Disney was, for a time, the unquestioned ruler of the box office. In 2019 alone, Disney made more than $10 billion globally, becoming the first studio ever to do so. Then 2020 came and upended the movie business in a big, bad way. The pandemic shut down theaters for months on end, with the recovery happening far slower than hoped. Even so, thanks to the massive success of “Moana 2,” Disney has now accomplished something that no studio has since 2019, as three of its 2024 movies have crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide.

With another surprisingly strong weekend in the books, “Moana 2” has now earned $1.01 billion worldwide, passing “Jurassic World Dominion” ($1 billion) as the eighth biggest movie of the pandemic era. More importantly, it now joins its fellow 2024 Disney releases “Inside Out 2” ($1.69 billion) and “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($1.33 billion) as members of the $1 billion club. No other studio had a movie cross that milestone last year, although “Despicable Me 4” ($969.1 million) got pretty dang close.

There are some key takeaways here. For one, the only other post-2020 year that saw three $1 billion movies hit theaters was 2022 thanks to “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($2.3 billion) and “Top Gun: Maverick” ($1.49 billion) joining “Dominion.” In that case, three different studios shared the wealth. In 2024, however, Disney ruled the marketplace with three high-profile sequels. In the case of “Moana 2,” we’re talking about a movie that was originally supposed to be a Disney+ series.

Disney electing to instead send “Moana 2” to theaters was A) a great decision and B) a watershed moment in the ongoing streaming wars. Investing so much money in A-list, direct-to-streaming content may be a thing of the past. By doing this, Disney was able to both reclaim its seat on the throne and give the industry a big boost it sorely needed after a rough start to the year brought on by 2023’s SAG and WGA strikes.

All told, Disney pulled in $5.46 billion globally in 2024, which was the highest total posted by any studio. Of course, that’s still a far cry from the $10 billion seen in 2019, when “Avengers: Endgame” made $2.8 billion and briefly became the biggest movie ever. In total, nine movies crossed the $1 billion mark that year, including “Aladdin” ($1 billion), “Toy Story 4” ($1.073 billion), “Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker” ($1.074 billion), “Joker” ($1.078 billion), “Captain Marvel” ($1.12 billion), “Spider-Man: Far From Home” ($1.13 billion), “Frozen II” ($1.45 billion), and “The Lion King” ($1.65 billion), with seven of those coming directly from Disney.

On the one hand, this illustrates just how far the box office still has to go before we can reach pre-pandemic levels. On the flip side, Disney demonstrated that, with the right movies, people will still happily leave the house and head to a theater. “Inside Out 2,” in particular, became the biggest animated movie ever and helped prove that Pixar’s name still means something. The jury is still out on whether originals from the studio such as “Elio” can deliver the goods, but it’s still nice to see.

To that end, it’s easy to look at the dominance of sequels like “Deadpool & Wolverine” in a glass half empty way. The biggest original movie of 2024 was “IF” ($190 million), and its budget prevented it from being an outright success. Still, it’s all relative. If the success of these sequels can allow movies like “Longlegs” or “Anora” to exist by taking the pressure off them and helping theaters keep the lights on, so be it.

Either way, Disney is demonstrating an ability to be an outright force in the pop culture landscape. With a slate that includes “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Lilo & Stitch,” “Zootopia 2,” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” don’t be surprised to see the Mouse House on top again in 2025.

“Moana 2” is in theaters now.