{"id":787322,"date":"2026-05-10T21:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T21:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787322\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T21:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T21:07:14","slug":"disney-officially-becomes-2026s-first-studio-to-pass-major-box-office-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787322\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Officially Becomes 2026’s First Studio To Pass Major Box Office Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five months into 2026, Disney<\/strong><\/a> is the first studio to pass a significant box office milestone. <\/p>\n

Between the studio’s many brands, Disney’s 2026 theatrical movie releases<\/a> so far have included Send Help, Psycho Killer, Hoppers, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, and The Devil Wears Prada 2. The early months of the year also saw late 2025 blockbuster releases such as Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash still playing in theaters as well.<\/p>\n

As reported by Deadline, Disney is now the first studio in 2026 to pass $2 billion at the global box office. This comes after The Devil Wears Prada 2 earned $118.8 million worldwide during its second weekend in theaters, which brings the long-awaited sequel’s overall numbers to $433.2 million. The other movies that played a key role in getting Disney to $2 billion by May were Hoppers with $371.6 million, Send Help with $94 million, and Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash as strong holdovers from 2025. <\/p>\n

This is a strong start to the year for Disney that did not rely on just one or two outlying films. On the franchise side of things, Zootopia 2 reached $1.86 billion and Avatar: Fire and Ash got up to $1.49 billion, but Send Help and Hoppers proved that original horror and original animation can still be financial hits as well. The Devil Wears Prada 2 will continue to be a major contributor too, given how well it has performed in just two weeks, and has far outpaced the first movie’s lifetime cumulative of $326.5 million. <\/p>\n

With a number of high-profile theatrical movies still to come in 2026, Disney’s box office total will continue to rise substantially. On May 22, The Mandalorian and Grogu will be released<\/a>, and it is the first Star Wars movie since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. The Mandalorian and Grogu is not expected to bring in the kinds of numbers that the Skywalker Saga films did, but is still expected to do well, especially when considering it was made on a reportedly far lower budget of $165 million. <\/p>\n

On June 19, Toy Story 5 will premiere, and if it follows in the footsteps of Toy Story 3 or Toy Story 4, it will make more than $1 billion globally. Less than a month later on July 10, the live-action Moana <\/a>comes out. Despite some criticisms of the trailer, it should have no trouble at the box office, as Moana 2 made more than $1 billion, as did Disney’s last live-action remake, Lilo & Stitch. <\/p>\n

From Steamboat Willie to Encanto \u00b7 Eight Questions
\n How Well Do You Know Disney Movies?
\n \u201cWhen you wish upon a star\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc2dSteamboat EraBlack-and-white Mickey<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc51The PrincessesSnow White onward<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd8190s RenaissanceLion King & Aladdin<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udca1Pixar LampToy Story onward<\/p>\n

\u2744\ufe0fModern EraFrozen & beyond<\/p>\n

UNLOCK THE VAULT \u2192<\/p>\n

01<\/p>\n

On November 18, 1928, Walt Disney premiered a seven-minute black-and-white short at the Colony Theatre in New York \u2014 the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released to the public, and one of the earliest sound cartoons ever made. Whistling Mickey at the helm of a riverboat became the studio\u2019s first iconic image. Name the short.<\/p>\n

\n APlane Crazy
\n BSteamboat Willie
\n CThe Karnival Kid
\n DThe Gallopin\u2019 Gaucho\n <\/p>\n

\u2713 Correct! Steamboat Willie. Mickey actually finished production first on the silent short Plane Crazy earlier that year, but Walt and his brother Roy bet the studio\u2019s entire future on retooling Steamboat Willie with synchronised sound \u2014 a brand-new technology that had only just appeared with The Jazz Singer (1927). The gamble worked: Steamboat Willie\u2019s November 1928 release made Mickey an instant national icon and put Disney on the map. The short entered the public domain in January 2024, exactly 95 years after release.<\/p>\n

