With more and more of us relying on tablets, smart TV’s and phones as our access point for films it is surprising the big screen is still breaking records and producing bigger and more expensive films year on year with 2018 being no different and blowing some previous box office takings out of the water.
Here are the years 10 top grossing films with a few surprise entries and also a few surprises in those that missed the list.
- Avengers Infinity War
Production Budget: $300 million
Global Box Office: $2.04 billion
Avengers Infinity War part one came with a hefty price tag, but it actually isn’t the most expensive movie ever made.
The blockbuster stormed the box office, more than covering its cost. It opened to $257.6 million in April, breaking the record previously set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($247.9 million).
To give you some context, it made in its opening weekend more than Justice League’s whole domestic run.
Infinity War became the fourth movie ever to cross the $2 billion mark.
Disney must be loving it…it earned $7 billion worldwide overall (not just Avengers), now that’s quite some pocket money.
- Black Panther
Production budget: $210 million
Global box office: $1.3 billion
Black Panther was big news in more than one way, it was the first superhero movie with a predominantly black cast, as well as having a black director in Ryan Coogler. It was held up as a great step in the movie world when it comes to diversity and cultural representation, which paid off for Disney/Marvel as the movie raked in $202 million on its opening weekend making it the sixth biggest in Hollywood history.
It didn’t stop there either, Black Panther took in $700 million domestically, the third biggest US gross taking, behind Avatar at $760 million and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, $936 milion. In America it also earned more than Avengers Infinity War – $20 million more to be exact.
Abroad Black Panther didn’t quite reach such dizzying heights, taking in $647 million outside the US, but it still surged past it’s other Marvel friends, such as Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy.
3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Production Budget:
Global Box Office: $1.3 billion
his is a bit of a weird one, critics weren’t very keen on Jurassic World and from most audiences’ reactions neither were they. Does it deserve its spot? Well, it’s not for us to judge when it comes to the highest-grossing list, we’ll save that for our best movies ranked.
Universal must be pleased with its takings anyway, and it should pat itself on the back for ranking among the top three studios without releasing a single superhero franchise.
4. Incredibles 2
Production budget: $200 million
Global box office: $1.24 billion
Disney makes another appearance in the top ten with Incredibles 2. The highly anticipated follow up to the 2004 family friendly superhero animation was always going to do well, but the sequel set a record for the biggest animated opening ever taking in $182.6 million.
While most movies do about 35 per cent of their takings in the US, and 65 abroad, Incredibles decided to prove that all wrong. It did amazingly abroad giving it a 50/50 rough split. All of that definitely helped it topple over that $1 billion mark.
5. Venom
Production Budget: $100 million
Global Box Office: $853 million
A bit of a perplexing entry again with Venom coming in at number five. Venom was panned by a lot of critics and looked set to bomb, so it’s surprising to see it so far up, but then again it does have Tom Hardy.
Venom has managed to fight it’s way past other 2018 successes, setting an all-time October opening record, as it made $80 million in its first weekend. China also took it under its wing, where it earned $260.5 million boosting it to $633 million out of the US.
Considering Venom isn’t MCU and got bad reviews that isn’t bad at all – and there’s a sequel on the way…
6. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Production Budget: $178 million
Global Box Office: $787.49 million
Of course Ethan Hunt made the list. Any return by the agent that has kept the action franchise running for so long is bound to make an entry on the highest-grossing movies of the year.
The movie also set a franchise record at the box office before it even made it to the big screen. The movie’s opening takings came in just more than $61 million, then it went on to take more than $220 million in the US. It was a grower.
7. Deadpool 2
Production budget: $110 million
Global box office: $737.7 million
Deadpool’s return to the big screen wasn’t quite as a money maker as the first movie (which made $738 million), but it still smashed it. When you consider it was a R-rated movie, cutting down who could actually see it at the cinema, Deadpool 2 didn’t do too badly.
Deadpool 2’s takings – $318.5 million – make it the fifth highest grossing movie of the year in America. There’s also no sign of Disney taking away that R-Rating, with CEO Bog Iger promising it’s here to stay when Disney take over Fox
8. Ant-Man and the Wasp
Production budget: $162 million
Global box office: $621.9 million
This slow starter was on the face of it a ‘flop’ by MCU. Fans weren’t kind at first, but it just took a little time to build up.
