The Wild Eric

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/reanimating-pixar-how-pete-docter-steered-the-studio-out-of-scandal This was a really fascinating profile on Pete Docter that shows a lot of interesting stuff for Pixar and what's in development.

Clint Eastwood's live-action Despicable Me is gonna get pretty wacky!

So you're saying you're submitting yourself to Chalanism?

@WandaLegion @Gamora @Wondy our king is back. We're truly back in normalcy now :')

I just want this movie to make me drool with thirst. Watching Ragnarok gave me so many lustful reactions so I hope Daddy Taika can replicate it one more time (he will)

Oh yeah @Plain Old Tele hope I did your movie justice.

@Brainbug @excel1 @YourMother the Edgelord @Webslinger @Noctis @DAJK @Sir Tiki @Giesi @Rorschach @TalismanRing This was a long one to research, but I loved every minute of it. It honestly took me back to where I was at in 2015. I finished my junior year and was all set for my senior year of high school, and it was such an exciting and surreal experience for that whole year. And I had a lot of fun encapsualting all the cool box office stories that happened in just one calendar year. Talking about Universal's 2015 was particularly great. It was so cool and exciting to see this studio rise up and outgross the competition the way it did, even after Disney put out all their big guns. We'll frankly never get to see this kind of performance again in a world where people are allergic to non-Disney titles/pandemic ruining theatrical exhibition, so it was kind of bittersweet to talk about Straight Outta Compton in the same breath as Jurassic World

Twenty-first place featured the action masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road. In a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland lies Max Rockatansky, thankfully not played by horrible person Mel Gibson and instead not horrible person Tom Hardy. Water and oil are scarce commodities, largely being hoarded by the sadistic cult leader Immortan Joe. Joe discovers that Imperator Furiosa, one of his lieutenants and played by Charlize Theron, has taken away five of his wives. And soon, Max finds himself roped in to help Furiosa and Joe’s wives, leading to an epic and lengthy road battle. A Mad Max 4 was one of those movies that seemed stuck in a proverbial development hell, largely due to financial difficulties and outside circumstances. George Miller, the creator of the Mad Max series, re-acquired the rights from Warner Bros. in 1995, and soon began working on the project in 1998. In 1999, the basic idea finally came to his head. The basic premise were that the violent marauders were not fighting for oil or goods, but for human beings. That idea had endless amounts of potential, and it was decided the film would shoot in 2001 under 20th Century Fox. Ultimately, that didn’t happen due to the September 11 attacks, a ballooning budget, and George Miller working on Happy Feet. Miller would then try to get his film off the ground in 2003, with plans to shoot the film in the Australian desert. However, rainfall in the area killed any chance of filming. Namibia was also a planned location, but tightened travel and shipping restrictions due to the Iraq War killed any chances there. Things stayed quiet for a few years, though he would mention he still wanted to make the film in 2006. And for a while, Heath Ledger was considered for the role of Max because horrible person Mel Gibson is...horrible person Mel Gibson. But 2009 was when things finally picked up. For a while, Fury Road was actually intended to be a 3D R-rated animated film that would take a Kurosawa approach to the franchise that would take the series on a different route. A tie-in video game was also supposed to be released with George Miller in charge of the project. The plan was for a 2011 or 2012 release date. But shortly after, Fury Road went from a 3D animated film to a 3D live-action film, with location scouting in May 2009. However, Fury Road would still take cues from animation, as the entire film was storyboarded before the screenplay was written. With about 3,500 panels, this almost mirrored the exact same number of shots in the film. The project was formally announced in October 2009. Casting was given for both Hardy and Theron in 2010, and filming finally began in Namibia in June 2012. With 90% practical effects and the ultra-talented John Seale coming out of retirement to do the cinematography, the production was a very tense one for Miller, Hardy, and Theron. The two leads didn’t often see eye-to-eye, and Hardy was confused and frustrated if Miller’s crazy vision was actually working. It also didn’t help the production was isolated, the shooting conditions were unbearable, and the extreme weather often meant production had to shut down. It wasn’t until after the movie Hardy realized Miller knew what he was doing and all parties reconciled their differences. The film had an extensive post-production cycle, with a heavy amount of effects work. The film was edited by Miller’s wife Margaret Sixel, who took three months to edit the 480 hours worth of footage. The film’s frame rate was one that was heavily manipulated, with about half of the film being shorter or faster than the usual 24 fps. If a shot was too confusing, the film’s frame rate slowed down. If a shot was too easy to understand, it was sped up. This led to a jerky, almost mind-bending look that would become one of the many aspects praised about the movie. The visual effects artists also saw themselves altering lighting and time of day, weather effects, and terrain. Night scenes were filmed in broad daylight, and the sky was sometimes digitally replaced with a more interesting sky. This, again, gave the film a distinct look that stood out from other post-apocalyptic features, and most features in general for that matter. Mad Max was more of a cult series than an iconic movie franchise. Therefore, expectations at the box office were fairly muted, which was not a good thing for a $150-185 million beast like this. Thankfully, George Miller delivered the goods, and WB knew it. With a premiere at Grauman and a screening at Cannes, Fury Road was considered an instant classic. People showered the film with praise, celebrating its direction, action, score, cinematography, acting, visuals, costume design, editing, and feminist values. It had immense critical backing on its side, which gave it a huge leg up. So how did the movie do? Was the wait worth it financially? Well...yes with an if, no with a but. Opening on May 15 to $45.4 million, Fury Road earned itself $153.6 million domestically and $374.7 million worldwide. This was far above expectations, becoming the second-biggest WB title of the year, and reinvigorated interest in a somewhat niche property. That’s good. However, the costs made to produce and market the movie were exorbitant, and the lack of a Chinese release diminished its potential. That’s bad. Ultimately, it was a bit of a moderate hit. It was estimated to have lost $20-40 million, but it could have done far worse and it certainly got discussion. But like any great movie, the box office was far from the last thing talked about the film. This has lived on as one of the most beloved films of the 2010s, with many critics citing it as one of the greatest action movies ever made. This would result in Fury Road becoming the most loved film of 2015 by numerous critics and 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. And the film helped introduce millions of young cinephiles to the world of Mad Max, helping the property soar to a new popularity never seen before. Later in 2015, a Mad Max video game released on Playstation 4 and Xbox One to mixed reviews, but strong sales, becoming the eighth-best selling game of 2015. A sequel has been considered somewhat a no-brainer, but legal issues between Miller and Warner Bros. has led to a follow-up, subtitled The Wasteland, held back from production. However, things have smoothed out between parties, and just this year, it was formally announced that a prequel centered on the character Furiosa is now in development. Queen Anya Taylor-Joy is set to star as a younger Imperator and George Miller will return to direct. A June 2023 release date is currently set. This year has been one where we’ve talked about all kinds of success stories. But because I’m an ass, I think it’s fitting to end this with one of the most infamous flops of the 2010s. That’s right, we’re talking about Fantastic Four, the 53rd biggest movie domestically. Four young scientists are transported into an alternate universe, which makes them alter their physical form and has them gain incredible new abilities. One can stretch himself to impossible heights, one can turn invisible, one can turn into a flaming man, the other is transformed into a rock monster. And the four find themselves figuring out how to harness their abilities and work together when a familiar enemy plans to destroy Earth. While Fantastic Four has been a major part of Marvel Comics’ history, their forays to feature films have never really gone anywhere. Disregarding the Roger Corman movie, the first real attempt to bring Fantastic Four to the big screen was in 2005. Directed by Tim Story, the 2005 title was panned by critics but still saw decent box office returns, earning $330.6 million worldwide. At the very least, this had 20th Century Fox confident enough to produce a sequel in 2007 subtitled Rise of the Silver Surfer. Reviews were slightly better (key word being slightly), but the film failed to capture the same excitement or attention, resulting in $289 million worldwide. Plans for a third Fantastic Four movie and a spin-off based around Silver Surfer were quickly canceled, and the franchise was pushed away from the limelight for almost an entire decade. Of course, there was more than that when it comes to developing this reboot. Even back in 2009, Fox was working on a new interpretation of the Marvel superheroes with Akiva Goldsman as producer and Michael Green as screenwriter. Actors like Adrien Brody and Kiefer Sutherland were considered at that point, but it wasn’t until June 2012 the Fantastic Four we know today came into fruition. Josh Trank, fresh off the critical and commercial success of Chronicle, was hired as a director. And while Jeremy Slater was attached as a writer, Trank ended up writing the script himself, because he was not a fan of Slater’s work. Slater’s work featured Galactus and Dr. Doom and was heavily inspired by The Avengers in terms of tone and story. Trank hated every word of it, and wanted this comic book movie to...not be comic book-y. This resulted in Slater’s work being so insignificant, Trank purposefully prevented him from meetings without his permission and limited the notes Slater got from Fox. Slater left after six months and it all went downhill from there. One of the more interesting tidbits of the casting process was the age of the actors. Specifically, the Fantastic Four was full of young, fresh-faced talent. Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell. But one of the more interesting tidbits was Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, becoming the first Black actor to play the hero. Trank cast Jordan both because of his talents and because he felt it was necessary for this film’s heroes to match with today’s demographics. Ultimately, because racist Marvel fans ruin everything, this led to significant controversy because of course it did. Trank saw numerous death threats from IMDb message boards and even slept with a .38 Special on his nightstand until production ended. And would you believe things got even crazier? Filming began in May 2014 with production wrapping up in August 2014. Reshoots would commence in January 2015, which wasn’t an abnormal part of the production process for a blockbuster title. The issue was that this was part of a major reconfiguration of the movie itself. Fox was not a fan with Trank’s cut of the film, as it was less a comic book romp and more a morose and grim tale a la Chronicle. Maybe Fox shouldn’t have asked the Chronicle guy to...not make a Chronicle-esque movie. Trank wasn’t much better, as he was reportedly unprofessional and had erratic behavior while on the set. This poor behavior made him lose a comfy gig directing a new Star Wars title in fact. Trank’s behavior and negative reactions to his cut not only led to several sequences Trank envisioned being unfilmed, but Fox ordered changes to the film without Trank’s supervision during reshoots. Certain plot points were completely altered from Trank’s original idea. This included the ending, which was not finalized, being hastily cobbled together from script pieces from the original Slater script and new ones written on the day of reshoots. Trank’s suggestions were swiftly ignored with editor Stephen E. Rivkin basically became the “de facto director” to Trank. So we come to its release date, August 7. The film had an okay marketing campaign. It was clearly not as buzzed or hyped as something like Age of Ultron or even Ant-Man, but its adverts certainly made it look like a step up from the Tim Story films at the very least. And hey, with Marvel becoming the biggest thing ever, it was pretty much guaranteed the film would at least hit $100 million. And Fox seemed confident enough, as a sequel was already slated for July 2017. This was actually part of a major push from Fox to invest further in Marvel titles to capitalize on the success of the MCU, with titles like X-Men: Apocalypse, a Deadpool spin-off, a Gambit spin-off, a third Wolverine movie, and much, much more. But then the reviews hit. In just one day, all the hype, interest, and excitement dropped like a rock. Critics panned the movie for being dull, underdeveloped, poorly-written, poorly-edited, poorly-structured, and embarrassing to sit through. It was pretty much the worst reviews seen from a major superhero tentpole like this in ages, and killed a lot of hype from fans. But the worst of it came one day before release. Josh Trank, fed up with the hellhole that was production, sent one little tweet: “A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would've recieved great reviews. You'll probably never see it. That's reality though." It pretty much meant this was an awful film even to the dude who made it, and damaged any goodwill this movie and even Fox had with the run-up to release. And it did not quell any fears Fantastic Four fans had for this being a faithful, well-made interpretation of their favorite heroes. At this point, only the most deathly curious checked this out. And this film’s $25.7 million opening was so bad, it didn’t even hit #1 on its release, as Rogue Nation repeated in the top spot. And with a C- Cinemascore, this pretty much meant Fantastic Four saw some of the absolute worst reception ever for a superhero movie, ending with $56.1 million domestically and $167.9 million worldwide, resulting in this becoming one of the biggest failures of 2015, estimated to have lost $80-100 million. By this point, Fantastic Four was dead in the water. The second movie was pulled November 2015, and even if Fox or Simon Kinberg or whoever wanted to make a new movie, nobody was interested unless Papa Feige was involved in some capacity. In fact, everybody agreed it was best for Fox to just not make any more Fantastic Four movies and just let their film license expire. Josh Trank also didn’t turn out much better, as reports over his erratic behavior and lack of communication with the producers killed any future works, resulting in him going to director’s jail for a while. Hell, because so many sequences weren’t filmed, a director’s cut that followed Trank’s vision does not exist. So they can’t even do a Snyder Cut thing with this turkey. It’s a film that literally offered nothing to the world and just made everything worse. That’s a rare kind of failure. But like with any failure, once you hit rock bottom, you will get back up. Josh Trank would disappear for a while, but in 2020, he would find himself directing Capone, a biopic starring Tom Hardy that...well, it came out I guess. And for Fantastic Four itself, Papa Feige would actually be involved with the property years later due to everyone’s favorite merger. And just a few weeks ago, Papa Feige announced that Spider-Man director Jon Watts would bring the Four to the big screen. Will this be the turning point for the franchise? Is this finally going to make people give a shit about the famous family? Yeah, probably. And there’s 2015 for ya. It was a big year with a lot of stuff to talk about, both good and bad. And so...The Revenant gave Leo an Oscar. Ant-Man was another Marvel hit. Home began the first Dreamworks/Fox hit in ages. Hotel Transylvania 2 took the series to new heights. Spongebob came back to theaters. San Andreas solidified Dwayne Johnson as a box office draw. Daddy’s Home benefited from Force Awakens sell-outs. Alvin and the Chipmunks 4...not so much. Insurgent kept Divergent for like..one year. Peanuts went back to theaters. Kingsman became a solid spy franchise. The Good Dinosaur became Pixar’s first flop. Creed revived Rocky in a major way. Tomorrowland became one of Disney’s biggest bombs. Spy continued Melissa McCarthy's comedy dominance. Terminator: Genisys killed the franchise. Taken 3 ended the trilogy with...grace? Maze Runner continued to muted results. Nancy Meyers saw another success with The Intern. War Room began a Christian hit. Paul Blart returned in an epic way. The Big Short made Adam McKay an Oscarbait director. Pixels was a huge dud for Adam Sandler. The Hateful Eight was an underappreciated Tarantino release. Magic Mike XXL continued the epic story. Poltergeist was remade for some reason. Joy failed to capitalize on the previous J-Law/O. Russell titles. Sicario helped turn Villenueve into a household name. Jupiter Ascending became an infamous disaster for the Wachowskis. The Gift made Joel Edgerton a hit director. The Boy Next Door had us all in love with mom’s cookies. Pan became one of the biggest box office hits in WB history. Chappie killed Blomkamp’s career. The Last Witch Hunter was D&D fanfiction come to life. Lastly, an Entourage movie...came out I guess. This was 2015

