The same week that ousted Roy Disney mounted his coup, Walt Disney's Buena Vista Film Distribution Group announced a new industry record for global box office in 2003 with its combined domestic and international gross exceeding $3 billion - thanks in no small measure to the record-breaking back-to-back $300 million duo of FINDING NEMO and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.
The milestone, fittingly enough, was reached on Thanksgiving Day. Domestically, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (BVPD) is continuing to have its best year ever at the box office with a year-to-date gross of $1.48 billion (surpassing its previous high of $1.24 billion in 1999). Internationally, Buena Vista International (BVI) also posted record box office receipts for the year-to-date with $1.6 billion. With a full month still to go, the combined grosses for the Buena Vista Film Distribution Group now stands at $3.08 billion. This unprecedented figure easily beats the previous industry record posted by Sony in 2002, when its domestic and international tally for the market share year climbed to $2.864 billion. It also marks the eighth time in the last nine years that the Buena Vista Film Distribution Group has surpassed more than $2 billion in global box office receipts, a record unmatched by any other studio.
With nearly $340 million domestically and more than $230 million internationally (not counting Japan), Disney/Pixar's FINDING NEMO is now the most successful animated feature of all time. PIRATES, meanwhile, with its nearly $305 million domestic gross and $344 million international bounty, represents the studio's live-action box office champ.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
