Global Box Office and Film Revenue
The global box office in the 2010s was driven by franchise films and international markets. According to The Numbers, the highest-grossing film of the decade was Avengers: Endgame, which earned over $2.79 billion worldwide, followed by Avatar and the re-release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The average ticket price in the United States rose from $7.88 in 2010 to $9.16 by the end of the decade, reflecting inflation and premium format demand. The top-grossing film franchise of the decade was the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with cumulative global box office revenue exceeding $22 billion across 23 films as of 2019. For more on box office data, see The Numbers' decade summary here.
Streaming services fundamentally altered film distribution during the decade. Netflix's annual revenue grew from $2.16 billion in 2010 to $20.16 billion by 2019, while its global paid subscriber count reached 167 million by the fourth quarter of 2019. Disney launched Disney+ in November 2019, reaching 26.5 million subscribers within the first week. The average theatrical window between a film's premiere and its home entertainment release shortened from 90 days in 2010 to as low as 17 days for some titles by 2019. For more on streaming revenue, see Netflix's 2019 annual report here.
Music Industry Revenue and Streaming
Global recorded music revenue grew from $15.7 billion in 2010 to $21.6 billion in 2019, driven almost entirely by streaming. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), streaming accounted for 56.1% of global recorded music revenue in 2019, up from 0.1% in 2010. Spotify launched in 2008 and reached 207 million monthly active users by the end of 2019, while Apple Music surpassed 60 million subscribers by 2019. The top-selling artist of the decade in the United States was Drake, according to Luminate (formerly Nielsen Music) year-end reports, with over 170 million equivalent units consumed across albums and tracks.
Live music revenue also expanded significantly during the decade. Pollstar's Year-End Top 100 Worldwide Tours list shows that the top-grossing tour of the decade was Ed Sheeran's ÷ Tour, which earned over $775 million from 2017 to 2019. The average ticket price for the top 100 tours in the United States rose from $61.79 in 2010 to $83.14 in 2019. For more on tour revenue data, see Pollstar's industry reports here.
Social Media and Digital Culture
Social media platforms became the primary driver of pop culture conversation and commerce during the 2010s. Facebook's monthly active users grew from 609 million in January 2010 to 2.45 billion by the end of 2019. Instagram launched in 2010 with zero users and reached 1 billion monthly active users by September 2018, while TikTok (launched internationally as Douyin in 2