The entertainment industry is one of the biggest industries in the world, and is currently worth $2 trillion. By 2024, forecasts expect that the industry will be worth $2.5 trillion. It reached its highest value yet in 2019 when it was worth $2.1 trillion, and in the same year, the global entertainment record which consists of box office releases and home releases, recorded revenues of over $100 billion, which is the highest in industry.
The entertainment industry consists of film, radio, print and television. This of course includes box office movies released in tens of thousands of theaters across the world, indie movies, TV shows, radio shows, news, music, newspapers, books, magazines and tons of other mediums. It is a vast world which has permeated every aspect of society and unless you're one of the very few isolated tribes in the world with no contact with civilization (in which case how are you even reading this article!), you are exposed to the entertainment industry in some way or form. Even this article is part of this industry.
The latest entrant into the entertainment industry, disrupting established norms is the streaming industry which has turned entertainment and the notions associated with the industry on its head. From having to wait at the exact time for a show to be aired, and only watching one episode a week of the show, new streaming options have completely changed how we consume entertainment, allowing us to binge watch our favorite shows and movies whenever we want, with no limit on the number of things we get to watch. Netflix was not the first company to come up with streaming, but it was perhaps the first company to bring it to the mainstream and has become one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. We now have HBOGo, Amazon Prime, Hulu and many other streaming services, and television is no longer as coveted as it was. Even as box office cinema has reached new heights, mainly due to the higher cost of admission and the phenomena that is the Marvel universe, actors are actually earning more from their contracts with Netflix. Dwayne Johnson, the highest paid actor in the entire world, was paid $20 million by Netflix to appear in their move Red Notice along with Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. You might want to take a look at 25 best movies on Netflix now.
OTT revenue, which refers to over the top or streaming services, saw around $22.6 billion in revenue, while there was also a decrease of 11.6% in revenue from TV advertising. Meanwhile, digital newspapers are replacing print and have seen a double digit growth of 10.2% year on year. Video games have also seen a boost in revenue of nearly 7%, while box office revenue has fallen by nearly 70%. So what explains all these movements, especially the drastic movement in the fall in box office revenue? Why, the coronavirus pandemic of course, as over 55 million people have been infected and over 1.3 million have died as a result of this disease. Lockdowns across the world have taken place, and cinemas have been seriously affected, as they are considered to be non-essential and have been closed across many countries. Even where restrictions have been lifted, people are afraid to go to cinemas and now that a second wave is affecting most countries across the globe, it seems cinemas will one again be affected. Experts believe that the pandemic has simply accelerated the shifts that are going on from traditional entertainment to digital, and hence we have reached a tipping point which otherwise would still have been years away. Entertainment is now more personal and more digital than ever, as people who were stuck in their homes in lockdowns turned to streaming all their content to while away the time. In fact, people were using Netflix so much that European countries asked Netflix to lower its quality slightly to allow less data to be consumed, which it did.
The biggest entertainment companies in the world are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and earn tens of billions of dollars in revenue. Most of these are engaged in many mediums of the entertainment industry, and provide employment to hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. 5 of the top 10 alone are from the US which has some of the most recognized entertainment companies in the world. For our ranking we considered the market cap of each company at January 1 2020, latest assets, latest revenue and latest profits, giving higher weightage to the former two metrics as they are more relevant to the size of a company. So without further ado, let's take a look at the biggest companies responsible for most of your entertainment needs, starting with number 15:
15. Flutter Entertainment
Total market cap on 1 Jan, 2020 (in billions of dollars): 20.13
Total revenue in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 2.84
Total assets in 2019 (in billions of dollars): N/A
Total net profit in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 148.7
Flutter Entertainment is a major entertainment company engaged in bookmaking and betting, and is headquartered in London, England. The company was only founded four years ago in 2016.
REDPIXEL.PL/Shutterstock.com
14. Tencent Music Entertainment Group
Total market cap on 1 Jan, 2020 (in billions of dollars): 20.51
Total revenue in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 3.65
Total assets in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 7.6
Total net profit in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 665
The company develops music streaming services in China and has 2,400 employees. It is another company founded just in 2016.
Pixabay/Public Domain
13. The Oriental Land Company
Total market cap on 1 Jan, 2020 (in billions of dollars): 45.01
Total revenue in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 4.3
Total assets in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 9.4
Total net profit in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 572.2
The Oriental Land Company is 60 years ago and is engaged in hotel rentals as well as several theme parks, the latter of which is the reason it makes our list.
Total market cap on 1 Jan, 2020 (in billions of dollars): 31.34
Total revenue in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 5.3
Total assets in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 11.2
Total net profit in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 2,800
Electronic Arts is an American video game company which is most famous for Need for Speed, The Sims and Fifa series in addition to many other popular video game series. The company has around 9,300 employees.
Total market cap on 1 Jan, 2020 (in billions of dollars): 45.06
Total revenue in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 6.5
Total assets in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 19.8
Total net profit in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,500
Another American video game company makes our list with Activision Blizzard, which is headquartered in California and has made many beloved games and their series, including World of Warcraft, Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero and Candy Crush Saga.
Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI)
Pixabay/Public Domain
8. Vivendi
Total market cap on 1 Jan, 2020 (in billions of dollars): 34.41
Total revenue in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 17.8
Total assets in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 41.9
Total net profit in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,800
Vivendi is a French giant which is one of the oldest companies in this industry at 166 years old, having been found in 1853. It has over 44,000 employees and is France's biggest entertainment company.
Billion Photos/Shutterstock.com
7. Nintendo
Total market cap on 1 Jan, 2020 (in billions of dollars): 47.55
Total revenue in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 11.2
Total assets in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 17.5
Total net profit in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 2,000
The beloved Japanese company has been responsible for some of the most popular and well known games and games consoles in the world, with the latter including the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo DS and the Wii. It has several subsidiaries as well and has been operating for more than 130 years now.