Eleventh domestic and eighth worldwide saw Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. After the IMF is dissolved, Ethan Hunt is on the run from the CIA, framed for a crime he didn’t commit. All the while, Hunt tries to prove the existence of the Syndicate, a mysterious international rogue terrorist organization. Rogue Nation was formally announced in August 2013, with the newest director in charge being Christopher McQuarrie of Jack Reacher fame. J. J. Abrams returned as producer with Bad Robot, while David Ellison returned as a co-financier with his Skydance production company. Much of the same crew from Ghost Protocol returned here. Cruise, Rhames, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg. Rebecca Ferguson and Alec Baldwin later joined as new characters with Sean Harris as the antagonist. The big stunts Cruise had to take here involved hanging on a plane for dear life and breathing underwater for a long period of time. The former had a limited time of 48 hours to pull this off, with Cruise performing the scene himself without any stunt double, suspended over 5,000 feet in the air. The plane took off and landed 8 times before the team had the perfect shot. Cruise also met with diver Kirk Krack to help Cruise hold his breath for more than three minutes to perform an underwater sequence that was shot in one take without any edits. The scene would actually see cuts, but Cruise still had to make his muscles work, and he reportedly held his breath for more than six minutes underwater. Rogue Nation was set for release on Christmas Day 2015, a weekend that did wonders for Ghost Protocol. However, with the planned launch of The Force Awakens, a hype-feeding entity that was set to destroy everything in its path, Paramount knew they had to move this title. It was, and still is, one of the few viable franchises they had left. But instead of delaying the film, Paramount actually pushed it ahead in January, all the way to July 31, 2015. This was a problem. The film wrapped up production in March 2015 after the crew reworked the ending for about a month. So that meant things had to get rushed. Paramount had to rush out a marketing campaign and press tour, McQuarrie had to rush through post-production, and IMAX had to rush out a new print for the format. The film was finally finished at 2 AM on July 18, less than two weeks before its release date. This could have been an omen for bad things to come. And yet it wasn’t. Not only did Rogue Nation earn significant praise, cited as the best of the franchise, it surpassed all box office expectations. Initially estimated to open to $40-50 million, Rogue Nation surprised everyone and saw a $55.5 million opening. This was the third-biggest Cruise opening, and the second-biggest for Mission: Impossible, only behind the second movie. And with critical praise and a certain Marvel title turning out to be a financial dud, the movie finished with over 3.5 times its opening, repping $195 million domestically and $682.7 million worldwide. This was only a touch below Ghost Protocol, an impressive feat seeing as how the film didn’t have as concentrated or as meticulously planned a marketing campaign. Of course, it was still a good decision in the end, as the movie probably would have been creamed by Starkiller Base over here. The success of Rogue Nation ensured a follow-up that was notable for sharing a lot of the same creatives from this movie. And this would soon lead to the almost 20-year long franchise becoming bigger, better, and stronger than ever. Twelfth place was the comedy hit Pitch Perfect 2. Focusing on a college women’s acapella group named the Barden Bellas, we see the girls take part in a world singing championship, with the main goal being to fight off a snooty German musical group. All the while, hi-jinx and catchy song covers ensue! For those who don’t know, Pitch Perfect was a 2012 musical comedy about an acapella music group from Barden University. Based on a non-fiction book written by GQ senior editor Mickey Rapkin, Pitch Perfect was produced by Elizabeth Banks and served two purposes: it showcased a wide variety of young talents like Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin and Ben Platt, as well as focus on the musical acapella scene; basically music without instrumental accompaniment. The film was a sleeper hit when it first came out, grossing $65 million domestically and $115.3 million worldwide, making it the second-highest grossing musical comedy of all time, only behind School of Rock. But after its theatrical release, the film started to really pick up steam. The comedy, music, and characters really struck a chord with teen audiences. I should know, as I was there. I was a choir boy throughout my entire middle school and high school years, and the way the film struck a chord with my demographic was unheard of for any movie. Not only was it a funny and entertaining look at music performance, it was a solid introduction to acapella. This would lead to the film becoming a Mean Girls-style smash on home video, with an estimated $124.5 million in home media sales. Anna Kendrick’s song "Cups," an adaptation of the folk song "When I’m Gone," also became a radio sensation, reaching #6 on the Billboard charts. Pentatonix, another acapella group, also began making major headwaves in the music scene. There was potential for this to be more than just a one-off. So in December 2012, both Skylar Astin and Rebel Wilson revealed they were already in meetings for a potential sequel. And in April 2013, it was finally announced for a 2015 release date. Elizabeth Banks moved up from producer to director, with Kay Cannon staying on as screenwriter and the rest of the cast returning to reprise their roles. New cast members include Hailee Steinfeld (hi @WrathOfHan), Katey Sagal, Flula Borg, Pentatonix, David Cross, and Keegan Michael-Key. Pitch Perfect 2 was released May 15 and would see an exponential increase that was arguably never seen for any sequel. To put into perspective the film’s opening, Pitch Perfect 2’s $69.2 million opening wasn’t just well above industry expectations of $40 million. In just three days, Pitch Perfect 2 outgrossed the first movie’s entire domestic run. John Wick and Austin Powers aside, that’s the kind of incredible growth that just can not happen, and it shows just how iconic the film was to so many youths at the time. This also served as the biggest opening for a musical and the third-biggest opening for a PG-13 comedy, only behind The Simpsons Movie and Goldmember. It would go on to gross $184.3 million domestically and $287.1 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing musical comedy of all time. Net profit was $139.6 million. This success would of course lead to Pitch Perfect 3 in December 2017. It earned $185.4 million worldwide, though suffered from poor reviews. A fourth film has been rumored, but not much progress has been done. But hey, we’ll see what happens. Seventeenth place got a little bit naughty with the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey. Dakota Johnson plays Anastasia Steele, a young college graduate who finds herself working for a young business magnate named Christain Grey, played by Jamie Dornan. Grey finds himself fascinated by Anastasia, and soon the duo find themselves in a uniquely sadomasochistic relationship. The 2011 novel by E. L. James, an adaptation of James’ Twilight fanfiction, proved to be an instant success on bookshelves, with the first novel selling millions of copies and later translated into 52 languages. Despite its controversial subject matter and criticism by book critics, conservatives, and even BDSM community members, readers were getting into it in more ways than one, resulting in an entire trilogy. And with a successful book comes a lot of studios trying to acquire the film rights. WB, Sony, Paramount, Universal. Even Mark Wahlberg’s production company was in the bidding war. In March 2012, Universal and Focus Features acquired the trilogy rights, while author E. L. James earned some control for the movie’s creative process, choosing Social Network’s Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti as producers. Bret Easton Ellis of American Psycho fame was interested to write, but Kelly Marcel, the writer of Saving Mr. Banks, was in charge instead. The hunt for a director was a long one, with Joe Wright being considered fairly early, only to end up unworkable due to his schedule. Later on, Patty Jenkins, Bill Condon, Bennett Miller and Steven Soderbergh were considered. But when all was said and done, Sam Taylor-Johnson, wife of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, became director, earning $2 million for the role. Johnson had...conflicts with E. L. James throughout production. Casting for the two leads went through a lot of issues, as James and co. wanted it to be just right. E. L. James wanted Robert Pattinson to play Christain Grey, remember this was based on Twilight fanfiction, but James realized casting him and Kristen Stewart would be too weird. And thus, a massive shortlist of actors were in consideration. Anastasia had Alicia Vikander, Imogen Poots, Elizabeth Olsen, Shailene Woodley, Felicity Jones, Keeley Hazell, Lucy Hale, and Emilia Clarke all in some form of consideration. Ultimately Dakota Johnson was given the iconic role. Christain Grey’s casting was even crazier. Iam Somerhalder and Chace Crawford expressed interest, but both were turned down. Ryan Gosling was asked, but he was not interested. Garrett Hedlund was considered, but he didn’t connect with the character. Stephen Amell followed like Hedlund. But after initially turning down the role, Charlie Hunnam was cast for the role of Christian...then he had to drop due to filming conflicts with the show Sons of Anarchy. So in yet another shortlist featuring Alexander Skarsgard, Theo James, Francois Arnaud, Scott Eastwood, Luke Bracey, and Billy Magnussen, the new actor set to play the iconic character was Jamie Dornan. Universal knew that this book had a fanbase, resulting in a marketing campaign that began more than a year in advance for the film with several posters displaying the phrase “Mr. Grey will see you now”. The trailer first launched July 2014, featuring a remix of Beyonce’s "Crazy in Love." It was an instant smash, generating millions of views and becoming one of the biggest movie trailers in 2014. And with a Valentine’s Day release, Fifty Shades was sold as a major date movie, enticing couples with a racy, naughty little romanic drama that was full of sex and romance. And with the film sparking controversy with Christians the world over for daring to show people having sex, it quickly became an event film people had to see to believe...if you’re over 18 of course. Opening on February 13, Fifty Shades of Grey generated a massive three-day of $85.2 million, with the four-day tallying to $93 million. This wasn’t just the biggest President’s Day opening of all time, beating Valentine’s Day for the honor, but also surpassed Passion of the Christ’s long-standing record to become the biggest February opening in history. This was also the fourth-biggest R-rated opening and the biggest non-sequel debut ever for a Universal title. Of course, like Twilight before it, this was a frontloaded beast, with fans rushing out to see this movie over the Valentine’s Day/President’s Day weekend. So the film only finished with $166.2 million, less than half of its opening weekend. But that didn’t matter. With a worldwide gross of $569.6 million, Fifty Shades of Grey became the third-biggest film solely directed by a woman, and the fourth-biggest R-rated film ever up to that point. A net profit of $256.55 million ain’t too shabby either. And it even got love in the awards circuit. Okay, it did earn five Razzies, but it did see a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for two different original songs. Those songs, “Love Me Like You Do” by Ellie Goulding and “Earned It” by The Weeknd, also became huge hits on the charts. And sure enough, Dakota Johnson quickly became a household name, becoming a bit of an indie darling in the process. In 2017 and 2018, two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, released in theaters. Sam Taylor-Johnson did not return due to her fights with E. L. James with James Folely in charge of both installments. Neither captured the same success: Darker earned $381 million, while Freed saw $370 million, though both were still major success stories either way, solifidifying the iconic, if slightly confusing legacy of the E. L. James novel. Nineteenth place saw the music biopic take a huge step up with Straight Outta Compton. Five young men from the streets of Compton all have a love for music and hip-hop. And together they create NWA, a rap group that changed everything. Telling their tales of life in the hood, NWA revolutionized the hip-hop genre forever, and Straight Outta Compton is their story. A biopic about the NWA was somewhat inevitable, seeing as how members Dr. Dre and Ice Cube were still major presences in the music and even film industry. And we would first hear inklings on the idea in March 2009 with New Line Cinema as distributor. And things moved slowly from there. Andrea Berloff signed on as a writer, while the late John Singleton was in talks to direct. In late 2011, things finally started to pick up, with F. Gary Gray, Craig Brewer and Peter Berg all contenders to direct. Gray later signed on in March 2012, a fitting choice considering he worked with both Cube and Dre in films and music videos before, and Universal acquired the film in 2013. Universal also hired Jonathan Herman to write a new draft while Will Packer signed on as an executive producer and Legendary Pictures appeared as a financier. Casting calls happened as early as 2010, but things weren’t formally announced until June 2014. The band members were all played by talented young actors like Corey Hawkins, Aldis Hodge, and Jason Mitchell, but the most intriguing casting choice was who played Ice Cube. Cube’s literal son O’Shea Jackson Jr. actually played his father in this movie. But the casting call soon fell into controversy when it came to casting extras. The call specifically called for Black girls with a certain A-D ranking scale that categorized A women as “classy” and “B through D” linked as much poorer and much less attractive and linked explicitly with skin tone. The darker your skin, the more they wanted you if you were unattractive. As you can imagine, this racist, colorist, sexist nonsense did not go over well. Even more bad stuff happened on set, with a drive-by shooting taking place on the set one week into production. In January 2015, Suge Knight was involved in a hit-and-run incident that left a man dead and another hospitalized reportedly after an argument on the set of Straight Outta Compton. Both figures were Terry Carter, a co-founder of Cube’s Heavyweight Records, while the other was filmmaker Cle Sloan. Transcripts in 2017 indicated Suge was not happy with the film’s portrayal of him and he was not compensated for his part. And thus, Knight murdered a man and was sent to 28 years in prison. With both Cube and Dre still major names, they were a huge part of the film’s marketing campaign. Cube actually showed a sneak peek of the film’s trailer at a concert in December 2014 two months before its official debut. And a week before release, Beats made a new app that allowed people to take photos and put a “Straight Outta” caption on top of it, resulting in memes and jokes all throughout Twitter and Instagram, and the app being downloaded six million times before the movie even debuted in theaters. At this point, Straight Outta Compton didn’t feel like a typical musical biopic. Its hype was so strong and so deafening that it was higher than even something like Walk the Line or Ray. And thus, on its August 14, opening, Straight Outta Compton debuted to a deafening $60.2 million. Keep in mind, most biopics on famed musicians gross those kind of numbers in their whole runs. But with a fantastic advertising campaign, as well as the film’s subject matter and music still seen as iconic and relevant to today’s audiences. Compton’s debut far exceeded industry expectations, which only went to above $45 million only when people realized the pickup of buzz. And even then it still leapfrogged from what the industry projected here. This was the fifth-biggest August opening of all time, the highest August debut for an R-rated film, and the biggest music biopic opening ever. However, most significant was that this was the biggest opening ever for an African-American director. And while frontloaded due to fan demand, Compton still stayed #1 three weekends in a row, earning $161.2 million domestically and $201.6 million worldwide. As it turns out, this passed Scary Movie to become the biggest domestic movie ever from a Black director, and was the biggest music biopic in history after 2005’s Walk the Line. While the film did garner scrutiny over its accuracy, it was still a major critical hit, and it helped give exposure to one of the greatest hip-hop groups in history. A soundtrack by Dr. Dre also released in time with the movie called Compton, which also became a significant hit. Several of the cast members like O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Aldis Hodge would also see impressive acting careers in the years ahead. And of course, people were scrambling to make their own music biopics, some of which would also go on to be incredible box office successes. And it’s through this we can truly appreciate Universal’s 2015 success. Over the last few years, Disney has been a constant dominant force, and for good reason. Hell, in 2015, Disney was unstoppable. But Universal’s 2015 was truly something to behold. For years, Universal was more or less ignored, with only one or two notable franchises that people. But in 2015, almost everything went right. Jurassic Park returned to record numbers, Fast & Furious hit an incredible high, and Minions made animated history. Just one of these stories would have solidified Universal’s 2015 as an epic one. Having all three in just one calendar year is just mind-boggling. And all the while, Universal had so many other hits to back up their big three. Pitch Perfect 2 solidified the series as more than just a cult hit. Fifty Shades of Grey took the book series to new heights. Straight Outta Compton reinvented the ways biopics and musician movies can be advertised and released. Trainwreck turned Amy Schumer into a household name. The Visit redeemed M. Night Shyamalan. Even with a couple of lousy performers like Ted 2 or Crimson Peak, the variety and diversity of Universal’s 2015 slate was both commendable and impressive, with great box office returns and decent critical backing for several of them. This was Jurassic, F&F, Illumination, Judd Apatow, Will Packer, and Blumhouse, among many other Universal/Uni-adjacent contributors all at the top of their game, and it’s still astonishing to see how well the studio did with just about every genre in just one year. You can’t say Disney can excel at doing that, I’ll tell you that much. And while Universal hasn’t quite hit the same heights as they have with this, they’re still a consistently strong studio that has consistently seen great box office from many of their silos and franchises. In fact, Jurassic, Despicable Me, and F&F would become one of the few franchises that can consistently hit the billion-dollar club every year since 2015, resulting in a studio that had almost zero before 2012, and one of them only getting there due to a high-profile rerelease in 2013, to six by 2020. And it’s sure to grow, assuming billion-dollar titles are still a thing when this nightmare pandemic is over.