\u2717 Wrong. The answer is Steamboat Willie. Plane Crazy was actually animated first (May 1928, silent) but didn\u2019t find a distributor. The Gallopin\u2019 Gaucho was the second Mickey short, also originally silent. The Karnival Kid (1929) is where Mickey first speaks. The breakthrough \u2014 the first publicly released, sound-synchronised Mickey short \u2014 is Steamboat Willie.<\/p>\n

NEXT \u2192<\/p>\n

02<\/p>\n

Walt Disney sank the studio\u2019s entire balance sheet, plus a heavy mortgage on his home, into a project Hollywood derisively called \u201cDisney\u2019s Folly\u201d \u2014 the first full-length cel-animated feature film ever made in English. It premiered December 21, 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles to a standing ovation. Name the film.<\/p>\n

\n APinocchio
\n BBambi
\n CSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs
\n DFantasia\n <\/p>\n

\u2713 Correct! Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The 83-minute film cost $1.49 million \u2014 an enormous gamble at the height of the Depression \u2014 and grossed $8 million on its initial release, the highest-grossing sound film made up to that point. Walt won an honorary Oscar (one large statuette and seven small ones, presented by Shirley Temple). The film\u2019s success funded the construction of Disney\u2019s Burbank studio and effectively created the feature-animation industry.<\/p>\n

\u2717 Wrong. The answer is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Pinocchio (1940) is the second Disney feature. Fantasia (1940) is the third. Bambi (1942) is the fifth. Snow White was the bet-the-studio first \u2014 ridiculed in production as \u201cDisney\u2019s Folly\u201d before becoming the highest-grossing sound film ever made up to 1937.<\/p>\n

NEXT \u2192<\/p>\n

03<\/p>\n

Walt Disney\u2019s vision of a film-quality theme park opened to a chaotic, oversold \u201cBlack Sunday\u201d debut \u2014 counterfeit tickets, a gas leak, and asphalt soft enough to swallow women\u2019s heels. The Anaheim park was built on 160 acres of orange groves in just 12 months. In which year did Disneyland open?<\/p>\n

\n A1948
\n B1955
\n C1962
\n D1971\n <\/p>\n

\u2713 Correct! July 17, 1955 \u2014 press preview day, dubbed \u201cBlack Sunday\u201d in Disney company lore. ABC broadcast a live two-hour TV special featuring Ronald Reagan, Bob Cummings and Art Linkletter (collectively winging the script as things went wrong). Disneyland was built on Anaheim orange groves Walt mortgaged his home to fund. Walt Disney World opened in 1971 in Orlando, six years after Walt\u2019s death \u2014 that\u2019s the date many people confuse with Disneyland\u2019s opening.<\/p>\n

\u2717 Wrong. The answer is 1955 \u2014 specifically July 17. 1948 is when Walt first sketched the concept. 1962 doesn\u2019t mark a major Disney park milestone. 1971 is when Walt Disney World opened in Florida (six years after Walt\u2019s death) \u2014 that\u2019s the date most often confused with Disneyland\u2019s. The original Anaheim park opened in 1955.<\/p>\n

NEXT \u2192<\/p>\n

04<\/p>\n

The Lion King (1994) was pitched internally as \u201cBambi meets\u2026\u201d a particular Shakespeare play \u2014 and the parallels are unmissable: a young prince\u2019s father is murdered by his uncle, who usurps the throne; the prince later returns to avenge him. Which Shakespeare tragedy provided the bones of the story?<\/p>\n

