revenue recorded in 2019. Furthermore, the number of movie tickets sold in the U.S. and Canada in 2020 and 2021 combined still amount a record low in the 21st century, standing below 725 million.

Peaks and valleys

The performances of Disney and Sony at the so-called North American box office since the mid-2010s tell very different stories. Disney's market share oscillated, peaking at roughly one-third in 2019, declining to less than 12 percent in the following year, and standing at about one-fourth of the box office revenue in the U.S. and Canada in 2021. Meanwhile, Sony's market share has consistently risen since 2017. In 2021, the company alone accounted for 23 percent of the cinema revenue in the two North American markets.