Illumination scored a real winner in sixth place with Minions. This prequel looks at the very beginning of the Minion creatures. These small, gibberish speaking creatures have been around since the dawn of time, existing solely to serve the most evil masters. So before they met Gru, three Minions go out on the search for a new evil villain named Scarlet Overkill. And it’s here where these Minions, Kevin, Stuart, and Bob, find themselves in the adventure of a lifetime. After the smash success of the first Despicable Me, a spin-off title based on the Minion characters was announced in July 2012. Brian Lynch, a co-writer for Illumination’s Hop and the Universal ride Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, signed on as writer for the project. Initially, the plan was for the film to be released in December 2014. However, the massive success of Despicable Me 2 in the summer made Universal realize the money they can make with a July release date. To say nothing of the merchandise potential that could be exploited with a summer release rather than a winter one. This led the film being pushed back to July 2015. Speaking of merchandise, this was a film that was marketed up the wazoo. To the point where you really could not turn a corner without seeing something with a Minion on it. The film’s marketing campaign started literally at the very end of Despicable Me 2, with the end credits hyping up the future spin-off. And alongside several trailers and TV spots, Universal’s parent company Comcast and promotional partners like Chiquita, McDonald’s, General Mills, and even Amazon spent $593 million in advertisements just for this one movie. Despicable Me quickly became one of the biggest animated properties in history, and Universal made sure that they would keep it that way. And wouldn’t you know it, Minions was yet another success story for a series full of success stories. Opening on July 10, Minions was expected to be a monster upon its release, generating anywhere between $100-120 million. And with the immense popularity of the franchise, especially the Minion characters, this spin-off prequel...thing opened to $115.7 million. This was double what the first film generated, becoming the biggest three-day opening for the franchise, and was the second-biggest opening ever for an animated film. An impressive display, as this didn’t have Gru or any of the other characters involved. A true showcase on how much people really loved these goofy little guys. The film wasn’t quite as leggy as the previous two films, chalk that up to mixed reception, but it still left $336 million domestically. The real story however came worldwide. Thanks to some very healthy returns internationally, Minions grossed $1.16 billion worldwide. This meant the film made history and became the first animated film not made by Disney to gross $1 billion, and the second-biggest animated film of all time, as well as a net profit of $525 million, thanks to its thrifty $75 million production budget. This also broke ground when it came to its distributor. With this, Furious 7, and Jurassic World, Universal became the first studio in history to have three movies hit one billion in one calendar year. In fact, in 2015, Universal went from zero billion-dollar hits, at least in its initial theatrical run, to just three. Alongside several other hit titles, many of which we’ll discuss further down the line, this was the year that truly rebirthed the studio from just putting its head above water into an impressive beast of a studio, with several hit franchises and several strong producers generating hits for the studio. Fast and Furious, Jurassic World, and Despicable Me would all continue to be consistent moneymakers worldwide, with theme park rides, TV shows, and an endless supply of merchandise. A sequel to Minions, Minions: The Rise of Gru, is set to release in 2021. Seventh place was a bit of a disappointment with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2. Following the events of Part 1, Katniss is still on a quest to win the war against President Snow. And with the help of the many friends she made through her journey, she might just have enough to kill Snow and take down the Capitol itself. As said before, in a way to keep Lionsgate’s only viable franchise afloat a wee bit longer, Mockingjay was cut down to two parts, which put the pressure on Francis Lawrence. Catching Fire was him proving himself to fans and moviegoers he could do the book justice. And now that he had to direct two movies, he found himself recognizing he had to raise the bar and give something even better for the fans. During production for both movies, Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away due to a mixed drug intoxication. While Hoffman had finished almost all of his scenes, two of them were not yet filmed. Initially it was announced that a CG recreation of Hoffman would be used for a major scene, but Lawrence insisted that was not the case. Rather, these two scenes were rewritten with other actors. For instance, one scene was supposed to have Hoffman’s Plutarch talk with Katniss while she was in detention, Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch instead reads a letter from him. While Mockingjay Part 1 did decline from the last two movies, expectations were higher for Part 2. Deathly Hallows and Breaking Dawn saw declines for Part 1 only to explode in popularity with Part 2. People loved the first two movies and with this being the big epic finale, everybody was just gonna flock back to check this movie out. Right???? Projections for Part 2’s opening weekend were about on par with Part 1, $120-125 million. But as the weeks went by, the buzz seemed like it was deflating. And projections were getting lower and lower, ending with about a mid-$110 million range. And when it finally opened on November 20, its grand debut was just $102.7 million. This was still a successful opening by all accounts, but it was a series low and a significant drop from all the previous films. And again, a stark contrast to what Potter and Twilight generated with their Part 2s. Overseas was also below expectations, with an international opening of $144.5 million, below the $165-185 million projections. Worldwide opening measured to $247.2 million. This was one of the rare kind of opening that was so disappointing and lukewarm that it actually led to a decline in Lionsgate’s stock the following Monday. And this led to a lot of questions as to why Mockingjay Part 2 ended on such a whimper. Lionsgate co-chairman Rob Freidman blamed both the tragic Paris attacks as something that limited European interest, as well as the incoming Force Awakens sucking up all the attention from moviegoers. Freidman said that without those two elements, the movie would have gotten an extra $50-100 million. Other reasons could be that the decision to split the final book into two chapters was becoming more of an annoyance with moviegoers or that the lack of any actual Hunger Games, the hook for the first two movies, made this less enticing to moviegoers. Whatever the reason, the film’s $281.7 million domestic and $658.3 million worldwide grosses seem fine at first glance. The movie even turned a solid net profit of $134.3 million. But this big grand finale for Lionsgate’s biggest franchise ended up becoming the lowest-grossing film in the franchise, ultimately being a whimper for the series. However, that didn’t stop Lionsgate from trying to milk some money out of it. Spin-offs were already being considered as early as 2017, but things seem to be going underway with a new prequel. Early in 2020, a new novel by Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, was put onto bookshelves, telling the origin story of President Snow. And wouldn't’ you know it, Lionsgate, alongside Francis Lawrence and many of the other Hunger Games creatives, are already developing a film based on the book. Will it take the series back to glory? Only time will tell. Eighth domestic and tenth worldwide, we have The Martian. After a failed mission to Mars, one astronaut, a botanist named Mark Watney, finds himself stranded alone on the red planet. Following that, the film looks at two different stories. One of them is Watney, played by Matt Damon, trying to survive and keep himself alive by any means necessary. And the other one is the crew back at NASA trying to find a way to get Watney home before its too late. Based on the Andy Weir novel from 2011, a film project was optioned by 20th Century Fox in March 2013, with Simon Kinberg as a producer. The following May would see Drew Goddard entering negotiations not just as a writer on the film, but also as a director. Matt Damon later expressed interest in the project under Goddard’s direction. Ultimately, while Goddard did get a script down, his attachment to a Sinister Six movie meant the director’s seat was open. Sure enough, Ridley Scott entered negotiations in May 2014. Scott really loved how the novel and script emphasized science and felt there was something exciting about making a movie that balanced entertainment and education. And after Scott signed on, the project quickly grew pace, with filming starting in November 2014. Like with the original novel, The Martian movie saw a lot of involvement and consulting from NASA, ensuring the science and technology used was accurate, as they believed the film could be a good vessel to promote space exploration. What was different from the original novel was the characterization of Mark Watney. Watney in the book was a wisecracker and quick thinker. And while those elements and comedy was used in the movie, Scott focused on the isolation Watney found himself within the dusty Martian landscape, giving the film a bit more of a distressing angle and a stark contrast from the business of the NASA sequences. Around 20 sets were also constructed for the film. Another major change in the novel had to do with the ethnicities of some of the characters. The character Mindy Park was Korean in the book, but was played by white actress Mackenzie Davis in the movie. Asian-Indian character Venkat Kapoor was also played by non-Indian actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and given the name Vincent Kapoor. This caused a bit of controversy by the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans (MANAA), as considering the limited roles already given to Asian actors in Hollywood, this whitewashing and refusal to give Asian actors a slot in a major Hollywood production did not sit well with many. Ultimately, it did very little to diminish the hype people had for the title. Helped by a major viral marketing campaign that pushed the film as an event piece rather than a sci-fi drama, The Martian was already tracking to do great business, with projections on the film earning an opening in the $40 million