• by Wayne Friedman , July 2, 2019

As national TV media spending for theatrical films grew in the second quarter, U.S. movie box-office results slowed  -- but just barely -- from last year’s record-setting totals.

According to BoxOfficeMojo, U.S. box-office revenues were down 3.8%  — from $3.34 billion to $3.22 billion. (Movie companies pulled in a larger amount in the second quarter of 2018 -- the largest revenue on record for the period.)

There were 349 movies released this year overall, compared to 377 a year ago.

Walt Disney’s “Avengers” series is one major reason, comprising a 26.2% share of this year’s quarterly revenue and a 20.1% share of last year’s second-quarter numbers.

Four of the biggest movies so for this year came from Walt Disney: “Avengers: Endgame” ($841.3 million) released April 26; “Captain Marvel” ($426.8 million), released March 8; “Aladdin” ($305.9 million) released May 24; and “Toy Story 4” ($236.9 million), released this past weekend.

This year’s first-quarter U.S. box-office results were down 12.4% to $1.98 billion versus the first quarter 2018. For the year so far, consumers spent $5.62 billion on U.S. movies in theaters.

Theatrical movie national/regional TV media spending was up 28% to $571.4 million for the quarter from $445.9 a year ago, according to iSpot.tv.

So far, $1.188 billion in TV advertising was spent on theatrical movies for the first six months of the year, virtually identical for the same period a year ago -- $1.176 billion.

This year, Universal spent $197 million; Warner Bros, $123.4 million; 20th Century Fox, $111.7 million; Paramount Pictures, $99.6 million; Lionsgate, $98.8 million; and Walt Disney, $79.1 million.