Movie genres in North America from 1995 to 2020, by number of releases

Between 1995 and 2020, a total of 5,404 dramas were released in North America. With this figure, the genre accounted for more releases than the second- and third-ranked movie genres comedy and documentary combined.

Successful movie genres in North America

Films within the adventure, action, drama, and comedy genres generated the highest box office revenues between 1995 and 2019. Despite the comparatively small number of releases in 2019, adventure films ranked first with annual revenue of 62 billion U.S. dollars. One franchise that has significantly contributed to this figure is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which produced the highest-grossing box office movie of all time in 2019: ‘Avengers: Endgame’. MCU’s success is in large part due to the popularity of its early superhero comics, but also fans unfamiliar with these books enjoy the movies due to their spectacular production design and first-class casting.

Number of movie releases in North America: a global comparison

In 2019, 786 movies were released in North America, down from an impressive 878 releases the previous year. This was the first significant drop in numbers after a decade of continuous growth. Nevertheless, North America remained one of the most important film markets worldwide, not only in terms of film releases but also box office revenue. While many Asian markets maintained positive growth, numbers in Europe mostly stagnated. In the United Kingdom, for example, the number of film releases dropped to 202 in 2018 after years of decline.