It’s also a bit unfair comparing it to the other MCU movies, when you look at it compared to the other releases it’s actually done rather well.
Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly’s movie did particularly well in China where it took $121 million, it also took in $40 million more in the USA than the first movie.
The post-credits scene probably helped – it looked ahead to Avengers: Endgame…
9. Bohemian Rhapsody
Production budget: $52 million
Global box office: $602.2 million
It took ten years to get Bohemian Rhapsody to the big screen, with plenty of drama behind-the-scenes. It also opened to mixed reviews, with critics slating the timeline and how it dealt with Mercury’s sexuality, though Rami Malek’s performance was praised.
The Queen biopic has gone on to break records, becoming the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time, not just in the US, but worldwide.
We nearly ended up with a very different movie, with Sacha Baron Cohen starring as the band’s frontmate, but he left the project over artistic differences. What might of been ey?
10. Ready Player One
Production budget: $175 million
Global box office: $578.6 million
Steven Spielberg returned with Ready Player one, the adaptation of the book of the same name. Coming off the back of BFG (2016), which ended up being his worst commercial movie ever and The Post, which also struggled, this was a good strong movie at the box office.
The Easter egg packed movie may have been met with mixed reviews, but fans took it under their wing thanks to its geeky references and a strong performance from Olivia Cooke.
Warner Bros probably expected a bit more from it, but Ready Player One took in $137 million domestically, which isn’t to be sniffed at.
2018 box office records
The Marvel Cinematic Universe became the first film franchise to gross more than $14 billion with the release of Black Panther, and the first franchise to release five billion-dollar-grossing films (with Black Panther joining The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War). Two months later, the MCU became the first film franchise to gross more than $15 billion and $16 billion with the release of Avengers: Infinity War, which became the sixth billion-dollar-grossing film in the franchise, and also the first film in the franchise to earn $2 billion; and the MCU also became the first film franchise with two billion-dollar-grossing films released in the same year (with Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War). Two months after that, the MCU became the first film franchise to gross over $17 billion with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp.
China set an all-time biggest global one-month record in February with CN¥10.14 billion ($1.6 billion), calculating revenues from both local and foreign films. The record-breaking number was largely attributed to the Lunar New Year holiday. The previous global monthly box office record was set in July 2011 in North America with $1.395 billion and the previous highest-grossing month in China was August 2017 with CN¥7.38 billion ($1.17 billion). The highest-grossing films in China during the month were the domestic films Operation Red Sea, Monster Hunt 2, and Detective Chinatown 2, and the Indian film Secret Superstar.
For the first time in history, February recorded $1 billion ticket sales in North America, fuelled largely by the success of Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther which represented 43% or $428.8 million of the entire month’s ticket sales. The previous February record was in 2012 with $818.4 million.
In China, the combined opening weekend numbers of Monster Hunt 2 ($190 million), Detective Chinatown 2 ($154 million), The Monkey King 3 ($79.9 million), Operation Red Sea ($70.3 million) and Boonie Bears: The Big Shrink ($40.9 million) amounted to a record breaking CN¥3.21 billion ($506 million) or $543 million weekend with online ticket sales, which is more than double the feat achieved in 2017 ($205 million) and 2016 ($224 million) during the same time period. The previous weekend record was set in North America during the weekend of December 18–20, 2017, when the combined grosses of several films resulted in $306 million led by Star Wars: The Force Awaking’s $248 million debut.
The same weekend, China also set a new IMAX opening record when the combined IMAX earnings of the three films recorded $15.1 million, led by Monster Hunt 2 and Detective Chinatown 2 ($6.7 million).
During the first quarter of 2018, China overtook North America as the world’s largest box office market for the first time, with China grossing $3.17 billion compared to North America’s $2.89 billion during that quarter. Despite declining revenue from Hollywood films, Chinese box office growth was driven primarily by domestic Chinese films, led by Operation Red Sea and Detective Chinatown 2, along with non-Hollywood foreign films, led by Indian Bollywood films Secret Superstar and Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
Source Wikipedia