\n AMacbeth
\n BOthello
\n CHamlet
\n DKing Lear\n <\/p>\n

\u2713 Correct! Hamlet. The internal pitch was famously \u201cBambi meets Hamlet\u201d (or, in some retellings, \u201cHamlet with lions\u201d): Mufasa is the murdered king-father (Hamlet Sr.), Scar is the usurping uncle (Claudius), Simba is the exiled prince (Hamlet), and even the ghost-on-a-cliff appearance plays out beat-for-beat. The Lion King grossed $968 million worldwide and remained the highest-grossing animated film for 16 years until Toy Story 3 broke the record in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u2717 Wrong. The answer is Hamlet. Macbeth is the \u201cambitious wife pushes husband to murder the king\u201d story (the closer Disney parallel there is the Frollo\/Esmeralda dynamic in Hunchback). Othello is the jealousy tragedy. King Lear is the divided-kingdom tragedy. The Lion King\u2019s bones are unambiguously Hamlet\u2019s \u2014 ghost, uncle-murderer, exiled-prince and all.<\/p>\n

NEXT \u2192<\/p>\n

05<\/p>\n

Frozen (2013) became the highest-grossing animated film at the time and won two Oscars including Best Animated Feature. Its standout song \u2014 performed by Idina Menzel as Elsa, written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez \u2014 won the Oscar for Best Original Song and dominated radio playlists for an entire year. Name the song.<\/p>\n

\n ALet It Go
\n BDo You Want to Build a Snowman?
\n CFor the First Time in Forever
\n DLove Is an Open Door\n <\/p>\n

\u2713 Correct! \u201cLet It Go\u201d \u2014 the Oscar-winning power ballad that fundamentally rewrote the film\u2019s plot in production: Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the song so persuasively that the directors threw out the existing script and rewrote Elsa from villain to misunderstood protagonist. The song spent over 30 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, was translated into 41 languages for international releases, and its Idina Menzel single sold 10.9 million copies. Frozen grossed $1.28 billion and held the highest-grossing-animated-film record until its own 2019 sequel.<\/p>\n

\u2717 Wrong. The answer is \u201cLet It Go.\u201d The other three options are also Frozen songs by the same Lopez\/Anderson-Lopez writing team. \u201cDo You Want to Build a Snowman?\u201d is the early childhood-montage number. \u201cFor the First Time in Forever\u201d is Anna\u2019s coronation-day song. \u201cLove Is an Open Door\u201d is the Hans\/Anna duet. The Oscar-winning monster hit is \u201cLet It Go.\u201d<\/p>\n

NEXT \u2192<\/p>\n

06<\/p>\n

In November 1995, Pixar \u2014 then a small Disney distribution partner founded by Ed Catmull, John Lasseter and Steve Jobs \u2014 released the world\u2019s first fully computer-animated feature film. It became the highest-grossing film of 1995 in North America and won a Special Achievement Oscar for John Lasseter. Name the movie.<\/p>\n

\n AA Bug\u2019s Life
\n BToy Story
\n CMonsters, Inc.
\n DFinding Nemo\n <\/p>\n

\u2713 Correct! Toy Story (November 22, 1995). Made for $30 million, it grossed $373 million worldwide and immediately rewrote what was possible in animation. Steve Jobs \u2014 who\u2019d bought Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1986 for $5 million \u2014 took the company public a week after the film\u2019s release at $22 a share, instantly making him a billionaire. Disney bought Pixar outright in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock, making Jobs Disney\u2019s largest individual shareholder. A Bug\u2019s Life (1998) was the second Pixar feature; Monsters, Inc. (2001) the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u2717 Wrong. The answer is Toy Story (1995). A Bug\u2019s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003) are all later Pixar features. Toy Story was the studio\u2019s first \u2014 and the first fully computer-animated theatrical feature in cinema history. Its release a week before Steve Jobs took Pixar public effectively turned him from struggling NeXT-era founder into a billionaire.<\/p>\n

NEXT \u2192<\/p>\n

07<\/p>\n

In a roughly seven-year span, Disney made a sequence of franchise acquisitions that transformed it from an animation studio into a global IP empire. Pixar (2006, $7.4B), Lucasfilm (2012, $4.05B) and 21st Century Fox (2019, $71.3B) bracket the era. The remaining major brand \u2014 bought in 2009 for $4 billion \u2014 brought Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Avengers under Disney\u2019s roof. Name it.<\/p>\n

