Box Office Theory Forum's Top 100 Warner Bros. Movies

[WorkingonaName]

Gravity is mid. 

[Eric the IF]

#15

Blade Runner

1285 points, 25 lists

"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave."

Box Office: 41.6M

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

Metacritic: 84

Awards: 3 BAFTA Awards and 5 nominations, 1 Golden Globe Award nomination, 2 Academy Award nominations, 4 Saturn Award nominations, 1 Hugo Award

 

Its Legacy: Has way too many cuts to count. A landmark of neo-noir and cyberpunk. Considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made. Influenced way too many video games, anime, and TV shows to count. Caused Atari, Bell, Coca-Cola, Cusinart, Pan Am, and RCA to see financial setbacks after its release. #54 on Sight & Sound's Top 100 Films by Critics, #74 on AFI's Top 100 Movies, and #97 for the 2007 edition. Joined the National Film Registry in 1993. Kickstarted a whole multimedia franchise.

 

Commentary: A film that audiences, frankly, just weren’t prepared for. Even outside of the fact the original cut was not what Sir Ridley Scott wanted to show, the film’s slow pace, limited action, and contemplative sci-fi storytelling just didn’t fit in a post-Star Wars environment. Arguably, not even a post-Close Encounters environment. Still, a film this audacious and unique was bound to gain a cult following, especially amongst science fiction fans. And once it came out on home video, the tides quickly turned.

 

It’s not only a fascinating neo-noir story, but also one of the best examples of a dystopian storyline and setting. One that still influences cyberpunk works and dystopian works in general. No Blade Runner? No Hunger Games. And man, what a world Scott has created. Even today, it still looks visually incredible, with its neon lights and massive city landscapes. You could release this today, and people would probably think this was a recent release.

 

Since then, Blade Runner still has a devoted following, regardless of what cut of the movie you watched. And that led to a surprisingly robust franchise that is still going and still popular, if 2049’s placement in this countdown is anything to go by. Even now, a new TV series is in production, continuing Scott’s original legacy. It’s one of those classic cult hits that has now become mainstream, way past that original 2019 setting. And it will likely continue to be mainstream and beloved by the time we reach the year 2049 and beyond.

[grim22]

18 minutes ago, Eric Reyes said:

#15

Blade Runner

1285 points, 25 lists

"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave."

Box Office: 41.6M

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

Metacritic: 84

Awards: 3 BAFTA Awards and 5 nominations, 1 Golden Globe Award nomination, 2 Academy Award nominations, 4 Saturn Award nominations, 1 Hugo Award

 

Its Legacy: Has way too many cuts to count. A landmark of neo-noir and cyberpunk. Considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made. Influenced way too many video games, anime, and TV shows to count. Caused Atari, Bell, Coca-Cola, Cusinart, Pan Am, and RCA to see financial setbacks after its release. #54 on Sight & Sound's Top 100 Films by Critics, #74 on AFI's Top 100 Movies, and #97 for the 2007 edition. Joined the National Film Registry in 1993. Kickstarted a whole multimedia franchise.

 

Commentary: A film that audiences, frankly, just weren’t prepared for. Even outside of the fact the original cut was not what Sir Ridley Scott wanted to show, the film’s slow pace, limited action, and contemplative sci-fi storytelling just didn’t fit in a post-Star Wars environment. Arguably, not even a post-Close Encounters environment. Still, a film this audacious and unique was bound to gain a cult following, especially amongst science fiction fans. And once it came out on home video, the tides quickly turned.

 

It’s not only a fascinating neo-noir story, but also one of the best examples of a dystopian storyline and setting. One that still influences cyberpunk works and dystopian works in general. No Blade Runner? No Hunger Games. And man, what a world Scott has created. Even today, it still looks visually incredible, with its neon lights and massive city landscapes. You could release this today, and people would probably think this was a recent release.

 

Since then, Blade Runner still has a devoted following, regardless of what cut of the movie you watched. And that led to a surprisingly robust franchise that is still going and still popular, if 2049’s placement in this countdown is anything to go by. Even now, a new TV series is in production, continuing Scott’s original legacy. It’s one of those classic cult hits that has now become mainstream, way past that original 2019 setting. And it will likely continue to be mainstream and beloved by the time we reach the year 2049 and beyond.

The great story of how the Directors Cut was accidentally discovered

 

 

 

[Eric the IF]

#14

Zodiac

1308 points, 22 lists

"I am not the Zodiac. And if I was, I certainly wouldn't tell you."

