According to a recent survey, 19 percent of Americans go to the movies about once a month, eight percent go see movies in the movie theater several times a month, whereas four percent go about once per week. This is a considerable share taking into account the 54 percent of American adults who prefer watching movies at home.
Film entertainment is big business in the United States. It is expected that the film entertainment business will generate 35.3 billion U.S. dollars in revenue by 2019. Among film studios, Buena Vista achieved the most in 2017 – it held the largest market share, approximately 22 percent, and generated the highest box office revenue, over 2.4 billion U.S. dollars. Warner Bros. accounted for just over 18 percent of the total box office gross in North America, and 20th Century Fox held 12 percent of the market share. Warner Bros, Universal and Miramax have all been awarded with the prize of “Best Picture” in the Academy Awards four times each.
In 2017, 724 movies were released in North America, with drama being the most common genre amongst movie releases in the region. Until now, the most successful movie franchise in the region was the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which generated over 6.8 billion U.S. dollars of box office revenue in North America alone. Movies like “Iron Man”, “Marvel’s The Avengers”, “Spider-Man”, “The Incredible Hulk” are a few examples of franchise films. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is the highest grossing 3D movie in North America, with lifetime gross of around 937 million U.S. dollars.
Scarlett Johannsson, well-known for films like "Lost in Translation”, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", "Match Point" and more recently for her role as Black Widow within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was the highest paid actress in the world in 2018, with an annual income of 40.5 million U.S. dollars. Other high-paid actresses include Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis and Melissa McCarthy. In regards to male stars, George Clooney leads the list of best-paid actors, followed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth. With a total of four awards, Katharine Hepburn set the record for number of Oscars won by an actor.
