It doesn’t seem like a major accomplishment for a movie to surpass $1 billion at the box office anymore. Before The Dark Knight was released in the summer of 2008, there were only three movies to reach that milestone: Titanic, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Now the list contains ten films.
Avatar – I’m not sure if this comes as a surprise because I had no idea how people would accept a fully computer generated film. I knew the movie would make money because James Cameron had taken a 12 year hiatus from the movie industry in order to work on the film, and it promised a great experience. No one probably expected it to make $2.7 billion worldwide, and no movie will even have a chance of beating it until Avatar 2 is released.
Titanic – I really don’t see why Titanic was so incredibly popular. Everyone knew about the sinking ship, but what made it better than all the movies back in the 1990s? I read in a demographic novel that it was helped by girls who had seen the movie countless times just because of Leonardo DiCaprio, but it still seemed like a random film to be the first to reach $1 billion.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – This one is not a surprise because all of the other films had made close to $1 billion and besides being the last chapter in the series, it was helped by its post conversion to 3D which boosted ticket prices.
Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King – Again, the previous parts had made hefty amounts at the box office and this was the concluding chapter. It was praised by critics and was greatly successful overseas.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – The first movie was spectacular and the trailers for the second movie looked even more promising, so it’s not a surprise that it set a record opening weekend back when it was released. However, and most people will agree, the movie is nowhere near as good as the first and was not deserving of its $1 billion gross, which at the time made it only the third movie to ever cross that milestone.
Toy Story 3 – Over a decade wait for the incredible sequel to a beloved franchise, Toy Story 3 was one of the best movies of 2010. One of Pixar’s best films, it received fantastic scores from critics and made many shed a few tears at the end of it. Of course, the higher 3D ticket prices were the reason it was able to cross $1 billion.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – The third film in the series was received better than the second film by the majority of its fans. It was also in 3D, so it’s not surprising that it was able to surpass the $1 billion mark, even though I thought it would be unlikely, considering how bad the second movie was.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – Its immense popularity overseas helped it cross $1 billion. It did not perform as well domestically as the other Pirates films did, nor was it very good in my opinion, but nonetheless, the foreign demand was enough.
Alice in Wonderland – This movie is probably the most undeserving movie to cross $1 billion. It only reached that mark because everyone knows the old cartoon and it was helped by Johnny Depp’s involvement. Once again, as with most of these movies, it was in 3D.
The Dark Knight – This might have been the most hyped up movie of all time in North America. You know it was going to have a stellar opening weekend and the fact that critics loved it meant that it wouldn’t fall off as fast as most other movies that gross large amounts. It wasn’t in 3D, and it didn’t perform as well internationally as the other billion dollar films (it made more domestically than internationally, while all the other films made about twice as much overseas). It’s an amazing feat since Batman Begins didn’t even make $400 million worldwide.
So is it still a great accomplishment for a movie to make $1 billion at the box office? I believe it is. People won’t make such a big deal out of it anymore because there are enough movies that have crossed that milestone, but it’s still a very small percentage of all the films that are released. And more and more films are being made in 3D or being post converted to 3D to boost ticket prices and earn more at the box office. There have already been three films this year that have made $1 billion: Harry Potter, Transformers, and Pirates of the Caribbean. In terms of quality, only the first one was deserving of its box office gross, in my opinion, but all three films were in 3D and were more successful because of it.
There probably won’t be any more films to cross $1 billion at the box office this year. But you can bet there will be one in 2012. Most probably the next new (not a re-release) movie to cross $1 billion will be The Dark Knight Rises. I doubt it will be as successful domestically as its prequel was, partly because the second film was hyped up with Heath Ledger’s death and performance in the film. However, it will definitely be more successful internationally, as Chris Nolan has become even more popular with his latest film, Inception, which amassed over half a billion dollars overseas. That is more than The Dark Knight grossed, and both movies were in 2D. The Dark Knight Rises will also be in 2D, thankfully, but its popularity will definitely help it become the second movie in the series to make $1 billion at the box office.
The Lion King will be re-released in 3D in September, but only for a period of two weeks, so there’s really not much of a chance of it making the $200+ million it needs to cross $1 billion. Another animated release for this year is Puss in Boots, a spinoff from the Shrek movies. Shrek was extremely popular, and Puss was a terrific character, so it’s safe to assume the film will make its fair share of revenue. However, I wouldn’t expect it to come near to $1 billion since none of the Shrek movies succeeded in reaching that milestone and spinoffs generally tend to make less money.
The first part of the final chapter in the Twilight series is being released late this year. You can expect it to have a huge opening weekend, again, just like its predecessors, but it’ll make the majority of its gross in that first weekend. Twilight fans usually rush to see in its first weekend, and therefore, subsequent weekends have substantially less viewers. It won’t reach $1 billion, but it will still make a huge amount at the box office.
I can’t wait for December of this year. I’ll be seeing at least three of its films, if not four. The first major release is Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The first film was fairly well received and grossed more than half a billion dollars worldwide. Assuming the second movie will be around the same quality as the first film or perhaps even better, you can expect it to cross $600 million worldwide. The weekend after that sees the release of two big films – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been a best seller for a long time and is popular both in North America and internationally. Expect it to gross close to half a billion dollars worldwide. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol already looks promising from its first trailer, and the addition of Jeremy Renner to the series will increase its popularity even more. It’ll probably also gross around half a billion dollars. The last big film to be released in December is The Adventures of Tintin. Thankfully, they changed the name from The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, as they realized that it probably sounded too childish and would lose them popularity. It will be a 3D release, and Tintin is much more popular in Europe than it is in North America, so if it can rack up close to $200 million domestically, which it should, it will come pretty close to that $1 billion mark worldwide. We’ll have to wait and see.
