After years of starts and stops at the box office, Disney appears to have hit a groove in 2024.

Its latest Pixar film, “Inside Out 2,” is now the highest-grossing animated film of all time, topping $1.5 billion at the global box office. Its first R-rated Marvel Cinematic Universe flick — “Deadpool & Wolverine” —broke opening weekend records for an R-rated film and is set to surpass the $1 billion mark before the end of its run.

And the box office hits aren’t expected to stop there.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the studio is set to release “Moana 2,” the hotly anticipated sequel to 2016’s “Moana.” While the first film generated a little less than $700 million at the global box office, audience fervor for more “Moana” content is expected to drive high ticket sales in November. After all, it was the most streamed film of 2023.

Disney has already seen success from its animated franchises this year, as “Inside Out 2” has generated nearly double the $850 million its predecessor secured in 2015.

“The billion-dollar club, while growing ever less exclusive with each passing year, is no less a remarkable achievement for any film to join its ranks, particularly when one studio has the potential to land a trifecta of such hits for film released in the same year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Such is the enviable position that Disney, after a fallow post-Pandemic period has returned to glory with a vengeance. They are in the midst of phenomenal comeback year for the studio.”

A wild card for the studio is December’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” a prequel to 2019’s “The Lion King.” While its predecessor generated $1.6 billion at the global box office, more than $1.1 billion of which came from international audiences, it’s unclear what appetite moviegoers have for this photorealistically animated sequel.

Disney has long been a box office champion, driving significant ticket sales domestically and globally. While its theatrical business is a relatively small part of its overall annual revenues, its a large part of Disney’s wider strategy. The company uses its theatrical successes across many of its other departments. Franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, Avatar and Pixar have transcended the big screen to become popular theme park lands and TV shows, and characters from those films appear on merchandise.

Disney’s recent box office rut came at a time when its theme parks were growing rapidly and generating enough revenue to balance out other pieces of the business that were less successful or still in the process of becoming profitable, like streaming platform Disney+. However, in the most recent quarter, Disney parks and experiences segment felt pressure due to lower consumer demand and inflation.

Having its theatrical business return to form is key for Disney because of how it can fuel other areas of the business.

Disney churns out more billion-dollar hits than anyone in the business. Of the 53 titles that have achieved this feat at the box office, more than half, or 27, have been under the Disney banner, according to data from Comscore.

Two of those films — 2009’s “Avatar” and 1997’s “Titanic” — were produced by 21st Century Fox prior to the 2019 merger of the two companies, but are considered part of Disney’s collection of billion-dollar features. Additionally, two Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man films that were co-produced by Disney and Sony topped $1 billion. However, those are not included in Disney’s haul because they were distributed by Sony.

In the year before the pandemic, Disney had seven theatrical releases top $1 billion at the box office. However, theater closures and production shutdowns, coupled with a creative team that was stretched too thin, led to a cinematic slump for the company in recent years.

Audiences and critics bemoaned Disney’s push for quantity, which sacrificed quality in major franchises. The company was also criticized for allowing some of its content to become too focused on social messages.

While “Avatar: The Way of Water” became one of the top all-time box-office hits in 2022, and several Marvel features topped $800 million in global ticket sales, Disney also saw some of its lowest animated feature hauls in decades and its lowest-ever MCU release.

Disney and Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” has secured $38.5 million in Thursday previews and is on pace for a domestic debut north of $150 million, which would be a record for an R-rated film.

The latest entrant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most anticipated releases of 2024 and the first R-rated film in the comic book franchise. The preview haul was the eighth largest ever, and the highest for an R-rated release.

“Thursday previews have become an integral part of the release strategy for most major studio releases,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Thursday previews not only provide early access to eager fans who can’t wait to see the latest blockbuster on the big screen ahead of their official debut, but also provide a key indicator of the potential opening weekend box office to the studios, analysts and journalists alike.”

Blockbuster comic book and franchise films often see significantly higher Thursday night ticket sales, as fans seek to see the film early on its opening weekend to avoid spoilers. Thursday night preview numbers are folded into Friday’s box office haul and calculated as part of a film’s three-day opening weekend.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is expected to tally between $160 million and $180 million at the domestic box office during its debut.

This haul would mark the highest opening weekend for a film in 2024 and the biggest debut of an R-rated film ever.

“Deadpool and Wolverine” is the 34th film to be released under the MCU banner and the first to garner an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association. The previous two Deadpool films, both rated R, were produced and released through 20th Century Fox. Disney acquired the company in 2019, bringing the X-Men and Fantastic Four back into the larger Marvel portfolio.

Movie theater operators told CNBC they do not expect the R-rating to deter moviegoers. In fact, it is likely a selling point for the film.

“‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ might prove to be a jack of all trades for Disney and Marvel after the studios eased off the gas pedal with fewer releases across theatrical and streaming recently,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory. “That may be parlayed into renewed interest for this next event-level story, which also isn’t meant to be a film requiring homework for the casual or uninitiated.”

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is the first MCU film to be released since November of last year and will be the only 2024 release from Marvel Studios. Currently, there are four MCU releases slated for 2025, one for 2026 and one for 2027.

However, Marvel is set to present a panel at this weekend’s San Diego Comic Con and during Disney’s D23 Expo in August, so the calendar could be altered. Changes could come after the firing of Kang actor Jonathan Majors — who was set to play the major villain in the coming sequence of films — and production delays caused by last year’s actors and writers strikes.