5 Box Office Takeaways at Mid-Year: ‘Star Wars’ in Trouble, Sizzling Superheroes, and Comedy Fatigue

The box office is booming, and it’s all thanks to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Merc with a Mouth, and everyone’s favorite crime-fighting family.

Mid-way through 2018, domestic ticket sales are up more than 8%, topping out at nearly $6 billion through the first six months of the year.

It’s the earliest it’s ever reached that figure.“If you had to sum up the year so far, you could do it in one word — superheroes,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst of BoxOffice.com.In fact, the three highest-grossing films this year — “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Black Panther,” and “Incredibles 2” — all feature costumed heroes.

There’s a lot of reason for optimism, unless, of course, you happen to hate comic book movies.

Box office analysts believe this summer could be the second highest grossing in history and predict that business could end the year with more than $11 billion in revenues.

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