Spike Jonze and Lance Bangs directed portrait of author of "Where the Wild Things Are"
Proof Originality Doesn't Pay in Hollyw'd
It's all sequels, remakes and adaptations on Wikipedia's list of the decade's 50 top-grossing films.
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It’s perhaps the most anticipated head-to-head competition in Oscar history.
Kathryn Bigelow’s low-budget indie war film, “The Hurt Locker,” and James Cameron’s 3D mega-blockbuster “Avatar,” both nominated for nine Oscars Tuesday, are going directly against one another for Director and Best Picture, among other categories.
Oh, and of course, Bigelow and Cameron used to be married.
Which film is going to win the big Best Picture prize on March 7?
TheWrap breaks down the competition.
Some enterprising Wikipedia contributor decided to pull together a list of the 50 films with the highest worldwide gross of this decade so far.
Here's the thing: One has to go all the way down to No. 15 on the list, Disney/Pixar's "Finding Nemo," before finding one created from original material -- in other words, not a sequel, remake or adaptation of existing material or characters (such as Batman or Harry Potter).
And then, to find another, you have to go all the way to No. 30, also animated: DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda."
It just goes to prove that familiarity breeds ... success.
See for yourself. Here's the list, including studio, year of release and worldwide gross. Original film titles are in bold:
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line; 2003) $1,119,110,941
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Disney; 2006) $1,066,179,725
3. The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.; 2008) $1,001,921,825
4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Warner Bros.; 2001) $974,733,550
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Disney; 2007) $960,996,492
6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Warner Bros.; 2007) $938,212,738
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros.; 2009) $929,022,922
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line; 2002) $925,282,504
9. Shrek 2 (DreamWorks; 2004) $919,838,758
10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.; 2005) $895,921,036
11. Spider-Man 3 (Columbia; 2007) $890,871,626
12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Warner Bros.; 2002) $878,643,482
13. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (20th Century Fox; 2009) $878,615,229
14. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line; 2001) $870,761,744
15. Finding Nemo (Disney/Pixar; 2003) $864,625,978
16. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (20th Century Fox; 2005) $848,754,768
17. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount; 2009) $833,229,011
18. Spider-Man (Columbia; 2002) $821,708,551
19. Shrek the Third (DreamWorks; 2007) $798,958,162
20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Warner Bros.; 2004) $795,634,069
21. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount; 2008) $786,636,033
22. Spider-Man 2 (Columbia; 2004) $783,766,341
23. The Da Vinci Code (Sony/Columbia; 2006) $758,239,851
24. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Disney; 2005) $745,011,272
25. The Matrix Reloaded (Warner Bros.; 2003) $742,128,461
26. Transformers *DreamWorks/Paramount; 2007) $709,709,780
27. Ice Age: The Meltdown (20th Century Fox; 2006) $655,388,158
28. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Disney; 2003) $654,264,015
29. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (20th Century Fox; 2002) $649,398,328
30. Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks; 2008) $631,736,484
31. The Incredibles (Disney/Pixar; 2004) $631,442,092
32. Hancock (Columbia; 2008) $624,386,746
33. Ratatouille (Disney/Pixar; 2007) $623,707,397
34. The Passion of the Christ (Newmarket; 2004) $611,899,420
35. Mamma Mia! (Universal; 2008) $609,841,637
36. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (DreamWorks; 2008) $603,900,344
37. Casino Royale (MGM/Columbia; 2006) $594,239,066
38. War of the Worlds (DreamWorks/Paramount; 2005) $591,745,540
39. Quantum of Solace (MGM/Columbia; 2008) $586,090,727
40. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.; 2007) $585,349,010
41. Iron Man (Paramount; 2008) $585,133,287
42. Night at the Museum (20th Century Fox; 2006) $574,480,450
43.
Comments
Josh Says
How is "Hancock" original. It's clearly a Hollywood knockoff of "big man japan" ("dainipponjin"). Only, you know, more polished and less insane.
shay Says
I think it's intresting that 3/5 original IPs marked above are Pixar suggesting perhaps that somehow pixar makes sequels without them being sequels. That is to say I know I'll like that movie because I liked the one before it.
James Beam Says
While sadly this trend is in fact accurate (just look at all the movies based on board games in development - BOARD GAMES FOR CRIPES SAKE), the best sequels usually come from original material. Raiders, Star Wars, Alien, The Matrix, Dr. No...) I know it's not much, but every once in a while todays corporate-owned studios will take a chance on some cool-ass original script with a tent-pole concept and try to make it a new franchise. (Think the upcoming SALT).
But if not, hey... there's always AMC, Showtime, FX, and HBO... where all the really good writing has gone.
Paula T. Says
Wow, what a list. This is something that is good to read albeit not very useful. Wait, yes you can use this to brush up on your trivia game. All joking aside, whoever did this really did a good job with it. casino online
BethKathele Says
This list is utterly useless as it doesn't show the right information to actually understand what's going on.
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Michael Says
While we're all wringing our hands over Hollywood's apparent abandonment of creativity in the last decade, it should be noted that Box Office Mojo's list of all-time highest grossing films, adjusted for inflation, reveals that many of the biggest movies from the beginning of cinema were also based on other sources: GONE WITH THE WIND, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, JAWS, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, THE EXORCIST, BEN-HUR, THE GRADUATE, THE GODFATHER, MARY POPPINS, the James Bonds and many, many more.
Kristal Says
Please ignore my first comment, it didn't click that this was only for the 2000s at first.
Kristal Says
This doesn't seem accurate, does it take into account ticket inflation in the past 10 years? I know here in LA tickets have gone from like $6 to $12 in the 2000s.
http://toointerestingfortwitter.blogspot.com
Kristal Says
Lists like these don't show the whole picture, since you have to take into account ticket inflation. A more accurate list would be one that counted for most tickets sold, not most money made. Of course movies from the last decade or so would dominate since movie ticket prices have soared since then. This list is utterly useless as it doesn't show the right information to actually understand what's going on. "Titanic" and "Gone With the Wind" should be on here, and countless others from more than the last 20 years. That's the real reason why remakes and sequels dominate this list, not that they are actually more popular or profitable. Many of these big budget popcorn summer movies probably spent that much to get made and marketed, therefore not being nearly as profitable as smaller movies that ended up being hits like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "Blair Witch", "Paranormal Activity" etc.
http://toointerestingfortwitter.blogspot.com
Boomzilla Says
Point taken on '90s vs. '00s. What color's red? My face.
Boomzilla Says
I didn't even get past the first title before stopping to wonder, "What about 'Titanic'?" Sheesh. Conscientious editors know that you never, ever use Wikipedia as a reference, only as a place you might find useful tips to explore further and that MUST ALWAYS BE VERIFIED SEPARATELY. BoxOfficeMojo.com or even a global almanac is a better place to look for box office information. A subscription to the premium version of BoxOfficeMojo is relatively cheap -- less than $100 a year. They crunch numbers all kinds of interesting ways, and the user interface is very friendly and easy to play with.
mark Says
Did we really need a Wikipedia entry to figure this out?
Bobby the Saint Says
The above reader says: WHERE IS TITANIC?
It's MORONIC comments like this that make me question the basic reading comprehension skills of the average American. The post CLEARLY states movies of the last decade. Yet this nincompoop brings up Titanic, a movie which, last I checked, came out in the late 90s. 1997, to be exact. Not a movie of the 2000s. So, no -- Wikipedia does not fail on the note you so huffily pointed out.
Next time do your homework before popping off, dude.
Sigh.
End of rant.
reader Says
This list doesn't seem accurate. Where is TITANIC? Wikipedia fails again.