\n ADC Entertainment
\n BImage Comics
\n CMarvel Entertainment
\n DDark Horse Comics\n <\/p>\n

\u2713 Correct! Marvel Entertainment, acquired August 2009 for $4 billion. The deal followed Marvel Studios\u2019 first independent production (Iron Man, 2008) and gave Disney rights to over 5,000 characters \u2014 though crucially not Spider-Man (still under a Sony deal) or the X-Men\/Fantastic Four (under Fox until the 2019 acquisition reunited them). Disney\u2019s combined Marvel-Lucasfilm-Pixar-Fox portfolio is now the largest IP holding in entertainment history.<\/p>\n

\u2717 Wrong. The answer is Marvel Entertainment. DC Entertainment is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (since the 1969 Kinney\/National acquisition). Image Comics and Dark Horse remain independent. Disney bought Marvel in August 2009 for $4 billion, two years after Marvel Studios\u2019 first self-financed film (Iron Man, 2008).<\/p>\n

NEXT \u2192<\/p>\n

08<\/p>\n

Disney Animation\u2019s Moana (2016) features Hawaiian newcomer Auli\u2019i Cravalho as the title role and Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui. Its musical numbers \u2014 including \u201cHow Far I\u2019ll Go\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re Welcome\u201d \u2014 were co-written by a Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Broadway composer who\u2019d become a household name with Hamilton the previous year. Name him.<\/p>\n

\n AStephen Sondheim
\n BAndrew Lloyd Webber
\n CLin-Manuel Miranda
\n DAlan Menken\n <\/p>\n

\u2713 Correct! Lin-Manuel Miranda \u2014 co-writing with Te Vaka frontman Opetaia Foa\u2019i and composer Mark Mancina. Miranda\u2019s Hamilton had opened on Broadway the year before (August 2015) and turned him into the rare Disney songwriter with crossover Broadway-rap credibility. Miranda has since become a Disney mainstay, returning for Encanto (2021), where his songs \u201cSurface Pressure\u201d and \u201cWe Don\u2019t Talk About Bruno\u201d topped the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n

\u2717 Wrong. The answer is Lin-Manuel Miranda. Stephen Sondheim wrote Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and West Side Story\u2019s lyrics \u2014 but never a Disney animated feature. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote Cats, Phantom and Evita \u2014 also never a Disney film. Alan Menken is the great Disney Renaissance composer (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin) but didn\u2019t write Moana\u2019s songs. Moana is Miranda\u2019s, with Foa\u2019i and Mancina.<\/p>\n

REVEAL MY RATING \u2192<\/p>\n

\n The Castle Has Spoken \u00b7 Final Tally
\n Your Magic Kingdom Standing\n <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc51<\/p>\n

\n \/ 8\n <\/p>\n

True Disney royalty \u2014 or just a tourist with churros?<\/p>\n

\u2934 ANOTHER WISH<\/p>\n

Before the summer ends, Disney also has Super Troopers 3 and Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars, and then the survival thriller Whalefall and the dark comedy Wild Horse Nine in the fall. During Thanksgiving, Disney has Hexed, which as an original movie is unlikely to reach the heights that Moana 2 and Zootopia 2 did around this time the last two years. As seen with Pixar’s Hoppers, Disney’s original animation can still do quite well at the box office, though. <\/p>\n

Disney<\/strong> will then end the year with Avengers: Doomsday on December 18. If the studio hasn’t matched last year’s year-end total of $6.5 billion, the highly-anticipated Marvel Cinematic Universe may be able to push it past the milestone, and Doomsday will also be a reliable carryover to have in early 2027. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five months into 2026, Disney is the first studio to pass a significant box office milestone. Between the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":787323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-787322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116552325401022254","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}