The year 2012 is when we’ll probably have our next billion dollar movie. By the end of February, there will already be another movie in that list. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is being re-released in 3D and its box office total stands at $924 million during its theatrical run. I believe there will be enough demand to push it to $1 billion and make it become just the 11th movie of all time to cross that milestone. The fact that it will be in 3D will also help generate greater revenue. George Lucas is planning on re-releasing every single Star Wars film in 3D, one year after the other, so don’t be surprised if you see at least half of those films crossing $1 billion. Even the original Star Wars, which grossed $775 million, will probably make the $225 million it needs, given its popularity and the nostalgia factor.
Another big re-release in 2012 is a movie which has already crossed the $1 billion mark, and by a lot. Titanic is being released in 3D in early April of next year, and could earn enough to push it past $2 billion. The added 3D price boost will also be helpful. I know I’m going to see it again, because I’ve already heard that the 3D is beautiful. It’s being post converted into 3D by James Cameron, and this is the man who bashed on post conversion because it’s never done properly. We’ll see if he’s a hypocrite or not when the movie is released. There are two more releases in April which may be of interest to readers, even though they won’t be high grossing films. The first is American Reunion, the sequel to American Wedding, and coming from the writers of Harold and Kumar, hopefully it will be able to maintain the charm and humour of the original films. Scary Movie 5 is also being released for anyone who cares, but it will most likely be a flop.
The next big release is The Avengers, which should be one of the best superhero movies of all time, from the rumours and updates on the film. It stars Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man, and many others, and there’s no reason for the movie not to gross an incredible amount of money, given that it is destined to be a great movie. I don’t think it will be able to cross $1 billion, but if it receives a good word of mouth and delivers the way it should, it could come near that mark. I’m still thinking it’ll make around $700-800 million. Thor and Captain America did not perform as well worldwide as they should have in terms of their quality.
Will Smith is finally returning to acting after taking a 3 year hiatus, but unfortunately it’s for another sequel. Men in Black III is coming out next May, three weeks after The Avengers, and regardless of how good the movie is, it’ll gross a fair amount at the box office. It’s a popular franchise and Will Smith’s movies always gross a lot of money. It won’t get close to $1 billion, but I don’t really care how much it grosses. I just hope it’s better than the second one because it was a major disappointment.
Two animated movies are being released in June of 2012, neither of which will gross close to $1 billion, but will still be successful nonetheless and will be worth watching. Madagascar 3 has two successful and entertaining prequels, and hopefully this one will be just as good. Brave is Pixar’s next original movie, and for now, there is not too much that is known about the movie. Pixar does have an excellent track record though and they haven’t made an original film since Up, so it’ll be interesting to see if Pixar is able to create another excellent summer flick.
I don’t want to sound like I’m boosting July, but there is a possibility of three movies grossing over $1 billion. Unfortunately, they’re all coming out in the same month, so they might have a negative effect on each other at the box office. The first release is The Amazing Spider-Man. The recently released trailer looks promising, but considering that none of the original three Spider-Man films made $1 billion, it might be tough for the reboot to reach that mark. It will have the advantage of being in 3D, but I expect it to make close to, but not over, $1 billion. The next release is the fourth instalment of the Ice Age franchise: Continental Drift. Personally, I’ve never liked the Ice Age films, and the third one was mildly successful in North America considering it was in 3D, but made less than all of Pixar’s films. However, it was incredibly popular overseas and made close to $900 million worldwide, so I’d expect the fourth one to perform even better and eventually cross the $1 billion mark. The Dark Knight Rises is almost guaranteed to make $1 billion worldwide, unless it ends up being a bad movie, and has a bad word of mouth, which is highly unlikely.
August won’t have any huge grossing films, but it’ll bring us enough action. The Bourne Legacy is being released, and Jeremy Renner is the new protagonist. Even though I liked Matt Damon in the original three, it’ll be interesting to see how well Renner does. The remake of Total Recall is also coming out in August, and even though it is not looking very promising right now, you shouldn’t count it out as it does have the potential to be better than the original. Lastly, The Expendables 2 is also scheduled for release in August, and Stallone is trying to sign Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, and John Travolta to act, while giving Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis greater roles than in the first film. It almost sounds too good to be true.
The second part of the final Twilight film is being released in November. It’ll be as successful as its predecessors, and will probably end up being the highest grossing film in the series since it’s the final one. It will still come short of $1 billion though. Bond 23 is scheduled for November as well and it’s been too long of a wait for the next Bond film, with MGM going bankrupt and other financial issues. Hopefully this one will be as good and action packed as the previous two, but don’t expect it to make close to $1 billion.
The last big movie of the year is a guaranteed $1 billion at the box office. The first part of The Hobbit, titled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Adventure, is being released next December, in 3D, and it will be directed by Peter Jackson, so you can expect the quality of the film to match that of the Lord of the Rings series. It’s been a long time since Gandalf has been on screen and moviegoers are definitely going to rush to go see this one. The average ticket price is higher today than it was when Return of the King was released, and the addition of 3D makes it a definite billionaire. As well, you can expect the second part of the Hobbit, which will be released a year later, to gross $1 billion. There isn’t much of an argument there.
So you can expect to see at least one billion dollar movie both next year and the year after. It’s not a revelation anymore when a movie crosses $1 billion, but there will still be only a few movies each year that will have the chance of reaching that milestone.
I didn’t mention all of the upcoming theatrical releases. There will definitely be some quality films that will be lower grossing and you can check out the schedule for all future releases here.
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