The Panda's 100 Most Important Blockbusters (From 1975 to Now)

[The Panda]

92

Twilight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62_AisNjyM

As terrible a movie (and franchise) that Twilight was, there is no doubt it was a resounding success at the box office, but furthermore its influence is even more undeniable.  While Twilight wasn't the first young adult series, it was the one to follow Harry Potter and officially make it an aim for studios to seek out what franchise might be the next Harry Potter or Twilight when they found out that sort of success is repeatable.  Because of it we have gotten projects like The Hunger Games, Fifty Shades of Grey (not necessarily a success yet but it's bound to be), Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars and the many not so successful stories such as The Host, The Mortal Instruments, Vampire Academy, The Maze Runner, etc.  While obviously it took a cumulative effort from Twilight, Harry Potter and the Hunger Games to ignite the YA genre , there's no doubt it had its place in the cause.

Edited August 2, 2014 by The Panda

[Kalo]

I actually really like the first twilight >_>

[The Panda]

91

Shrek

The first best animated feature winner that many try to frame as overrated after the milked out franchise that this become, however that franchise only became what it was (including the making of Shrek 2 which is still the highest grossing domestic animated movie) because of how big of a breakout this movie actually was.  It managed to increase (without the four day) on its second weekend and then continued on a fairly leggy run.  Not only that it also played a large influence on the general audience's acceptance of non-Disney animations, even if its sequel may be more notable Shrek definitely has its place in importance.

Edited August 2, 2014 by The Panda

[The Panda]

EDIT: Will use this post later, it doubled posted.

Edited August 2, 2014 by The Panda

[Films]

So we go from my 5th most hated film of all time (Twilight) to my 5th favourite film ever (Shrek) :)Loving this countdown Panda, It's amazing

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

Prediction: #1 will either be Star Wars or Jaws. 

[baumer]

JAWS will undoubtedly be number one as it is the one that showed studios that films could thrive in the summer.

 

Great list so far and well written.  I'm glad to see films like Twilight and Armageddon reach the list.  The summer of 1998 was a disaster for the studios.  Everything was kind of doing mediocre numbers, kind of like this year, and nothing had hit 200 million.  Armageddon was the first film to hit that number in 1998, followed by Saving Private Ryan.

[The Panda]

90

Hancock

I put this movie on here mostly to show the vast star power that Will Smith was able to have at the time.  He opened a movie about a drunk superhero to massive blockbuster numbers (adjusted it'd beat all of the superhero films this year Domestically) and also managed to pull a decent run with it.  Hancock proved the domestic pull that Will Smith had at the time and turned a rather off-putting concept to the masses into one of the summer's big hits.

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

JAWS will undoubtedly be number one as it is the one that showed studios that films could thrive in the summer.

That is a good reason. However, I don't feel like it's "undoubtedly" going to be Jaws. I feel like Star Wars has had more influence on blockbusters in general (not to argue that Jaws hasn't.) It's splitting hairs though, both are easily #1 and #2, which means that #3 will be the real interesting one. 

[The Panda]

89

The Dark Knight Rises

I am putting this one on here for a very large number of reasons of its importance.  One, its incredible IMAX performance/opening, and two the pure amount of anticipation and hype that this received, it was near (if not the) biggest amount in the digital era of blockbusters.  There also a rather amount of importance from tragic events that it couldn't help but was still tied to that in a way put a two month box office slum in the theaters.  This movie hasn't embedded itself in culture as much as The Dark Knight, but it is one of the essential three important blockbusters from 2012.

Edited August 3, 2014 by The Panda

[Ethan Hunt]

89

The Dark Knight Rises

I am putting this one on here for a very large number of reasons of its importance.  One, its incredible IMAX performance/opening, and two the pure amount of anticipation and hype that this received, it was near (if not the) biggest amount in the digital era of blockbusters.  There also a rather amount of importance from tragic events that it couldn't help but was still tied to that in a way put a two month box office slum in the theaters.  This movie hasn't embedded itself in culture as much as The Dark Knight, but it is one of the essential three important blockbusters from 2012.

Three? This TA, and... Skyfall? Wreck it Ralph?

[baumer]

That is a good reason. However, I don't feel like it's "undoubtedly" going to be Jaws. I feel like Star Wars has had more influence on blockbusters in general (not to argue that Jaws hasn't.) It's splitting hairs though, both are easily #1 and #2, which means that #3 will be the real interesting one. 

 

IMHO, the first to do something always has more leverage over the next one.

[baumer]

Three? This TA, and... Skyfall? Wreck it Ralph?

 

The Hunger Games.

[The Panda]

Three? This TA, and... Skyfall? Wreck it Ralph?

 

 

88

300

Well, you can't say this list is biased because anybody who pays attention knows I hate Snyder's movies (especially this one), however there is no way I can deny its recent importance to modern blockbusters.  300 is really the movie that turned March into the month for early tentpoles that it is today, it opened to huge numbers and became a spring blockbuster.  This paved the way for studios to start trusting more and more large budget movies in this month such as Alice in Wonderland, The Hunger Games, Watchmen, and Oz: The Great and Powerful, a big step that is going to become more and more important going forward as the budget of the average movie is only growing.

[CloneWars]

As much as I hate to say this, I think Twilight should be further up. I think its influence on YA type movies is huge--perhaps bigger than HP itself as this was the series that proved that adapting YA novels was a thing.

 

AiW should also likely be further up, that film combined with Avatar is responsible for the whole 3D craze. While Avatar showed 3D was possible and for the most part introduced the concept, AiW was the movie that proved Hollywood could milk 3D, and they have since then.

 

I also think it should be noted how the TDKR shootings have led to Previews counting towards the weekend gross. That has had a decent impact on the BO imo, at least when it comes to opening weekends.

Edited August 4, 2014 by CloneWars

[CloneWars]

JAWS will undoubtedly be number one as it is the one that showed studios that films could thrive in the summer.

 

Great list so far and well written.  I'm glad to see films like Twilight and Armageddon reach the list.  The summer of 1998 was a disaster for the studios.  Everything was kind of doing mediocre numbers, kind of like this year, and nothing had hit 200 million.  Armageddon was the first film to hit that number in 1998, followed by Saving Private Ryan.

I'm not sure Jaws should be number one.

[baumer]

I'm not sure Jaws should be number one.

 

IMO, I don't see how it's not.

[The Futurist]

Well it s a toss up between Jaws and the first Star Wars.

 

Jaws is known to be the first blockbuster because it was released nation wide on a big scale in the us and the movie was a huuuuuuge success.

 

Star Wars changed the cinematic landscape in a more profound way and it defined the blockbuster as we understand it in 2014 : big spectacle adventure with lots of VFX which sole goal is to entertain audiences as opposed to all the political films of the 70's.

Edited August 4, 2014 by The Futurist

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

Films that could rank #3: Titanic-Showed that a female audience could contribute to the Box Office as strongly as a male audience.

Harry Potter 1-Opened the door for YA films. 

The Matrix-Created the influx of blockbusters that challenge reality.

Spider-Man-While, it's not the first ever comic book film to be a big hit, it signaled this current age of Comic Book Films. 

Avatar-Biggest Film of All-Time/Helped 3D grow. 

[baumer]

I hope Rambo FB parft 2 makes an appearance here.