MUMBAI: The North American box office crossed the $11 billion benchmark for the year on 29 December, 2015, making 2015 the highest-earning year at the North American box office in movie history, according to Rentrak.

A wide assortment of movies brought enthusiastic patrons to movie theaters across the US throughout the year, giving the industry its biggest overall revenue in North American box office history, with a total of $11.1 billion projected for the calendar year through 31 December. The previous record was set in 2013, which brought in $10.919 billion to the North American box office at year-end.

“Hollywood built the perfect box office beast in 2015, with one hit movie after the next, week after week, exceeding expectations with a regularity that made it look easy. With records falling like dominoes, the revenues just kept building as audiences flooded multiplexes in huge numbers. A diverse and compelling selection of great titles, big and small, from every studio fuelled an extraordinary level of interest by patrons who seemingly could not get enough of the big screen experience in 2015,” said Rentrak senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Many notable records fell this year, with virtually every month posting a new benchmark for North American box office revenue. The year's records included: the biggest January weekend gross with American Sniper, the biggest February opening weekend with Fifty Shades Of Grey, the biggest April opening weekend with Furious 7, the best June opening weekend with Jurassic World, the biggest September debut with Hotel Transylvania 2, and December's Star Wars: The Force Awakens taking over the top spot for all-time opening weekend.

Below is a list of the top 10 highest-earning years at the North American box office: