With an estimated $1.054 billion in domestic box office already in its coffers, Paramount has the No. 1 position locked up. Nobody's going to catch them in the market share race for 2008, especially when the studio has two more sure bets to gross at least $100 million due in the next six months. First comes the much buzzed-about DreamWorks comedy Tropic Thunder in August, featuring another standout Robert Downey Jr. performance, as well as a scene-stealing turn by Tom Cruise. (Ben Stiller and Jack Black are in the movie, too, but who's really talking about them?) Then comes Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, also from DreamWorks, in November. To date, I am hearing very positive reports there as well.

Paramount is likely to exceed the $1.49 billion in domestic box office it generated last year, and they have an outside shot at surpassing the all-time record of $1.71 billion generated by Sony in 2006. To do it, the studio would need Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa to be huge, and would have to get some help from Eagle Eye, DreamWorks's D.J. Caruso/Shia LeBeouf reteaming, in September; David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in December; and perhaps Joe Wright's follow-up to Atonement, The Soloist, starring Robert Downey Jr. (again), Jamie Foxx and Catherine Keener. That one's expected sometime this fall, and should generate plenty of Oscar buzz.

The battle is on for the year's No. 2 spot, which 20th Century Fox now holds with almost $650 million domestic. Horton Hears a Who ($154 million domestic) has led the way for 20th Century Fox, and the rest of the studio's year has been comprised of solid mid-range hits like 27 Dresses, starring Katherine Heigl ($76.8 million), Doug Liman's Jumper ($80.15 million) and the Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz vehicle What Happens in Vegas ($79 million). Fox has even managed to wring about $60 million out of M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening so far.

Meet Dave, starring Eddie Murphy, is Fox's next release with director Brian Robbins trying to recapture the box office glory of Norbit ($95.6 million domestic). If Murphy scores, then Fox will have a leg up on the competition for the year-end second-best market share, although they follow with the animated Space Chimps on July 18, and the long awaited X-Files sequel on July 25, both of which are viewed as being something less than sure things. The studio's late-year breakout hit candidates include Bill Murray and Tim Robbins in the futuristic City of Ember in October, Baz Luhrman's highly anticipated Australia at Thanksgiving, a remake of 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still (featuring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu) in early December and Marley & Me, based on John Grogan's bestselling memoir and starring Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson, at Christmas.

The surest blockbuster in the second half of 2008 is, without question, The Dark Knight. With $200 million all but assured for the Christopher Nolan sequel and Get Smart a safe bet to exceed $100 million, Warner Bros. will have three $100 million films (Sex and the City is the third) and one near miss with Roland Emmerich's 10,000 B.C., which topped out at $95 million domestic. The studio is currently No. 3 in market share with an estimated $505 million in U.S. theatres.

When you consider that Warner Bros. still has Star Wars: The Clone Wars due in August, as well as Diane Lane and Richard Gere's Nights in Rodanthe in September and Ridley Scott's House of Lies — based on the excellent David Ignatius CIA thriller Body of Lies and starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio — in October, all of it falling before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at Thanksgiving, Warner Bros. is probably the betting favorite to be 2008's No. 2 studio.

With $472 million banked so far in 2008, you can't count Sony out of the battle for second place. Although Hancock will be the studio's first $100 million movie of 2008, it certainly won't be their last. The year has featured three solid box office successes with You Don't Mess With The Zohan ($91.67 million so far), 21 ($81.15 million) and Vantage Point ($72.26 million), and the Will Smith superhero film, which opens tonight, is a sure thing.

Four major blockbusters loom for Sony starting with Step Brothers, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, on July 25, followed by David Gordon Green's The Pineapple Express, which will compete with Tropic Thunder to be the biggest hit of August. (James Franco, who plays a hilarious stoner, could be one of the breakout stars of the year.) The studio will finish the year with its newest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace and Will Smith in the Oscar-friendly-but-still-commercial Seven Pounds.

Universal is currently No. 6, with $447 million domestic, but the year is heating up for them. Although Marvel Studios's The Incredible Hulk appears to have stalled out and will finish its domestic run with less than Ang Lee's version from five years ago, it still should reach about $130 million. Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, is just beginning what should be a healthy run well above $100 million. The studio follows next Friday with Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a Guillermo Del Toro sequel to his wildly original 2004 movie Hellboy. The franchise starter generated a domestic gross of only  $59.62 million, but the movie found new fans on DVD and cable, and Del Toro had a few more dollars to play with this time. If Universal connects with HBII, a string of five $100 million-grossing films is not out of the question because both Mamma Mia! and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor are good bets to pass that magical threshold.

The end of the year for Universal features a few Oscar contenders, including Flash of Genius and Nixon/Frost, an important prestige film with both Oscar pedigree and some box office upside, Clint Eastwood's Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, and the animated The Tale of Despereaux.

Disney's biggest 2008 hit to-date is The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian with an underwhelming $138 million to date, but WALL-E, after a $60 million opening weekend, is a game-changer, with $250 million domestic not out of the question. Disney has generated a total of $475 million domestic so far, but its only remaining titles that show blockbuster potential are High School Musical 3 in October, the animated Bolt in November and Adam Sandler's Christmas comedy Bedtime Stories. Because of its strictly limited number of releases, Disney is unlikely to compete for the No. 2 market share in '08.

Among the five studios profiled above, I consider Warner Bros. to be the favorite to finish the year with the second-best market share with odds of 5/2. Sony is the next best bet at 7/2 followed by Fox at 6/1, Universal a live underdog at 8/1 and Disney 15/1.