range. But thanks to great reviews, a popular source material, and even reports about water found on Mars, The Martian managed to open far above expectations, opening to $54.3 million. This was both the second-biggest October opening of all time, only behind Gravity, as well as the second-biggest Matt Damon opening of all time, only behind The Bourne Ultimatum, and the second-biggest Ridley Scott opening of all time, only behind Hannibal. That’s a lot of twos. It was a smash hit right out of the gate, helped by a good source, a good concept, and a likable actor. And with the film generating significant awards buzz over the next few months, The Martian was a powerhouse in the next few weeks, with it staying the #1 movie on its second weekend with a 32% drop. And while it did go to #2 on its third weekend due to the release of Goosebumps, The Martian would jump back to #1 on its fourth and fifth weekend. And despite competition through November, The Martian continued to pack houses week after week. The film wrapped up with $228.4 million domestically and $655.2 million worldwide, becoming both Ridley Scott and Matt Damon’s biggest movie of all time. And with numerous accolades during awards season, alongside appearing on several best of the year list from critics, The Martian was a success through and through, in terms of critical reviews, industry acclaim, and box office grosses, with a net profit of $150.32 million according to Deadline. This film would continue Ridley Scott’s very healthy relationship with 20th Century Fox, even after the Disney buyout. Alien: Covenant would release in 2017, while The Last Duel is set for release in 2021. A movie about Napoleon, Kitbag, is also currently in development with Joaquin Phoenix in the role. Disney scored yet another remake hit with Cinderella, earning ninth domestically. After the death of her family, a young woman named Ella finds herself forced to be a scullery maid by her cruel stepmother and boorish stepsisters. But after meeting a dashing young stranger, her life is changed forever. And with the help of a fairy godmother, as well as her own virtues of kindness and courage, Ella may find herself in a new world of royal proportions. While not the first movie to see a release, this live-action Cinderella, inspired by the iconic 1950 animated Disney classic, was one of the first of these remakes to get greenlit after the record-breaking success of Alice in Wonderland. May 2010 was the first real inklings of information given, with Devil Wears Prada’s Aline Brosh McKenna as a writer and Simon Kinberg as a producer. In August 2011, One Hour Photo director Mark Romanek was brought on to direct, and Chris Weitz took charge to rewrite McKenna’s script in February 2012. One year later, January 2013, Romanek left the project due to creative differences. His version was initially set to be darker than what Disney originally intended, and that didn’t fly with the head executives. So why they got the One Hour Photo guy on this movie I'll never understand. This was a major labor of love to Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn. Reportedly he wanted this live-action Cinderella to be the definitive adaptation of the timeless classic, and was willing to spend whatever was needed to make it happen. Of course, Disney already made the definitive Cinderella movie a few decades earlier, but whatever. The film finally began seeing traction when Kenneth Branagh signed on as director, but it still wasn’t an easy development process. Cate Blanchett was the first official cast member, playing Lady Tremaine. But Cinderella herself went through a few casting changes. Emma Watson was the first actress planned, but a deal couldn’t work out. Don’t worry. She’ll be fine. Gabriella Wilde, Saoirse Ronan, Alicia Vikander, Bella Heathcote and even Margot Robbie were also in consideration for the role. But when all was said and done, Lily James would go on to play the iconic character. A big highlight of the film was the costume design by Sandy Powell of Shakespeare in Love and The Aviator fame. Powell’s designs could be traced back to 2011, two years before filming began, with the aim for the film to look like a 19th century period piece made in the 1940s or 1950s. The famed ball gown in the film was heavily inspired by the animated film, with Powell intending for it to look almost like Cinderella was floating with the dress, almost like a watercolor painting. Nine dresses were made for the movie, each 270 yards of fabric and 10,000 crystals. Powell would gain serious kudos for her work, earning Oscar, BAFTA, Empire, and Critics Choice nominations for her work. Cinderella was a very important film for Disney, as both another live-action remake and another avenue to promote the Disney Princess line. This not only led to several trailers, the second of which went on to be the most viewed non-Marvel trailer ever for Disney, but even a Frozen short titled Frozen Fever. Every little girl was hyped for this. And sure enough, Cinderella would be a boffo success for Disney. The film earned immensely positive reviews, with praise towards the actors, Branagh’s direction, and the costume and art direction. And at the box office, the film was just one of the many hits that defined Disney in 2015. Opening on March 13, Cinderella saw an opening of $67.9 million. This was not only the biggest opening of Kenneth Branagh’s career, but it was also the fourth-biggest Disney March opening and the seventh-biggest March opening in general. And with positive reception, Cinderella managed to gross $201.1 million domestically and $542.3 million worldwide. Net profit earned was $164.77 million. On the lower end of the Disney remakes, but still an impressive haul considering the lack of action or starpower. This also made Cinderella the biggest Branagh film of all time, ensuring he would have several other directorial works for years to come...of course, the monkey’s paw here is that we got Artemis Fowl out of this. And of course, Cinderella would sell dolls and produce future remakes in the years to come. Bond’s Skyfall follow-up Spectre landed in tenth place domestically and sixth place worldwide. Bond finds himself pitted against the sinister global crime organization Spectre, led by Ernst Blofeld, played by Christoph Waltz. Blofeld plans to launch a national surveillance network that would mastermind criminal activities across the globe. And of course, 007 is the only one who can save the day. In March 2013, Sam Mendes, the director of Skyfall, stated he would not return to direct the next movie. However, not long after, Mendes would go on to say he found a good script and liked the plans Eon had for the franchise long-term. Funny enough, Drive’s Nicholas Winding Refn was in consideration for the director’s chair. Regardless, Mendes would become the first director since John Glen to direct at least two consecutive Bond titles. Other Skyfall alumni included Daniel Craig, Naomie Harris, and Ben Wishaw in the cast, as well as writers John Logan, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. The usage of the Spectre organization was a big deal, as this marked the end of several long and confusing litigations between Eon Productions and producer Kevin McClory. McClory sued Ian Fleming in 1961 claiming ownership over certain elements in the novel Thunderball, resulting in McClory getting the film rights for Spectre and its characters. November 2013 saw MGM and the McClory estate settle the issue with Danjaq, resulting in MGM finally getting these rights, allowing them to use it for future Bond movies. One of the many interesting new characters introduced was Mr. Hinx, a silent assassin that only says one line in the whole movie. Eon wanted an actor with a background in contact sports for the role, resulting in Dave Bautista as Hinx. Mendes was nervous Bautista wouldn’t want to play a character with only one line, but Bautista was immediately on board. Not only is Bautista a lifelong Bond fan, he loved the challenge of playing a character that didn’t speak. Bautista would become universally regarded as one of the best parts of the movie. Like with many of the other Bond releases, Spectre was distributed by Sony. During renegotiations with MGM on the franchise in 2011, Sony was tasked to provide 25% of the negative cost for both Skyfall and this, in exchange for receiving 25% of the profits plus distribution fees. This was already a pretty significant amount of change, as Spectre had an estimated production budget of $245-300 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. But Sony had even worse news to deal with. With the Sony hack of November 2014, memos related to Spectre’s production were released. Such memos revealed the film was over budget, early drafts written by John Logan were leaked, and Sony reportedly was frustrated with the project and how it was coming along. However, despite the leaked information from the hack, nothing could stop excitement from Bond fans. And sure enough, Spectre would go on to be another hit, even if a bit underwhelming after the boffo success of Skyfall. Even the song by Sam Smith underwhelmed, despite an Oscar win. Its domestic opening of $70.4 million was the second-biggest Bond opening ever, only behind Skyfall, but it was considered below industry expectations. At the same time, despite having a lot of the same creative team, reviews were much more mixed, with criticism towards its screenplay and pacing being a major factor. This would result in Spectre having to fudge its way to $200 million in the United States and Canada, leading to a few weeks of epic money manipulation. Worldwide saw the film at $880.7 million, making it, again, the second-biggest Bond title unadjusted. For its net profit, Deadline estimated the film earned about $98.4 million. But for Sony, they were left with chump change. It was estimated that if the film performed on level with Skyfall, Sony would have earned a net profit of $38 million. But because the movie did 20% less than Skyfall, Sony only got $24.6 million in profit. Remember, Sony had to pay a lot for this movie’s production costs, and they only got 25% of certain profits. They also had to spend millions in marketing and even had to give MGM some of the profit for their non-Bond titles like 22 Jump Street...for some reason. Ultimately, this led to Sony not renewing their contract with MGM, with Universal Pictures getting international rights and United Artists, a subsidiary of MGM, taking charge of US distribution for the next Bond title No Time to Die. Set to be the final outing for Daniel Craig, this Bond title is perhaps most infamous for being the first movie to be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with it currently set for release in April 2021. We’ll see if that sticks or if it will actually turn out well.

Third place was the highly-anticipated sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tony Stark finds himself in a pickle after he and Bruce Banner create a new AI program named Ultron. Intended to be a peacekeeping program, Ultron believes that the only way to make the Earth peaceful is to eradicate humanity itself. And thus, it’s up to the Avengers to save the day once again. An Avengers sequel was pretty much inevitable since day 1, with the plan being for Avengers 2 to serve as the big finale for Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What wasn’t inevitable was Joss Whedon. Whedon was interested in making an Avengers sequel, particularly one that was a bit smaller in scale, but he was still unsure if he wanted to helm the big follow-up to his big movie. When you direct one of the biggest movies in history, where do you go from there? Regardless, it was formally announced in August 2012 that Whedon would write and direct Avengers 2 for a May 2015 release date. An outline was completed in December 2012, although some elements, such as the inclusion of Captain Marvel, were cut. One of the more interesting things about this project was that two of the new heroes introduced were characters Disney only partially had the film rights to. The sibling duo Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were included as Whedon loved their dynamic and unique superpowers, as well as how they added a unique conflict to the story. The issue however was that they were X-Men characters. They were Magneto’s kids actually. And seen as how Disney couldn’t include the X-Men or mutants in their Avengers title due to rights issues, a compromise was made. They were included in the movie, but their origin story was completely rewritten by Whedon to avoid anything related to mutants. Ultron also saw a rewrite to his backstory. Because Hank Pym wasn’t featured in any of the movies yet, and Edgar Wright still had rights to the character back when he was developing his own movie (we’ll get back to that), Ultron was conceived by the Avengers. Whedon also felt this made the story stronger, as this was a monster the heroes created. Many were surprised and disappointed that Ultron was the big baddie and not Thanos, considering the tease we got in the first Avengers. However, Whedon said he was never meant to be the next villain. Considering Thanos was the lord of all villainy, it was too early to introduce him. Age of Ultron was a film so hyped, its marketing campaign began two years before its release. At Comic-Con 2013, Whedon hosted a panel on the title, giving just a tiny little teaser that revealed the title and Ultron’s helmet design. Sneak peeks and tiny drops of information continued from there, as concept art and interviews hit online and during Marvel-themed TV broadcasts. It appeared again at Comic-Con 2014, with the cast and footage unveiled. It actually became the second-biggest thing at that Comic-Con in terms of social media mentions, only behind Batman v Superman. It did earn a higher intend-to-see response though. Finally, the first trailer leaked online October 22, 2014. With a remix of Pinocchio’s "I Got No Strings", Age of Ultron’s first trailer saw 34.3 million views worldwide in the first 24 hours, making it the highest-viewed trailer in history up to that point. And after that, trailer after featurette after cross-promotion after exclusive clips released, all in preparation for the big event on May 1. And hey, there were plenty of expectations for this to become yet another record-breaker in terms of opening. All the other MCU sequels saw an increase, and people fell in love with the first movie. Surely, this will follow tradition. Of course that didn’t actually happen. With an opening of $191.3 million, it earned itself the second-biggest opening of all time. But with all the hype going into it, as well as how much excitement there was from fanboys, it seems strange that the film dropped 10% below the first film’s opening. Some say it was just coming down to Earth, others say it was some boxing match's fault. Whatever the reason, it was still by all accounts an objective hit, even if it wasn’t as sky-high as many would have liked. The film would continue to play okay in the weeks to come. Reception was alright, its legs were frontloaded but nothing too alarming. With about $459 million domestically and $1.4 billion worldwide, Age of Ultron became the fifth highest-grossing film of all time and an estimated net profit of $382.32 million. But when all is said and done, even today, people don’t really know how to respond to Ultron’s performance. It made a lot of money, and was yet another success story for the MCU. But its opening and legs left something to be desired, which meant money could have been left on the table. Maybe The Avengers was just so huge it’s hard to really justify any further increase? Maybe the MCU is getting more and more insular and fan-driven that it’s hard for it to go any further than what Avengers 1 did. Whether you believe it was another mega hit or the highest-grossing disappointment in film history, it did at least show that Marvel fever was still maintained for a good chunk of the moviegoing population. And without getting into spoilers, when it comes to the next batch of Avengers titles, it’s fair to say their determination in terms of success or failure is a bit more concrete. Pixar did what they did best in fourth place (seventh worldwide) with Inside Out. The setting for this animated film is the mind of an 11-year old girl named Riley. Riley, and the rest of the world for that matter, is controlled by five distinct emotions personified: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Riley’s emotions try to help Riley adjust to her new surroundings after her family move from Minnesota to San Francisco, but this soon leads to a massive adventure for Joy and Sadness that sees them traveling through all the facets of Riley’s mind. This was directed by Up’s Pete Docter, who got inspiration for the concept from his own life. His family relocated to Denmark when he was a young boy, and while his sisters had an easy time adjusting to new surroundings, Pete felt he was constantly judged by his peers, with him developing social anxiety. Years later, when Docter found success at Pixar and made a family of his own, he started to notice his pre-teen daughter was exhibiting a lot of the similar shyness and insecurities he had growing up, a contrast to her bubbly personality as a little kid. This led to him imagining what goes on in the human mind itself as a person matures and develops. And thus, Pete Docter had the next idea for his new animated project. A film literally about strong, caricatured personalities. Doctor began researching the mind to help make the film work, which resulted in several consultants joining the project, such as famed psychologist Paul Ekman and psychology professor at Berkeley Dacher Keltner. Ekman was the one who coined that the human mind has six emotions: joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise. Doctor felt fear and surprise were too similar, so the latter was tossed out. And since then, the film underwent four years of story development. This was a unique story crew, as while the animation industry is dominated by men, half of the crew were women. This helped lead to the decision to make the setting of the film be the mind of a girl, as girls ages 11 to 17 are more attuned to expressions and emotions than other demographics. Initially the plot for the movie would have focused on Joy and Fear getting lost, as the team felt they had the best contrast and comedic potential. But by July 2012, after an evaluation screening, Pete Docter realized the film was not working. He thought the movie was so bad in fact that it might lead to him getting fired from Pixar. Later one Sunday afternoon, Docter took a nice long walk, thinking about how he was a failure for not getting the film to work and that he should resign himself from the project. And during that walk, he began to think what he would miss most if he left Pixar, concluding he would miss his coworkers and friends most of all. And then it hit him. Emotions are used to connect people together and relationships are the most important thing in one’s life. This resulted in Docter replacing Fear with Sadness and developing a story all about the importance of being sad and how our emotions connect us to the people we love. The film’s art design was a unique one. While the exterior of Riley’s world is realistic, with more handheld camera shots and realistic animation and movements, the interior of Riley’s head was something else. Not only did it take inspiration from 1950s Broadway musicals, but also the likes of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. The character designs were specifically caricatured with a cartoony look, with their designs shaped to look like items that can be associated with each emotion. Joy looks like a star, Sadness looks like a tear, Anger a Brick, Fear a frayed nerve, Disgust a piece of broccoli. This allowed for a film that was distinct from not just Pixar, but many other animated movies at the time. While Disney and Pixar executives did approve of the project, especially after Up’s success proved audiences enjoyed more sophisticated animated fare, there was concern going in on how to market the picture. There was concern that due to the film’s complex themes and ideas, it wouldn’t be as easy to promote or sell, especially to kids. Thankfully, the film went into a test screening shortly before the film came out, and the kids in the audience reacted really positively to the feature. And sure enough, Pixar put out a major marketing campaign hyping up the film, including a premiere at Cannes. Alongside a press screening at CinemaCon, Inside Out was hyped up as an incredible work of art. It earned praise for its animation, characters, comedy, and especially its story, being hailed as some of the best Pixar has ever done, at a time when reception to Pixar titles were becoming less celebratory and more generally positive. With all this acclaim, it set the hype even further, ensuring to audiences this was both a fun family film and a powerful look at the human mind and the value of human emotions. When the film finally released on June 19, this broke a streak for Pixar. Inside Out was the first film to not open to #1 upon its release, as Jurassic World repeated at the slot. This may seem bad at first glance, but then you take one look at its opening. On its opening weekend, it earned itself an incredible $90.4 million opening weekend. This not only meant that Inside Out earned the second-biggest Pixar opening, only behind Toy Story 3, but it also saw the biggest opening for a film that did not debut at #1, beating The Day After Tomorrow’s 11-year record. And yeah, at this point, who knows if that record will ever be toppled? But more importantly, Inside Out held the distinction of earning the highest opening weekend ever for a completely original film, with no originating source material to draw from, beating out Avatar six years ago. And as it turns out, Inside Out continued to gain universal praise, with people loving so much of the world, characters, and themes. This resulted in the film becoming a leggy beast throughout the summer, despite heavy competition from fellow summer animated opener Minions. In fact, on its third weekend, it actually managed to hit #1. This would of course lead to an incredible $356.5 million domestic total and $857.6 million worldwide, making it the second-biggest Pixar movie ever domestically up to that point, only behind Toy Story 3, and the third-biggest Pixar release worldwide, behind TS3 and Finding Nemo. Net profit was $279.51 million. It was a monumental success and one that succeeded solely due to quality merits and the supposed return of a quality brand name. While films like Brave or Monsters University had their fans, Inside Out was a return to films like Ratatouille or Up. Films that struck a chord with all audiences, and tapping into a strong emotional core that keeps all ages invested in the story. And in the years since, Inside Out has still cultivated a passionate fan base, with many arguing this is the best film Pixar has ever made. A sequel has been mentioned once or twice, but there are currently no real plans for a successor. Fifth place saw Fast and Furious soar to new heights with Furious 7, the third biggest release worldwide that year. Dom and Brian have returned to the US after earning amnesty for their past crimes. But an assassin named Deckard Shaw, played by Jason Statham, seeks revenge after the Fast crew put his brother Owen into a comatose state in the last movie. The team is danger again and once more find themselves called into action in a globe-trotting epic. When Vin Diesel and Neil Moritz began developing Fast and Furious into a sprawling franchise, one idea that was planned was for Fast Six and Fast Seven to be filmed back to back with a single storyline running between the two films, a la the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. Said Diesel, “We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages...The studio said, 'You can't fit all that story in one damn movie!'”. Ultimately, that didn’t happen, as weather issues in filming locations made it difficult to film both titles simultaneously. So instead, Furious 7’s filming took place after the release of Fast & Furious 6. One of the bigger departures that emerged was that Justin Lin, the man who directed the last three Fast and Furious titles, was not returning as a director. While Lin was still invested as a director, Universal put a seriously bad crunch in terms of release schedule. Universal had very few reliable franchises at the time compared to studios like Disney or Warner Bros. so they wanted their next F&F movie to be released in summer 2014, one year after the release of Fast & Furious 6. This meant Lin had to go through pre-production while taking part in post production for F&F 6. Because he felt the lack of preparation would hurt the quality of the movie, Lin left the director’s chair. Not long after, famed horror director James Wan was put in charge of the project, with an official release date of July 2014. One of the biggest things stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos pushed for this title was a sense of realism. While all of the action and car chases were ludicrous and ridiculous, he still wanted there to be a sense that what was happening could be achieved. So for something like the airdrop sequence, where a bunch of cars fell out of an airplane, they actually had those cars plummet from the sky, although clever editing techniques were also used. There’s another scene where Brian is jumping off a bus off a cliff, and that stuntman actually was jumping for his life, with no CGI in sight. And funny enough, this sequence almost didn’t happen. Razatos wanted the sequence, which took place near the woods, to be filmed in Colorado. But the studio wanted it in Georgia because Colorado had no tax breaks, with the plan being to put CGI trees in the background. But Razatos felt audiences would tell the trees were artificial, and ultimately Razatos got his way. Of course, as we all know, Furious 7’s production was one hit with sadness. Production began in September 2013, and things went smooth enough for the film, with a fair amount of scenes shot. But on November 30, 2013, tragedy struck. While on a Thanksgiving break, Paul Walker was killed in a single-car crash, dying at the tragically young age of 40. This was a devastating loss, especially for Fast & Furious fans the world over. Here was a young actor who had been lighting up movie screens for almost an entire decade in a film franchise so many had a fondness for just...taken away. And this certainly led to a complicated future for the film’s remaining production schedule. Production was delayed the following day, with it being on an indefinite hold a few days later. Furious 7 would get delayed about 9 months, April 2015, and it wasn’t until April 2014 production started up again. There were many debates over what should happen to Brian O’Connor, but it was decided it was best for the character to retire instead of be killed off, and several new scenes were developed that would allow the franchise to continue without him. For the many scenes that featured Brian that were yet to be shot, the filmmakers had Weta Digital, the people behind the VFX for Lord of the Rings, Avatar and Planet of the Apes. Alongside Paul’s brothers Caleb and Cody serving as stand-in, Weta superimposed Walker’s face over the bodies of Paul’s brothers or actor John Brotherton in 350 effects shots. 260 shots were a computer-generated face, and 90 shots repurposed actual footage of Paul Walker from deleted scenes or older footage. This created a seamless integration of the actor that was still tasteful and respectful. The loss of Walker also led to a complete rework of the ending, which featured an emotional tribute montage of Walker in the previous films, Brian driving off into the sunset, and a certain hit single. “See You Again” was performed by Wiz Khalifa and relative unknown Charlie Puth. The latter was approached by his publishing company to create a melody that would help pay tribute to Walker for this new movie. Sure enough, Puth wrote and performed the piece, and used the life of a college friend of his, who himself lost his life in a motorcycle accident, to help create a strong emotional crux. Wiz Khalifa later joined the song to create the rap verses, and it would become, in many ways, a major highlight to the film itself. The film finally released on April 3, Easter weekend. During the run-up to release, featuring a world premiere at SXSW, it was one of those films that rose higher and higher in terms of box office potential. Projections started at $115 million, only to rise to $150 million by the time of its release. And sure enough, Furious 7 was a hit for the ages. Its $147.2 million opening is one of those instances where its records are too many to count. It was the ninth-biggest opening weekend in history, the third-biggest non-summer opening, the biggest April opening, the biggest Fast & Furious opening, and the biggest opening ever for Universal Pictures. In fact, it was the first time ever a Universal movie hit $100 million in an opening weekend. At the same time, the film’s international debut saw it reach $240.4 million overseas, resulting in the third-biggest international opening. The worldwide debut of $384 million gave it the fourth-biggest worldwide opening ever. Of course, when it comes to markets, the big success story here was with China. Its opening day of $68.6 million was the biggest first day for any film there, whether Chinese or foreign. This would soon lead to Furious 7 becoming the first film ever to reach 2 billion in renminbi, and actually became the film’s biggest territory with $390.9 million. And with incredible box office numbers just about everywhere else, Furious 7 got itself $353 million domestically, $1.16 billion overseas, a grand total of $1.51 billion worldwide, and a net profit of $354 million. This made Furious 7 the fourth-biggest movie of all time, as well as the very first film from Universal Pictures that reached $1 billion in its initial first run. “See You Again” was also a smash success. It spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts, tying “Lose Yourself” for the longest-running rap single, was the most-streamed song on Spotify for its first day, was the highest-viewed music video in history, earned three Grammy nominations and a Golden Globe nomination, and became the best-selling song of 2015 worldwide. All the while, unknown Charlie Puth became a music superstar overnight, with him going on to earn two studio albums. The performance of Fast & Furious as a franchise is a surreal one. In 2001, the first title was a nice, midbudget title that focused on the niche topic of drag racing that made solid money. And for a while, the sequels didn’t do much to write home about. Fast forward to 2015 and it spawned an epic franchise that consistently hit box office records. As I’ve said many times in the past, the future success of Fast and Furious can be traced to a lot of surprise events and a lot of creativity on Neil Moritz’ part. Instead of just doing the same thing over and over again, the Fast sequels got more and more creative with each installment, expanding the world, adding new characters, raising the stakes, and upping the ante, all while keeping what people liked about the series intact. Characters like Roman and Tej breathed new life when Vin Diesel called it quits. A new direction for the franchise with Fast Five helped it become more accessible to general audiences. Adding in fan favorite characters helped excite the people who were there from the beginning. Making the films more and more ridiculous and crazy with each installment made people curious what the series would do next. It’s this idea of smart worldbuilding and memorable characters that defines some of the biggest movie franchises today. People love the MCU because of the colorful cast and unique worlds. People love Star Wars because of the memorable characters and interesting philosophies. People love Jurassic Park for the charming dinos and its themes of science and coexistence. This is what allowed Fast and Furious to become one of the all-time box office greats, and it’s fair to say we still have a lot more to discuss in the years to come.

For second place, while not as massive as the film above it, this was something that truly came out of nowhere and brought in some real excitement in a property that lay dormant for years. And since then, blockbusters truly haven't been the same. That film is titled Jurassic World. More than 20 years after the events of Jurassic Park, an actual dinosaur theme park finally opened to the public. For nearly a decade, the park has been operating smoothly. But when the park plays God and creates a new dinosaur species known as the Indominus rex, havoc runs amok, and only raptor trainer Chris Pratt can save the park. Jurassic Park IV was one of those movies that took forever and a half to come out. The idea first started getting traction in 2001, the same year as Jurassic Park III. Spielberg had the story late in JP3’s production. While Joe Johnston was hesitant to return as director, Spielberg was fast tracking the idea by late 2002, with William Monahan as a screenwriter and both him and Kathleen Kennedy as producers. Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum were being considered to return, and the plan was for this to be the final movie in the series and it would ignore the events of its predecessor. The initial story involved dinosaurs migrating to the Costa Rican mainland. Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant discover the dinosaurs are breeding on an offshore island and they have to try and restrict the dinos from breeding any further or else prevent an ecological disaster. Monahan’s first draft was sent in 2003, with plans for Sam Neill to return and Keira Knightley to play an unknown role. But in 2004, Monahan left the project to work on the film Kingdom of Heaven. And thus, the project was left abandoned. However, that same year, Frank Marshall joined the project and John Sayles signed on as the new screenwriter. Sayles’ script focused on a new character, a mercenary named Rick Harris, who finds himself trying to extract some dinosaur DNA for John Hammond, only to be kidnapped by a Swiss company that now owns Isla Nubar and is forced to train genetically modified raptors for use on rescue missions and combatting drug dealers. Yes, this is real. The idea of a human training raptors came from Spielberg. Alex Proyas was in negotiations to direct with plans for a late 2005 release. But shortly after, Proyas was uninterested and the script was apparently too crazy and weird for a Jurassic Park sequel. And sure enough, after countless revisions, Spielberg didn’t like the direction the movie was going, resulting in the film being stalled in 2005. Spielberg went on to focus on other projects. Then in early 2006, Frank Marshall revealed a new script was made and Joe Johnston was set to direct. However, things started to get murky. Apparently there was no script written yet, and both the filming date and release date was delayed further and further. From 2008 then all the way to 2009. Joe Johnston then mentioned he was involved in the fourth movie, with the plan being for this to kickstart a brand new trilogy and be completely different from the previous drafts. In 2011, Mark Protosevich was attached to write a fourth installment, but both of his treatments never went anywhere, as Spielberg felt the story wasn’t adequate enough. Finally, in June 2012, things started to change when Rise of the Planet of the Apes writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver joined the project. The writers incorporated three different ideas Spielberg had for a fourth Jurassic Park title. The setting was a fully functional dinosaur theme park. There’s a human who has a relationship with some trained raptors. And there was a human-eating dinosaur that serves as the bad guy. Finally, a 2014 release date was set in January 2013. But who was going to direct it? JA Bayona was considered for a while, but scheduling conflicts led to him dropping out. Believe it or not, the director came from Incredibles director Brad Bird. Back when Bird was in negotiations to direct The Force Awakens, he suggested to Kathleen Kennedy that Colin Trevorrow, a man whose only film credit was the 2012 comedy Safety Not Guaranteed, serve as a stand-in for him during the film’s pre-production, with Bird stepping in after he wrapped up the future box office bomb Tomorrowland. Ultimately, Bird wouldn’t even direct The Force Awakens. But that Trevorrow kid intrigued Kennedy. Her and her husband Frank Marshall would watch Safety Not Guaranteed, and both thought it was impressive stuff. Real impressive. They soon realized Colin Trevorrow was the one and only person who could direct Jurassic Park IV. And after a few negotiations, Trevorrow joined the project while Jaffa and Silver were still working on their screenplay. One of the first things Trevorrow did after joining the project was completely throwing away the script already written. Feeling it lacked much excitement or scale, Trevorrow rewrote the entire piece with his partner Derek Connolly. David Koepp was an advisor. This led to the film being delayed from a summer 2014 release all the way to a then unspecified date. This not only allowed time to improve the script but also allowed the crew to build practical sets for the fictional theme park. The ideas Trevorrow and Connolly had were two ideas that were developing over the past 20 years in society. The pursuit of money leading to environmental disaster and the ubiquity of technology leading to ignorance and taking for granted the idea of scientific wonders. One of the first ideas when it came to those themes was a teenager texting his girlfriend while a T-rex was right behind him in protective glass. It was a parallel to audiences themselves. The CGI on Jurassic Park was groundbreaking in 1993, as it was unlike anything else. But now? CGI is so commonplace it has nothing interesting to offer. Sure enough, the film was given a June 2015 release date, saw co-financing by Legendary Pictures, and saw a title change from Jurassic Park IV to Jurassic World. The reason for the title change was done to help differentiate it from the rest of the series, as while it was taking place in the same continuity, it was practically a reboot in terms of story, tone, and characters. It even took place on a different island. In fact, despite Neill, Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Richard Attenborough all being set to return from 2003 to 2008 during previous iterations, none of them are in Jurassic World. Trevorrow felt that if there was no real good reason to add them into the movie, they shouldn’t come back at all. Only BD Wong’s Dr. Wu from the first movie returned for this film. Shortly after the script was done, casting went underway. Bryce Dallas Howard, who was set to be in the film even before production was delayed, starred as the female lead Claire. Ty Simpkins was cast as the child lead in October 2013 with Nick Robinson as his older brother. Jake Johnson was considered for a role as well, and for the male lead, a raptor tamer named Owen, both John Krasinski and Josh Brolin were in negotiations before both were dropped. Ultimately, Chris Pratt was given the role, and at a convenient time too. After filming for the movie wrapped in August 2014, Chris Pratt just had his new Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy release to theaters. Alongside the success of The Lego Movie, Pratt became a movie star overnight, which resulted in a movie that already had plenty going for it in terms of brand recognition get a nice feather in its cap. Vincent D’Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, and Omar Sy joined in early 2014. The first bits of marketing occurred in summer 2014, with pictures of the film set and film stills releasing. A Comic-Con panel followed shortly after with an exclusive poster being made with the famous tagline “The Park is Open”. The first trailer finally dropped on November 25, in time for an NBC Thanksgiving football game. Another TV spot debuted at the Super Bowl, with a clip from the movie, which later got panned by woke bae Joss Whedon, aired at the MTV Movie Awards. And in late April, in time with the release of Age of Ultron, one final trailer released. Trevorrow was disappointed in how the last trailer spoiled so much, but Universal had to do it. While Jurassic World wasn’t a risky venture, the disappointing critical and commercial success of Jurassic Park III did mean this movie had to do a lot to get the bad taste out of people’s mouths. Little did we know Jurassic World would do a lot to get rid of that taste for people. A few weeks before its June 12 release, projections and tracking for the title were pretty solid, with about $125 million. It's a good opening that would have very much solidified Jurassic World as a solid reboot that keeps the franchise going as a theatrical play. But it started to feel as if something special was brewing with this title. The buzz was starting to pick up more and more, and with decent reviews, Chris Pratt’s starpower, and the nostalgia machine, people were really hyped up for this. Little did we know that Jurassic World inexplicably got itself a record all its own. Things seemed pretty crazy already when the film earned itself $81.9 million on its opening day, repping the third-biggest opening day of all time. Already heads were turning at this movie that was projected to open in the $125 million range. And sure enough, on Saturday, word of mouth was starting to spread. Despite only garnering okay reviews, people were digging the dino action on display. So much so, the film only dropped 15% on Saturday, earning $69.6 million, the biggest Saturday of all time. And with a further drop of 18% on Sunday, as people continued to see what this hyped beast of a film was all about, it saw an extra $57.2 million, another record. All told, Jurassic World did the unthinkable. With an opening weekend of $208.8 million, Jurassic World beat out The Avengers and earned the biggest opening weekend in history...then Force Awakens stole its thunder. At the same time, the film saw a record worldwide opening of $524.4 million, becoming the first film ever to open with $500 million in one weekend. Then you know...Force Awakens stole its thunder. Even today, it’s still confusing and surreal to me that Jurassic World broke these records. I was there during the run-up to release. And while people seemed excited for it, it didn’t seem like that many people were hyping this up or were gunning to see it. It also didn’t seem like box office experts expected much from this title either. So when I saw that this movie not only opened the way it did, but surpassed The Avengers, I was completely confused. I would have understood if this movie did $150 million. But how did this movie, coming off two mediocre predecessors, had okay reviews, and a solid, if not too crazy marketing campaign, opened the way it did? And yeah, I still don’t have a clear answer. Maybe it was nostalgia. Maybe it was Chris Pratt. Maybe it was the appeal of seeing dinosaurs on the big screen after years of dormancy. Maybe it was a lack of another event title in the marketplace. Either way, Jurassic Park was back and it was bigger than ever. And it was just one of many, many, many titles that gave Universal Pictures a banner year for the ages. The weeks went on, and Jurassic World continued to be flocked as the film of choice, with its second weekend becoming the biggest second weekend of all time, $106.6 million for a 10-day total of $402.8 million, making it the fastest movie to reach every conceivable box office milestone you could think of. Its third weekend saw it drop another 49%, resulting in $54.5 million and a 17-day total of $500.4 million. It became the fastest movie ever to reach $500 million. It finally finished its run at $652.3 million, making it the third-highest grossing movie of all time, only behind Avatar and Titanic, and the highest-grossing Universal Pictures movie in history. Worldwide grosses saw the film leap to $1.67 billion, which was, again, the third-biggest gross in history, behind the Cameron duo. A net profit of $474 million was made. Within the box office community, Jurassic World was very much overshadowed by the release of The Force Awakens, which opened and finished far above it across all metrics just a couple months later. But if I can be honest, Jurassic World was the bigger success story here, solely due to the surprise factor. If you just do what’s expected, it’s not really that compelling or interesting. And while maybe only until a few months prior, people didn’t think The Force Awakens would get the numbers it did receive, we all knew it was going to be a monster. We all knew there was immense hype at the very idea of Star Wars: Episode VII, so while its near-billion dollar domestic total was a shocker, it wasn’t that crazy to say it would do amazing. Jurassic World was a film nobody expected to hit $400 million, let alone $600 million. The expectation was nothing more than a solid blockbuster hit, but it instead exploded into an opening for the ages and revitalized one of the greatest, most iconic movie franchises of all time. And since then, Jurassic World has lived on as a unique entity, at least domestically. In a day and age where Disney completely dominates the blockbuster box office landscape, Jurassic World is one of the few major competitors towards the numbers Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar has generated in the latter half of the 2010s. And looking at all the stuff Jurassic World has done since its 2015 release, this franchise isn’t going away any time soon. Since 2015, several JW projects have found their way in the world. Several Lego specials and TV shows based on Jurassic World have been released since 2016. In 2019, Universal Studios Hollywood released Jurassic World: The Ride, a retheme of the iconic water ride with a JW skin. In 2021, Universal’s Islands of Adventure plans to have the Velocicoaster, a dinosaur-themed roller coaster. And in 2020, Netflix and Dreamworks Animation released Jurassic World: Camp Creteacous, an animated prequel series that has its second season set for release this January. As for an actual sequel? Well, we’ll get to that in a little bit.