Box Office: 84.7M

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Metacritic: 78

Awards: 3 Satellite Award nominations, 1 Saturn Award nomination, 3 Empire Award nominations, 1 Teen Choice Award nomination

 

Its Legacy: One of David Fincher's most acclaimed works. #12 on BBC's Top 100 Movies of the 21st Century. Relitigated interest in the Zodiac Killer in the San Francisco PD. In contention for the 2007 Palme D'Or at Cannes. Considered one of the best films of 2007. Gave Brian Cox a paycheck.

 

Commentary: Based on one of the most infamous unsolved cases in history, director David Fincher captures the paranoia and fear that comes from such a terrifying piece of San Francisco history. With a 2.5 hour runtime, audiences are trapped in a story full of suspense, paranoia, and dread, perfectly capturing the fears that come from a man who nobody knows and could attack at any minute. Add on phenomenal digital cinematography and expert lead performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal, and we have ourselves an enthralling insights into the evil of Ted Cruz--I uh...I mean, the Zodiac Killer.

 

There's also a Dirty Harry reference in here, which is pretty cool for Warner Bros. nerds like myself.

[Ipickthiswhiterose]

2 hours ago, baumer said:

 Judging someone's performance is completely subjective though at the same time. 

 

It isn't completely subjective though.

 

What you choose to value in a performance is subjective, but the elements of the performance themselves aren't.

 

A pretty good example of this is when people use stills to supposedly evidence an actor's transformational brilliance in replicating a biopic role, when all they're actually doing is evidencing the quality of costume, makeup and hair - nothing to do with the acting at all.

 

And 'replicating the pre-existing behaviour of another' is very literally the simplest thing you can ask an actor to do.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Ipickthiswhiterose

[Eric the IF]

#13

The Prestige

1323 points, 24 lists

"Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking."

Box Office: 109.7M

Rotten Tomatoes: 76%

Metacritic: 66

Awards: 2 Academy Award nominations, 1 Empire Award and 2 nominations, 1 Hugo Award nomination, 5 Scream Award nominations

 

Its Legacy: The Nolan movie for hipsters. A reunion between Papa Nolan, Bale, Caine, Wally Pfister, Nathan Crowley, and Lee Smith. One of the best movies about magicians ever. A rare collaboration between bitter rivals Disney and WB. Gave Scarlett Johansson a paycheck.

 

Commentary: It's the movie from Papa Nolan that everybody who thinks they're too cool for Inception or Interstellar love to hype up. A film that is, simply put, a powerful story about rivalry and obsession. Two magicians from different backgrounds, desperately trying to one up one another, whether it be through crazier and crazier odds, or even deception and theft. It's a powerful insight into how dedicated people are to winning over the crowd, as well as just how far one will devote themselves into the name of art. For something that most don't really recognize.

 

While already well-recieved at the time, the film's plot and themes have only grown in stature and popularity since its release, with more and more citing it as an underrated classic within the WB and Touchstone library. And while we are all enamored by Nolan's recent works, which are more handsomely made and feature audacious ideas and special effects, it's important to recongize little movies like these.

 

And yeah. To all the Nolanites out there, remember that this was released by Disney here in North America. So when we do the Disney countdown in a couple months...you got a good option to put on your list.

[Eric the IF]

#12

Unforgiven

1357 points, 22 lists

"That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another."

 

Box Office: 159.2M

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Metacritic: 85

Awards: 4 Academy Awards and 5 nominations, 1 BAFTA Award and 4 nominations, 2 Golden Globe Awards and 2 nominations

 

Its Legacy: Considered one of Eastwood's best movies and one of the best Westerns ever. The former biggest August opener of all time. The third Western to ever win Best Picture at the Oscars. Remade in Japan in 2013. Eastwood's final traditional Western #30 on WGA's greatest screenplays of all time. Joined the National Film Registry in 2004. Gave Gene Hackman a paycheck.

 

Commentary: Everybody loves to throw the word “masterpiece” around like no tomorrow. But to me, that term applies to somebody’s greatest, most defining work. Not necessarily your personal subjective favorite, but a work that takes everything the artist has learned, cultivated, and developed over years and years of artmaking. Typically made near the end of an artists’ life, all their skills, tools, crafts, and understanding of what makes a good work of art are used to great effect here to create something that summarizes their works and exemplifies why they’re so good in the first place.

 

And for me, Unforgiven is Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece. It’s far from his last movie of course, since Clint refuses to die, but it really feels like the perfect swan song for a certain aspect of Eastwood’s life and career. The moment where we all realized that he isn’t the emotionless, stone-cold badass we all associate him as.

 

His two most iconic roles are The Man With No Name and Harry Callahan. People who shoot first and talk later. People who are the epitome of toxic masculinity. Figures who every conservative uncle idolizes. But Unforgiven shows the dangers of such people in real life. This is a man who was once in that mold, who wants to be far away from that. He is of course pulled into one last cowboy adventure, and it’s here he realizes just why he went away from that lifestyle.

