For the first time ever, the worldwide box office crossed the $38B mark in 2015. The record-setting year globally comes at the same time as the domestic box office hit a new high of $11.01B. And, as China ended 2015 with a 48.7% year-on-year increase to $6.77B. Rentrak reports that it culled data from more than 125K screens in over 25K theaters around the world to arrive at a total of $38B+ projected for the industry’s biggest worldwide revenue ever. The final tally will come in around mid-January. Last year was also a record at $36.7B.

With about $27B coming from offshore territories, Rentrak’s Senior Media Analyst, Paul Dergarabedian says, “The importance of the international marketplace to the overall success of the motion picture studios, the exhibition business and the movies themselves cannot be overstated, with key territories across the globe plus North America providing the collective horsepower to push us near the $40 billion mark for the first time ever.”

Adds Dergarabedian, “This global record proves that going to the movies is a beloved pastime that is enjoyed throughout the world, with moviegoers from a wide array of backgrounds and cultures all coming together for the shared in-theater experience.” It’s also notable that dollar tallies are on the rise despite currency fluctuations in some major markets.

Movies that hit globally this year for the studios included tentpoles Jurassic World ($1.67B global), Furious 7 $1.515B), Avengers: Age Of Ultron ($1.405B), Minions ($1.16B) and, more recently, Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($1.33B as of December 31). Four of those films are now among the all-time Top 10 biggest grossers worldwide (SWTFA pushed Minions out just as the year ended).

While three of this year’s Top 5 came from Universal and two from Disney, other top studio titles included Sony’s Spectre ($852M); Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation ($682.3M); Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 ($636M); Fox’s The Martian ($596M) and Warner Bros’ San Andreas ($474M).

Also included in the global $38B+ tally were the megahits out of China like Monster Hunt, Lost In Hong Kong and Goodbye Mr Loser which each made upwards of $225M in their home territory.