2015 The Parisian satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is attacked by terrorists, ISIS, Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups puts the world into panic throughout the year, and Nepal is hit by two earthquakes. Greece goes through a major government debt crisis, Cuba and the United States reestablish diplomatic relations, Queen Elizabeth becomes the oldest-living monarch in England, Justin Trudeau becomes Canada’s Prime Minister, and both Ireland and the United States legalize same-sex marriage across their country. Katy Perry had a banner year, as she performed for the Super Bowl halftime show and saw her single “Dark Horse” cross 1 billion views, becoming the most-viewed music video by a woman. Adele also returned with her album 25, which saw the biggest album sales in the first week of all time. Video games included Bloodborne, Witcher III, Metal Gear Solid V, Splatoon, Rocket League, Super Mario Maker, Life is Strange, and Undertale, among many other hits. TV saw a major anniversary as Saturday Night Live celebrated 40 years on the air with an anniversary special that was so big it became the most-watched telecast on the network since the 2004 season finale of ER. An HBO crime documentary The Jinx also saw headlines when Robert Durst, the subject of the case, accidentally confessed committing murder, failing to realize his microphone was still on while he used the bathroom. Stephen Colbert and disease of a man James Corden become CBS’ new talk show hosts, and Trevor Noah begins his tenure as host of The Daily Show. Cancelations/finales were Parenthood, Two and a Half Men, Parks and Recreation, Glee, Justified, Community, Phineas and Ferb, Hannibal, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, CSI, and Mad Men. The biggest newbie this year was Empire, a music drama that broke viewership records, with every episode garnering more and more viewers every week, a rarity in this day and age. Other premieres were The Man in the High Castle, Fresh Off the Boat, Schitt’s Creek, Better Call Saul, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, iZombie, Grace and Frankie, Ballers, Mr. Robot, Fear the Walking Dead, Narcos, and Descendants, a Disney Channel Original Movie that would go on to be one of the biggest brands for the channel and even to an extent the company itself, much like High School Musical before it. Deaths this year were Mario Cuomo, Rod Taylor, Leonard Nimoy, Terry Pratchett, Christopher Lee, James Horner, Omar Sharif, Satoru Iwata, Yvonne Craig, Oliver Sacks, Jackie Collins, Yogi Berra, and Maureen O’Hara. The box office was where we started getting into the haves and have nots era we’re in today. Some studios get a good chunk of the box office pie, while the others find themselves flailing and trying to keep up to little avail. This year was also home to plenty of notable records, all of which we’ll discuss in due time. Yet there were two notable feats here that trump them all. Two films that took the world by storm and brought back two fan-favorite franchises for a whole new generation and breathing new life to the worlds and characters such franchises inhabit. It also happens that both manage to have very divisive follow-ups. But of course, for the very first one of the bunch, I’m of course talking about the one and only Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s been 30 years since Return of the Jedi, and despite the fall of the Galactic Empire, a new autocracy known as The First Order has brought despair and destruction to the galaxy, led by the ruthless Kylo Ren. Only a Resistance led by famed General Leia Organa is there to oppose it. But the one key to stop this First Order seems to lie on Luke Skywalker, who went missing for decades. And in a quest to find him, Han Solo, alongside a fighter pilot named Poe, a former Stormtrooper named Finn and a supposed nobody named Rey, they may just have found the key to save the galaxy from further destruction. The idea of a sequel trilogy, Episodes 7-9, was something George Lucas had considered even back when the original trilogy was still in development. And while a few ideas and philosophical themes were thrown around, Lucas ended up abandoning the idea of three more movies, though some ideas would live on in Return of the Jedi, deciding to just stick with one trilogy. Of course, in the 90s, Lucas would decide to work on a prequel trilogy. During development, not only did Lucas say he refused to make a sequel trilogy, but he also said nobody, point blank, will ever direct another Star Wars movie but him. Not only was the prequel trilogy a huge and exhausting time sink for him, but he was going to be in his 70s by the time he did a new one. And to him, those six movies told all that was needed. This series was about the tragedy of Darth Vader, and that was it. With Vader dead and redeemed, there was no more story. Point blank. Of course, that started to change when we reached the 2010s. When Star Tours: The Adventures Continue opened at Disney World, George Lucas was at the premiere for the new attraction. During his time in Orlando, Disney CEO Bob Iger invited Lucas to breakfast to propose a proposition. With Lucas not doing much of anything with Star Wars or his production company Lucasfilm, and Iger eager to conquer the entertainment media landscape, Iger suggested to Lucas he should sell his company to Disney. Lucas was considering retirement for a while, but was still unsure if he really wanted to do this. In fact, he was interested for a while in directing Episode VII for a May 2015 release date and then later sell off his company. But in early 2012, after the dismal box office for Red Tails, Lucas said he was going to retire, with all future projects at his studio being made by new filmmakers. And thus, he began to pass the torch to famed producer Kathleen Kennedy, with Kennedy taking full charge one year later. The duo would also go on to create their own version of Episode VII with Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt and Star Wars vet Lawrence Kasdan. Lucas also began making talks with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford. His version was set to be the most spiritual of the trilogy, with a focus on the relationships between the Jedi, the Force, midi-chlorians, and something called the Whills. Finally, in October 2012, a deal was made. George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company for $4.05 billion. This not only made Lucas super rich, with a net worth of $6.8 billion, but it also meant Disney had ownership of the most iconic science fiction franchise of all time and also some guy with a fedora and a couple other movies nobody cares about...sorry Willow fans. However, there were a few conditions Lucas made with Disney’s new planned trilogy. While Disney had full control on the movies themselves, they did have to follow Lucas’ rough story treatments, and said treatments were only allowed to be read by certain Disney employees, such as Iger, Kennedy, Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn, and acquisitions manager turned TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer. Lucas would play a part as a creative consultant in the beginning of story meetings, but it was later revealed that his ideas were completely discarded with him having no involvement in the film. Lucas was reportedly devastated and betrayed at that decision, but he’s also rich as hell, so...I dunno, can’t really get all that upset for him. Michael Arndt would then go on to write the screenplay, with some of Lucas’ ideas being in tact in conjunction with new ideas created by Lucasfilm. The hunt for a new director shortly followed, with names like David Fincher, Brad Bird, Jon Favreau, Ben Affleck, and Guillermo del Toro all being thrown around. But after a suggestion by Steven Spielberg, the role of director for Episode VII was given to none other than J. J. Abrams, who himself revitalized Star Trek to great success. Things started to go on the right track, but the writing process started to go through some issues. Arndt was working on the screenplay for eight months, but he needed 18 more, far above what Disney and Abrams gave him. This resulted in Arndt leaving the project in October 2013, with Lawerence Kasdan and Abrams taking charge of the script and its release date moving from May 2015, the month Star Wars was famous for, to December 2015. Abrams was very relieved at that date change since it bought him some time, and the script was finally complete in January 2014. Casting began in August 2013, with the plan already being set for Hamill, Fisher, and Ford to return. But for new characters, things really went into effect on January 2014, with screen tests happening just weeks before the official announcement. Actors like Saoirse Ronan, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, and Frida Gustavsson all reportedly auditioned for new characters, alongside Adam Driver and Jesse Plemons. But for the heroes, Abrams was adamant on getting three unknown actors. And on April 29, 2014, the cast was finally announced. Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Domnhall Gleeson, Andy Serkis, and original cast members, including the aforementioned, Peter Mayhew, and Anthony Daniels, with a photo of the first table read also revealed that day. Filming began in May, with an announcement that IMAX 65mm cameras would be used during filming. One of the biggest things Abrams made sure to do with this new title was to have Star Wars go back to basics. Storylines from the Star Wars expanded universe were completely thrown out the window apart from the animated series The Clone Wars, and the script would be much more focused on emotion rather than explanation. But most importantly, Abrams wanted this film to seem natural in terms of visual effects. The film emphasized real locations, scale models, and practical effects and animatronics, a stark contrast from CGI technology that not only hit the prequels, but a majority of other blockbuster films at that time. This helped the film recreate the visual design of the original trilogy, as well as serving as a way to say to fans who were burnt out by the more divisive aspects of the prequel trilogy that this was a reset. One that did away with the talky elements and more into pulpy sci-fi adventure. And that idea, of going back to what made Star Wars so beloved in the first place, was a huge selling point in the advertising leading up to the film’s release. I generally don’t like the idea of adding in my personal experiences with these movies during this series. Partially because I often don’t have much to add with my experiences, partially because I’m a bit of a private person, and partially because I think THABOS works better more as a historical lookback rather than my own personal journey. But I think when it comes to the rest of this look at this sci-fi epic, my viewpoint is one that needs to be understood and explained to help people truly understand how much of a cultural event The Force Awakens was. Mainly because I was one of the few people in the world who did not grow up with Star Wars. Obviously I heard of it all my life and knew some of the character names, but I grew up in the wrong time to be into Star Wars. The first two prequel titles came out when I was way too young, so I really only learned that Star Wars was a thing until when Episode III came out. And while my parents did watch and like the original trilogy when they first came out, they never had the DVDs or anything else to pass on to me. In fact, as a kid, I was confused why Episodes 4-6 came out before Episodes 1-3. So when Episode VII was announced, I didn’t really pay any mind to it. I’m sure it was gonna be fine and do well, but I didn’t really care. But by the time the marketing and trailers went into effect, I started to sing a different tune. While the trailers were very reliant on nostalgic memories, the way the film advertised the action, effects, music, cinematography, and the legacy of the franchise...it spoke to me. And I feel like it spoke to a lot of other people too. The way Disney shoved the film down people’s throats was encroaching but also inviting. It seemed both familiar and fresh all at once. And that led to marketing stunt after marketing stunt. And all of them indicated that this return of Star Wars was gonna be big. The first teaser trailer launched in November 2014, little more than a year after its December debut. Earning a record 58.2 million views in the first week, it was an easy wake-up call to the people that Star Wars was coming back and in a big way. In April 2015, a second teaser trailer unleashed at Star Wars Celebration to thunderous applause. Kathleen Kennedy herself said the reaction from con attendees was unreal, as if she was at a rock concert. This too saw record trailer views, earning 88 million viewers in the first 24 hours. Vanity Fair detailed the film as a cover story in May 2015, as they have done with all previous Star Wars titles, and the film got a panel at Comic-Con with a featurette showcasing the behind-the-scenes practical effects of the title. August 2015 saw a brief glimpse at the D23 Expo, with a commemorative poster for the movie drawn by the one and only Drew Struzan. And then, October 2015 rolled around. The final trailer aired on Monday Night Football, and that’s when I knew I had to see a movie from a franchise I never cared about. Everything from the action to how they teased the new characters made this seem exciting, suspenseful, and action-packed. And sure enough, this was the piece de resistance. Not only did this break trailer view records yet again, earning 128 million views in just 24 hours, this was when tickets were finally on sale. Movie ticket sites the world over crashed due to the massive fan rush, with IMAX repping $6.5 million sales in just one day, along with over $50 million overall in just one day, a record in presales. Alongside a huge launch of tie-in merchandise in early November, titled Force Friday by Disney, the whole world was caught up in Star Wars fever. And when the film finally launched on December 18, the world was never truly the same. Immediately the film broke records, earning $57 million in Thursday previews, beating the 4-year old record made by Deathly Hallows Part 2. This astonishing number, including $5.7 million from IMAX screenings, combined with the rest of Friday for an opening day of $119.1 million. It became the first film in history to gross $100 million in one day. This opening day would thus lead to an opening weekend of $248 million, just barely behind what Return of the Jedi grossed in its original run (yes I know about inflation, shut up). This was by far the biggest opening weekend in history, releasing in December, a time when opening weekends are depressed due to holiday preparations and extra free time in the weeks ahead. There was probably a decent shot this could have opened to $300 million in the summer or something. Of course, not that Disney cares. It was still more than 19% ahead of the previous record holder. At the same time, the film also launched internationally with records in the UK, Germany, and Australia, alongside boffo debuts in France, Spain, Italy, and Japan. In five days the film earned an estimated $281 million overseas for a grand worldwide debut of $529 million. This was the biggest worldwide opening of all time, and one of only two movies to open worldwide over $500 million. I was one of the first people to see this movie in America. Thursday, December 17, @ 7 PM in 3D. And what made me realize how big of a hit this would become was how much I loved it. Star Wars is one of those interesting properties where, much like Pokemon, the eras, characters, and storylines that are most interesting to fans was what they first grew up with. That’s why there’s been a recent reappraisal of the prequel trilogy from the generation that grew up with it after decades of being a punching bag online. And to me, what made me fall in love with The Force Awakens was how this served as a strong introduction to Star Wars while also smartly containing the elements that people loved from the previous titles. Abrams found a way to make the idea of seeing characters and iconography from the old films pop up fun and exciting, even if you have no attachment to it. All the while, Abrams made sure to make the new set of characters just as compelling. In fact, characters like Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren are the people I care about when it comes to Star Wars. The way they battle their inner demons, insecurities, and previous identities was both compelling and relatable to me as somebody set for college the year after and trying to figure out who I want to be, and all the actors sell it expertly throughout the entire trilogy. Plus the way the cast plays off one another is absolutely fantastic. These are the characters that make Star Wars special to me. These are the characters I care about and empathize with, even more so than Luke or Han or Leia. Without them, I probably would stay the same and fail to be invested in the series. And while I can’t speak for everyone, I think this was the case for many other people. Weekend two saw Christmas legs work their magic, as the film dropped only 40% in North America, resulting in $149.2 million, making it the biggest second weekend gross in history. International did see a bigger fall at 51% for $136.9 million, both on a mediocre launch in India and Star Wars not being as iconic or nostalgic in other territories. Either way, it was still impressive stuff, as the film crossed $1 billion in just 12 days, becoming the fastest film to reach the mark. Weekend three saw $90.2 million, earning the biggest third weekend of all time, with a 17-day total of $742.2 million, becoming the second film ever to gross $700 million in North America. This was less than $20 million away from Avatar’s numbers, and sure enough, the Star Wars title finally toppled Avatar on January 6, 20 days of release, to become the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, a record it still holds to this very day. When the dust finally settled, The Force Awakens earned $936.7 million in the domestic market, making it as of now the only film in history to reach the $900 million mark in the domestic market unadjusted for inflation. And since COVID has destroyed everything, I don’t think any movie ever will beat what The Force Awakens made here. Internationally, the film wasn’t quite as mind-boggling. Again, some markets, notably China, were not as Star Wars fanatical going in. But even still, with help from a record UK gross and even China repping significant dollars, The Force Awakens earned $1.13 billion overseas, becoming the first Disney film, third 2015 film, and fifth film overall to achieve such a feat. With $2.07 billion worldwide, this made it the third highest-grossing film of all time and the third film to reach $2 billion. It was by all accounts a rousing success, with the film estimated to have earned a net profit of $780.1 million, making it the most profitable film in the last seven years. The film did garner criticisms for its derivative story. George Lucas himself disliked the lack of originality. And the sequel trilogy’s further grosses weren’t quite as euphoric as the trilogy starter. But it still served as a masterful rebirth and introduction of an iconic franchise, and I am still glad this was my introduction to such an amazing franchise. And looking in the next few years and well into the future, I think a lot of other people, especially the young kids experiencing it for the first time, will be grateful for this movie too.

It's a new year. Might as well give you guys...a new year. With the top two having a lot to talk about, they will get their own post all to themselves. Hope you guys like this, because I had a blast researching this.

Moderation Saw the edited post, but know @WandaLegion and everybody else you are not off the hook either. Ignore one another or face my wrath

Moderation @Ms Lady Hawk please calm down. We understand you are frustrated that people are being too harsh over a movie you love. And sure, Charlie is being a touch abrasive. But your behavior here (and in the past few days) is beyond ridiculous and beyond tiring. Trying to paint other people as haters solely because they aren't being extra nice and praising WW1984 and/or its box office performance isn't making things better, nor does it strengthen your arguments. Rather you're acting extremely childish and it seems you're just here to start flame wars and get into fights with others rather than actually argue against something. You're an adult, so act like on. And just as a reminder that you don't have to read what dissenters are saying. You can put users who aren't being nice to your children's movie onto your Ignore list. It's certainly a better way than throwing a hissy fit against Charlie or WandaLegion. Take part in this kind of behavior again you and will recieve warning points and possibly a threadban.