What Movie Should You Bet on to Make the Most Money in 2019?

Richie Delaney

February 5th, 2019

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Quick Tips:

• Avengers: Endgame to Become the Highest Grossing Film of All Time - 9/2 at Betway
• Spider-Man: Far From Home to Make More Money in it's First Week than Spider-Man: Homecoming - 4/6 at Betway
• Wonder Woman 1984 to Make Less Money in it's First Week Than Wonder Woman - EVS at Betway

Mega movie franchises like The Avengers, Toy Story and Star Wars each have an upcoming release in 2019.

These major titles will likely draw millions of movie-lovers to their local theatre for an overpriced bag of popcorn and a sticky armrest. Last year saw the most amount of tickets for the cinema sold (in the UK and Ireland) in over 6 years and total box office revenue worldwide amounted to over $12bn.

So, what does this have to do with betting?

Well, the fact that so many mammoth movies are being released in 2019 has gotten the best specials bookies thinking - will James Cameron's Avatar finally get knocked off the top of the highest-grossing list?

Avengers to Dethrone Avatar in 2019

This year, the 'Major 6' movie studios - Warner Bros, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Universal - will release 94 movies between them. This is 9 more than in 2018, potentially setting the stage for Avatar to lose it's crown and a new king to emerge in the realm of movie money making.

Specials betting fans can look to take advantage of this.

With Avatar at a worldwide theatrical gross of $2,787,965,087 it's a tough ask - but the wide selection of major franchise films being released in 2019 makes it more likely; the release of Avengers: Endgame, the final film in the superhero series, looking particularly enticing.

Keep in mind that it's prequel Avengers: Infinity War, which you can bet on to win an Oscar, is the 4th highest-grossing film of all time at $2.05bn. It finished on a major cliffhanger too. This is going to make it all but necessary for loyal Marvel fans to take in the Endgame premiere at their local picture house.

You can back any movie of 2019 to be the highest grossing of all time at 5/2 with Betway - not a bad price all things considered - but we'd like to take it one step further. Take the 5/2 and couple it up with the same bookie's 9/2 on Avengers: Endgame beating out Avatar and claiming the top spot.

Will at Least One Movie Gross $1bn or More in 2019?

Here's a list of movies you can bet on being the highest grossing this year at the UK box office, with odds provided by Betway. We've highlighted movies where the prequel topped $1bn:

• Avengers: Endgame - 11/8
• Star Wars: Episode IX - 6/4
• Toy Story 4 - 5/1
• The Lion King (topped $1bn accounting for inflation) - 11/2
• Frozen 2 - 8/1
• Wonder Woman 1984 - 20/1
• Spider-Man: Far From Home - 22/1
• Hobbs and Shaw - 25/1
• Captain Marvel - 33/1
• Aladdin - 50/1
• Shazam! - 50/1

Betway also lists 10/1 that 'no movie in 2019 will gross $1bn or more at the box office', a bet we really don't like the look of. You can probably tell why from the above list.

Only 39 films in history have managed to gross $1bn or more - but it's happening more often nowadays. In fact, 79% of those 39 films were released during or after the year 2010.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi took in $1.33bn in 2017 and next in line Star Wars: Episode IX, set for release in December, is widely expected to do much the same or better. Toy Story 3 took in $1.06bn in 2010, so it's reasonable to expect that Toy Story 4, due in early summer, will do a similar number too.

We can apply the similar logic to other movies coming out this year; take the live action version of the Lion King for example. It soared to $966m in gross revenue back when it was released in 1994. Accounting for inflation that's over $1.5bn in today's money, and it's not unrealistic to assume that nostalgia-chasers will turn up in droves to see a real-life Mufasa.

Other 2019 Movie Betting Options

Back Spider-Man: Far From Home to take more money in than the first week of its predecessor Homecoming at the US Box Office. It's due for release after Endgame (the films are set in the same fictional universe), so Marvel-fans will probably be craving a fix. Who better to deliver it than Tom Holland!? Back the 4/6 available on this option now at Betway.

You could also double your money with a wager on Wonder Woman 1984 failing to take in more than the first Gal Gadot led Wonder Woman flick, which was released in 2017. It's often difficult to predict how a sequel will perform, but 2019 looks superhero saturated and we think, regardless of how the critics rate it, this one is set to miss the mark financially. Take the 1/1 at Betway.