The Film Experience

There's not much of a story this weekend beyond Star Wars: The Force Awakens which broke all available records without even breaking a sweat this weekend with a $238 million opening. And that's even before the lucrative Christmas week. Jurassic World currently tops the 2015 box office globally with $1.6 billion in revenues with Furious 7 tailing it with $1.5. Surely The Force Awakens has its eyes on even greater prizes though. Like James Cameron's top two records Titanic's 2.1 billion and Avatar's (2009) 2.7 billion worldwide gross.

The Force Awakens is a good movie so the audience wins. Or do we? Let's talk about the Dark Side of the box office as we look at the biggest hits of the year in five separate categories after the jump...

The Force made box office go boom

BIGGEST FRANCHISE HITS
As of December 20th
01 Jurassic World $652.2
02 Avengers: Age of Ultron $459
03 Furious 7 $353.4
04 Minions $336+
🔺 Hunger Games Finale $254+
🔺 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $238+
07 Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation $195+
🔺Spectre $193+
09 Pitch Perfect 2 $184.2
10 Ant-Man $180.2
11 Hotel Transylvania 2 $167.5+
12 Fifty Shades of Grey $166.1
13 The Spongebob Movie $162.9
14 Mad Max: Fury Road $153.6
15 The Divergent Series: Insurgent $130.1

Our guess is that the final installment of the Hunger Games will be its least successful... which comes from breaking the finale in two halves, obviously. The last film hit $337 domestically but this one already lost a thousand theaters to Star Wars. And we don't even have the Christmas wide openings yet so competition for screens will be even worse in less than one week.

Unless one of the Christmas openers is an unexpected behemoth, the only real movement on this chart will be Star Wars leaping frogging each competitor in record time and James Bond topping Ethan Hunt at any second.

Phrasing!

Here's where it starts getting depressing. Take a look at the next chart, for non-franchise films... i.e. they're not sequels or don't currently have sequel plans. Notice how similar this chart feels to the all-franchise chart: animated films, and effects driven adventures.

BIGGEST NON-FRANCHISE HITS
As of December 20th
01 Inside Out $356.4
02 The Martian $223+
03 Cinderella $201.1
04 Home $177.3
05 Straight Outta Compton $161.1
06 San Andreas $155.1
07 Spy $110.8
08 Trainwreck $110.2
🔺The Good Dinosaur $96+
10 Tomorrowland $93.4
11 Get Hard $90.4
12 Pixels $78.7
13 Paddington $76.2
14 The Intern $75+
15 Bridge of Spies $69+

The only non animated, non-effects driven, non broadly comic films to make the list were Straight Outta Compton and Bridge of Spies. American audiences have been in this safe for all ages (since Americans dont' mind graphic violence) fx driven brand name spiral for some time now. If all things are cyclical when will they start caring about dramas again?

Here's an all drama chart - the top 15 of the year. Notice how paltry the numbers are comparatively.

how much further can Creed take it?

BIGGEST DRAMAS
As of December 20th
01 Fifty Shades of Grey $166.1
02 Straight Outta Compton $161.1
🔺 Creed $88+
04 Bridge of Spies $69+
05 War Room $67+
06 Black Mass $62+
07 The Perfect Guy $57+
08 Southpaw $52+
09 Sicario $46+
10 McFarland USA $44.4+
11 The Gift $43.7
12 Everest $43.4
13 Max $42.6
14 The Age of Adaline $42.6
15 The Longest Ride $37.4

No, I didn't know what War Room was either. It's amazing how some movies exist outside of the media bubble and still make a mint. That one is a faith-based drama.

To give you a sense how dire it is for dramas out there consider that the bottom third of this list -- even movies people really loved like Sicario -- all made less than Fantastic Four which 99% of people who watched hated. The lesson is that you don't even have to try to make a good movie as long as you can keep your budget down (obviously this one didn't - oops) and make sure the property is effects driven and/or based on something people are already familiar with.

Labyrinth of Lies... if it can hold on until the nominations, will it get a second wind?

BIGGEST FOREIGN FILMS
(As of December 20th)
01 Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos $9 (Mexico)
02 A La Mala $3.6 (Mexico)
03 Phoenix $3.1 (Germany)
04 Wild Tales $3.1 (Argentina - Oscar Nominee 2014)
05 Assassination $1.9 (South Korea)
06 Clouds of Sils Maria $1.9 (France)
07 Lost in Hong Kong $1.3 (Hong Kong)
08 Goodbye Mr Loser $1.2 (China)
09 Veteran $1.2 (South Korea)
10 Goodnight Mommy $1.1 (Austria - Oscar Submission 2015)
11 Timbuktu $1.0 (Mauritania - Oscar Nominee 2014)
12 Gett: The Trial of Viviane Absalem $.9 (Israel - Oscar Submission 2014)
13 The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared $.9 (Sweden)
🔺 Labyrinth of Lies $.7 (Germany - Oscar Finalist 2015)
15 Boruto: Naruto the Movie $.6 (Japan)

Since over 66% of this list would have been Bollywood pictures -- who have a decidedly loyal audience so they always do better than foreign films of other nationalities with barely any media coverage, I've opted not to include them. But for the record Bollywood's biggest hits stateside this year were Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo both starring Salman Khan, Baahubali: The Beginning and Dil Dhadakane Do which all did well over 3 million.

Technically speaking Clouds of Sils Maria doesn't completely belong here since much of it is in English but we love it so in the list it goes. Son of Saul from Hungary just opened in theaters so perhaps we'll see it climb this chart with its expected Oscar trajectory.

Amy was the biggest traditional doc this year. But can it win the Oscar?

BIGGEST DOCUMENTARIES
(as of December 20th)
01 Monkey Kingdom $16.4
02 Amy $8.4 (Oscar Finalist 2015)
03 He Named Me Malala $2.6 (Oscar Finalist 2015)
04 Meru $2.3 (Oscar Finalist 2015)
05 The Salt of the Earth $1.3 (Oscar Nominee 2014)
06 Iris $1.3
07 The Wolfpack $1.3
08 The Dior and I $1.1
09 Best of Enemies $.8 (Oscar Finalist 2015)
10 Cartel Land $.7 (Oscar Finalist 2015)
11 Red Army $.6
12 Seymour: An Introduction $.6
13 Black Panthers: Vanguard of a Revolution $.5
14 Deli Man $.5
15 Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine $.4

What do you think it will take to get American audiences interested in non-effects driven, non-animated films again?