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by Julia Pierrepont III

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Blowing past all previous box office records, the Mouse House smashed its own record of 7.61 billion U.S. dollars back in July and has been on afterburner thrusters ever since.

Seemingly an unstoppable entertainment juggernaut, Disney has already powered past a world cume milestone of 10 billion U.S. dollars for 2019 for its home-grown films and toward 11.94 billion dollars with the Fox titles added, which are now under Disney's banner. This gives Disney a lock on nearly 40 percent of the U.S. domestic market.

Disney's staggering box office numbers are a world first and a record that could take eons to break, giving them bragging rights for years to come.

"Disney is the one to beat," Hollywood entertainment attorney, Randy Mendelsohn, explained to Xinhua. "And that won't happen anytime soon."

Disney's dominance is in large part due to the vision and business acumen of soon-to-be-retiring Chairman and CEO Bob Iger, who has been quietly implementing his own well-thought out, strategic 10-year plan of savvy acquisitions of innovative, content-heavy companies like Pixar, LucasFilm and 20th Century Fox.

Ten years ago, Disney was an "also ran" who, until as recently as five years ago, consistently finished in the middle of the pack amongst the Hollywood Big 6 studios.

Now, stampeding toward 2020, Disney is powering across the New Year finish line and into business history with a record breaking six films being inducted into coveted Billion Dollar Club in a single year: superhero film "Avengers: Endgame" (2.8 billion dollars and the highest-grossing film in history), photo-realistic animation movie "The Lion King" (1.7 billion dollars), the female-driven superhero film "Captain Marvel" (1.1 billion dollars), animated comedy film "Toy Story 4" (1.07 billion dollars), musical fantasy film "Aladdin" (1.05 billion dollars), plus animated musical fantasy film "Frozen II," which was released less than four weeks ago, yet has already passed the 1-billion-dollar mark and is still going strong. "Frozen 2" is also already the seventh largest animated film of all time.

And newcomer, J.J. Abrams' latest Star Wars reboot installment, "Star Wars: The Rise of Luke Skywalker," which opened on Dec. 20, is on track to pull in a massive 195 million dollars domestically this weekend. Even though the Star Wars franchise has fared far less well under Disney's curatorship, Abrams may be able to redeem the final chapter in the nine-film tale with a billion-dollar run as well.

Disney's dominance can be attributed to its pirate's treasure chest chock full of killer content and powerhouse franchises, which include some of the most successful IP in the world, and the strength of each of Disney's subsidiaries, as envisioned by Iger.

It's no accident that Disney's 2019 feature film release slate consisted entirely of sequels and live-action remakes, with the exception of "Captain Marvel," which benefitted heavily from its Marvel brand.

Each Disney subsidiary pulled its weight to contribute a billion dollars or more of their own branded global IP to Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Distribution record-breaking success this year.

Marvel Studios mustered out "Captain Marvel" and "Avengers: Endgame;" LucasFilm blasted off with "Star Wars: The Rise of Luke Skywalker;" while Walt Disney Pictures conjured up "Aladdin" and "The Lion King" from its robust film catalogue.

And it didn't stop there. Walt Disney Animation Studios frosted the competition with big-ticket blockbusters, "Frozen II" and family favorite, "Incredibles 2," while animation innovator, Pixar, spread some joy with "Toy Story 4."

Disney's 2019 record-breaking cache of gold doesn't even count their massive TV revenues, theme park business, or their newly-minted Disney+ streaming service that is has already captured 24 million subscribers in just over a month since launch, with such popular hits as Favreau's "The Mandalorian" from the Star Wars universe.

Todd Supplee, Partner of PwC's Media and Entertainment Consulting Division, told Xinhua at a recent Variety Innovation Summit, "There is a battle for consumers' attention on steaming platforms. More than 50 percent will terminate their service to get another one."

As Disney shifts it future focus toward its cash cow, Disney+, it will be interesting to see this results in fewer tentpole theatrical releases in favor of funneling more resources into feeding the rapacious Disney+ pipeline.

"Viewers on Disney+ know what they are after," Michael Cerda, VP of Product at Disney+ told Xinhua. "If you have half an hour, you can watch a Pixar short like 'Bao,' it's right there for you. If you have more time, you can go into the whole wide world of Disney, Pixar, Nat Geo, etc." Enditem