Will 2017 break the record of most billion dollar films?

GOTG 2 and Beauty and the Beast don't look like billion grossers to me. I think there will be four: Episode 8, Fast 8, Despicable Me 3, and Transformers 5. I am in two minds over Spiderman: Robert Downey Jr is on a tremendous streak since The Avengers but Spiderman has been on a downward spiral for some time. I don't think there is much appetite for yet another reboot so this will be a real test for the MCU brand.

Pirates and transformers seem up in the air right now. Like ice age they were buoyed by increasing international figures for the last two or three installments. A decline seems imminent for these two as domestically they will struggle to reach 200m.

I would expect Chinese growth for both Pirates and Transformers to offset any domestic drop. China has seen 50% growth since the last Transformers so a proportional increase there would see its gross go up by $150 million, so it can possibly afford to drop as much as $250 million in other markets and still crack a billion.

I don't think Justice League is very likely to gross a billion dollars.

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I can see the Chinese gross canceling the domestic decline, but the further international drops maybe not. If it falls any harder than the last release, then not even huge China numbers will save it.

The domestic drop won't be more than the Chinese increase. Let's say it drops a third across the board except for China that would leave the non-Chinese gross at over half a billion. Once you factor in Chinese growth since the last film (50%) that would potentially put the Chinese gross at $450–500 million. So the absolute lower-bound for this seems to be about $950 million, and that is using a particularly harsh assessment i.e. Chinese stagnation continues, the dollar remains strong, international falls off as much domestic etc.

It's worth noting that that this board was full of doom and gloom predictions for the last installment and look how that turned out. The Transformers franchise is always underestimated on box office boards and yet it's one of the most predictable franchises around.

Not saying this next movie or any subsequent sequels will fail to be hugely profitable for years come. I was just qustionting the ability for this to turn into another 1b movie.

I can see it winding up in the high 900's. Anything short of that 50% increase would mean falling short.

Either way it will be interesting To see how a sequel to one of China's biggest outside films will do. As far as I know, FF8 will be the first of the mega-films test the waters. I know China has expanded a lot in the last few years, but I wonder what is the saturation for such huge movies?

The Chinese market for Western films is declining,and studios might not be able to depend on it to save it. And this is without taking in account the devastating impact a trade war between China and the US could have on the box office for US Films. This is why the US film industry is so distrustful of The Donald.