 

It’s a film that breaks down the black and white morality found in the Westerns of old, as we follow a man haunted by his past mistakes and his horrible actions. That the epic heroes are in fact just cowards and ninnys. That being a merciless figure who is harsh and cruel in the name of the law is in fact the worst thing possible. It all culminates in a surprisingly sensitive, yet still enthralling look into a genre that was only now getting deconstructed and subverted.

 

It’s the spiritual successor to another WB classic The Searchers, and is frankly just as strong and effective as that film. And while Eastwood has made many more films after this, none of them have captured the raw emotion and powerful storytelling as Unforgiven. And this is far and away y’alls favorite from a man synonymous with Warner Bros.

[SchumacherFTW]

1 hour ago, Ipickthiswhiterose said:

 

It isn't completely subjective though.

 

What you choose to value in a performance is subjective, but the elements of the performance themselves aren't.

 

A pretty good example of this is when people use stills to supposedly evidence an actor's transformational brilliance in replicating a biopic role, when all they're actually doing is evidencing the quality of costume, makeup and hair - nothing to do with the acting at all.

 

And 'replicating the pre-existing behaviour of another' is very literally the simplest thing you can ask an actor to do.

You must be fun at parties

[Cap]

50 minutes ago, Eric Reyes said:

And yeah. To all the Nolanites out there, remember that this was released by Disney here in North America. So when we do the Disney countdown in a couple months...you got a good option to put on your list.

lmfao that list is gonna be SUCH a mess 😂

[MrPink]

7 minutes ago, Cap said:

lmfao that list is gonna be SUCH a mess 😂

 

I love mess

 

I'm just gonna put in this and a bunch of Nic Cage movies in the 90s

Edited August 17, 2023 by MrPink

[Eric the IF]

#11

The Iron Giant

1386 points, 26 lists

"You are who you choose to be."

Box Office: 31.3M

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Metacritic: 85

Awards: 8 Annie Awards and 6 nominations, 1 Hugo Award nomination, 1 Saturn Award nomination

 

Its Legacy: Brad Bird's directorial debut. The film that gave Bird the chance to direct The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Has appeared in Ready Player One, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and MultiVersus. Considered one of the greatest animated movies of all time. Recieved a remaster in 2015. Gave Harry Connick, Jr. a paycheck.

 

Commentary: Arguably the finest example that being a financial failure doesn't equate to a bad movie. WB infamously abandoned and ignored this after Quest for Camelot bombed, and didn't realize until it was too late they had something special on their hands. Promptly ignored on its theatrical release, things very quickly turned around when Warner advertised its VHS release like there was no tomorrow and later aired the movie on Cartoon Network in big 24 hour marathons, knowing they should have made money on an obvious hit.

 

And now, nearly 25 years later? It's now a masterpiece millions have seen and adore to pieces. A fantastic commentary at 1950s hysteria and a powerful anti-gun message is all anchored in a gorgeously-told story of friendship between a young boy and his giant robot buddy. It's far and away Vin Diesel's finest work as an actor, though Fast X obviously comes close, and its themes and ideas on peace and paranoia still resonate today, even if we are long past the Cold War. It boasts an incredible finale that still hits us all in the feels, and has incredible and expressive animation, that deliver on the laughs and on the emotion.

 

Director Brad Bird is still feeling the positive impacts from this once-famed bomb, and would later be a part of the Pixar family, developing some of the greatest animated movies of all time. But for many, his best will always be this tender-hearted story. One that only just missed the actual top 10.

[Eric the IF]

Well...only 10 movies left. It's crazy to me that I only have 10 to go, since I've been working on this whole countdown for years, but we're this close to that fateful end. Could still get some more out later today, but this is still a great achievement.

 

And hey, that means you guys can predict what you think the top 10 will be! Whoever gets it right gets my love and affection as a prize. And that's the greatest prize of all. 😘

[SchumacherFTW]

2 minutes ago, Eric Reyes said:

Well...only 10 movies left. It's crazy to me that I only have 10 to go, since I've been working on this whole countdown for years, but we're this close to that fateful end. Could still get some more out later today, but this is still a great achievement.

 

And hey, that means you guys can predict what you think the top 10 will be! Whoever gets it right gets my love and affection as a prize. And that's the greatest prize of all. 😘

[Eric the IF]

14 minutes ago, Cap said:

lmfao that list is gonna be SUCH a mess 😂

Will this forum survive once High School Musical gets more votes than the entire Three Colours trilogy combined? I think not.

[Jake Gittes]

8 hours ago, Ipickthiswhiterose said:

 

I've not got time for this today so I can't justify this with the long post I'd like. Which is probably for the better for everyone as I'll likely still ramble on at unnecessary length to a one-line provocation.

