With just about every film released in 2015 having now completed its theatrical run we thought we’d have a look at the top earners and there are some surprises as to what’s in and what not.
No 1 earner really was to be expected and No2 was a well documented surprise mega hit. Perhaps the first surprise is ‘Avenger ;Age of Ultron’ which had a load of expectation but was critically not as well received as the first and despite taking $1.4 billion puts it in fourth place. The surprise is the final installment of ‘The Hunger Games’ which had the wind taken out of its sails quite dramatically when ‘The Force Awakens’ opened a few weeks later. The huge anticipation for a new Star Wars film prompted the rescheduling of ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ from its original Christmas release slot and was a canny move by the studio as it opened to great reviews in the Summer and put it in 8th place in terms of earnings for 2015. It success has meant that the usual 4-5 years between the films has been shortened and Mission Impossible 6 will start shooting soon. Sir Ridley Scott’s, ‘The Martian’ was also a surprise success and further secured Matt Damon’s star appeal.
Disney’s live action version of ‘Cinderella’ continued their success of filming their iconic female characters after ‘Maleficent’ made a fortune. Adam Sandler must also be relieved that despite the usual justifiably vitriolic reviews of ‘Pixels’ it’s actually his ‘Hotel Transylvania’ animated films that he writes and voices that is the real success and frankly anything that stops him making his alleged comedies must surely be welcomed.
Of the blockbusters Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Man from UNCLE ‘, the Fantastic Four reboot and the latest Terminator film were the biggest disappointment and might finally show that despite a possible ‘Twins’ sequel (‘Triplets’) Arnold’s days as King of the box office are over.
Best of all were the unexpected success of ‘Kingsmen’ and the long delayed ‘Mad Max’ which blew everyone away and the latter garnered a huge number of Oscar nominations.
With the 2016 blockbuster already underway it remains to be seen as what will be this year’s runaway success.
- The Force Awakens – $2,065703912
- Jurassic World – $1,670,400,637
- Furious 7 – $1,516,045,911
- Avengers Age of Ultron – $1,405,413,868
- Minions – $1,159,398,397
- Spectre – $880,674,609
- Inside Out – $857,427,711
- MI Rogue Nation – $682,330,139
- The Hunger Games – Mockinjay Part 2 – $653,428,261
- The Martian $630,161,890
- 50 shades of grey – $571,006,128
- Cinderella – $543,514,353
- The Revenant – $522,837,095
- Ant Man – $519,445,163
- San Andreas – $473,790,832
- Hotel Transylvania – $469,384,471
Didn’t quite make the list
Mad Max:Fury Road.
Kingsmen
Terminator Genisys
The Man from Uncle