 

But I'm firmly in the camp that says biopic performances are rarely, if never, worthy of awards. 

 

Replicating the behaviour of an established person simply isn't in the same category of collaborating with a writer to make something original.

 

There are exceptions: expressionism-style biopics where replication of behaviour isn't the point (eg The Favourite) and hidden-figures style stories where generally the story is what's replicated, not the person (eg Dallas Buyer's Club) are fine. But in general biopics are a wildly overlavished and overpraised genre, that mostly gets the accolades it does because it's easy for non-specialists to decided whether an actor is doing 'good' acting or not because it's like that person. And because they have the sense of being 'worthy' and have a misguided sense of being somehow on a higher plain of art than other genres since the stories of biopics often relate to those of important people.

 

Until last year, half of the Best Actor and Actress Oscars since 2000 had gone to Biopics. Including two the previous year in Smith and Chastain that were just preposterously Oscar-pandering bait.

 

Obviously the Malik Oscar was the apotheosis of this (actually I'd argue Zellweger was, but Malik's is more obvious) where quite literally let's be honest Freddie Mercury won an Oscar, along with the costume and wardrobe departments. But the trend has largely been allowed to go wild unfettered because so many of the Biopic awards have gone to widely-accepted greats: Oldman, Seymour Hoffman, Streep, Blanchett, Bullock, Brody, Day Lewis, Mirren. It's hard to argue against these actors but they all got Oscars for performances that were in none of their personal top 10 (heck, Streep's Thatcher impression is probably not even in her Top 25).

 

I'm not saying Malcolm X isn't a very good film and Washington isn't good in it. It is and he is. But the inherent "Worthiness" of the subject matter shouldn't - as is what happens with Oscars an Biopics - cloud the fact that the acting performance is easier, not harder, than something like Man on Fire.

 

Washington is IMO ironically one of the very few who got his Oscar for the right film, rather than the wrong one. Training Day is his best performance. I'd take Mo'Better Blues and John Q as his second and third, but there are lots of options.

 

Is this an irrationally long post for this? Yes. Do people care about this? No. 

 

But lordy something in me snapped three years ago when Same Rockwell (who is one of my favourite actors) got nominated for a freaking Oscar for giving LITERALLY A 10 MINUTE SNL GEORGE BUSH IMPRESSION. And it's never recovered.

 

Middlebrow biopics are a plague and the Academy sucks for always taking the bait but Denzel wasn't doing a rigid impersonation and didn't have prosthetics and dramatic visual changes to hide behind. The degree of difficulty for him in portraying Malcolm at so many stages of his life and still keeping him a coherent individual was very high, like Peter O'Toole in LOA it is exactly the kind of biopic performance that is worth the plaudits. 

[Jake Gittes]

17 minutes ago, Eric Reyes said:

Will this forum survive once High School Musical gets more votes than the entire Three Colours trilogy combined? I think not.

 

tbf, Red is the only keeper out of those.

[Ipickthiswhiterose]

32 minutes ago, SchumacherFTW said:

You must be fun at parties

 

I have perspectives and I give argument and justification for them. I don't like giving perspectives without saying why I have them.

 

You can disagree. I'm sure many do. Thats fine. Would be happy to hear you argument against.  Certainly love to hear a justification for half the Best Actor and Actress awards since 2000 going to the same minority niche genre. Or to hear your perspective on the difference between subjectivity of the viewer's choice to determine value of art, versus subjectivity of art itself.

 

Either way, dont see the need to be agressively mean spirited about it though.

 

 

[Ipickthiswhiterose]

7 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

 

Middlebrow biopics are a plague and the Academy sucks for always taking the bait but Denzel wasn't doing a rigid impersonation and didn't have prosthetics and dramatic visual changes to hide behind. The degree of difficulty for him in portraying Malcolm at so many stages of his life and still keeping him a coherent individual was very high, like Peter O'Toole in LOA it is exactly the kind of biopic performance that is worth the plaudits. 

 

Great perspective, thank you.

 

There is a variation, of course. I hear so much special pleading for the genre due to the big names - Day Lewis for Lincoln is a typical one that I have no time for. But yes maybe Denzel was an exception (perhaps Downey jr in Chaplin too).

[Jake Gittes]

28 minutes ago, MrPink said:

 

I love mess

 

I'm just gonna put in this and a bunch of Nic Cage movies in the 90s

 

We're salt of the earth guys. And the Disney nerd-o-nauts don't understand our salt of the earth ways, our rough and tumble ways

[MrPink]

15 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

 

We're salt of the earth guys. And the Disney nerd-o-nauts don't understand our salt of the earth ways, our rough and tumble ways

 

This is a REAL LIST. Haven't you seen Armageddon, boy?