Indeed the Chinese box office is now the largest after the
US, and offers makers and distributors a rare silver lining: for example,
worldwide flop Expendables 3 raked in more than $70m from China.
But the jaw-dropping ‘go figure’ of 2014 was Transformers
4’s $301m haul from China – that’s 22% more than its US take. The Chinese money
was also crucial to Transformers 4 taking the top spots internationally and
worldwide ($842m and $1.1bn respectively): without it, the robots would have
finished behind the other two main surprises of 2014, Frozen and Guardians of
the Galaxy respectively.
Disney’s tale of Else and Anna rather unexpectedly became a
box office behemoth: in 2014, it took in more dollars than it had the previous
year, $744.5m v $551.7m. More than half of its 2014 take came from two
countries: the US, where it took another $137m on top of 2013’s $263m, and
Japan, where it held the weekend box office number one position for 16 weeks
from mid-March until the end of June and thus accumulated $249m.
Its combined 2013 and 2014 worldwide totals not only make it
more successful than Transformers 4, but also bigger than 2013’s number one
Iron Man 3.
Comic relief
But Marvel was not to be denied its moment: just as it did
with Tony Stark back in 2008, it took a little known property and created a
smash hit – in 2014 that was of course the Guardians of the Galaxy. A worldwide
haul of $772m is impressive, especially when you consider that the comic is not
a renowned and well-loved best seller, and neither the cast nor the director
are big enough names to generate a hit of this proportion.
Served by probably the year’s best trailer, it was the
biggest film of the year in the US at $332m and raked in another $439m
internationally (including $96m from, you guessed it, China, and nearly £30m
from the UK).
Marvel also made the most of Captain America: at $714m, the
sequel nearly doubled the original’s worldwide total, driven by an
international take that more than doubled (and, yes, that includes $115.6m from
China – the previous Cap wasn’t released there).
Of course, Disney owns Marvel, and as if the trio of Cap 2,
Guardians and Frozen wasn’t enough, Maleficent survived some so-so reviews to
take the number three position both worldwide and internationally.
Despite its success, Cap 2 was not the second most
successful comic adaptation of the year: that title went to X-Men: Days of
Future Past. Its $233m domestic haul might have disappointed Fox a little, but
its $512m international take should have more than compensated.
The other comic book movie of 2014, Amazing Spider-Man 2,
can’t really be regarded as a hit, especially now that we know Sony’s fears
post-hack. A worldwide haul of $709m sounds a lot, but it’s less than the
predecessor’s: the original reboot took 30% more in the US and just 2% less
internationally (Spidey 2 doubled its Chinese take and that made all the
difference).
It can now only be a question of how soon and not if Sony
strikes a deal whereby Spidey and his pals return to the Marvel fold.
The final comment on comic book movies in 2014 goes to the
film that wasn’t based on a comic book, but played heavily on a comic book
movie connection: Lucy.
While the internet was littered with calls for a Black Widow
movie from Marvel in the aftermath of Scarlett Johansson’s scene-stealing in
Cap 2, Universal pushed Lucy, its ScarJo starrer/Luc Besson-helmed
actioner/2001 hybrid, front and centre. The result: number one openings
worldwide and $458m in the bank. If it had been Marvel-made with Scarlett as
Natasha Romanov in the black leather outfit and without the dehumanising Space
Odyssey finale (which caused the film to drop off substantially as word of
mouth kicked in in each territory), then this would have been a $750m monster,
easy (which would then have meant a sequel of course).
No matter, the combination of Cap 2 and Lucy, plus the
critical plaudits she earned for Under The Skin (and the celeb pages coverage
for the birth of her first child) mean Scarlett vies with Jennifer Lawrence for
the title of the year’s most successful actress.
I am the JLaw
JLaw had two major hits plus some hold-over success with
American Hustle (which took the majority of its $101m international haul in
2014): the two hits need no introduction in the form of X-Men and the third
instalment of The Hunger Games. The former made the most of her rise to
prominence (she dominated the poster), while Mockingjay Part 1, with its lack
of action, proved once again that without JLaw, the Games would be dead in the
water (in financial terms, I should note that Mockingjay will not be released
in China until February 2015, so more dollars will fly its way; however it’s
tracking significantly behind its predecessors in most major markets).
Nevertheless, you can’t ignore the bald statement that films with Jennifer
Lawrence in a starring role generated more than $1.6bn at the worldwide box
office in 2014 – and no male actor can claim that level of success.
With the Hunger Games finale in 2015 and another X-Men movie
in 2016, she seems unstoppable for the moment.
Building bricks
The Lego Movie looked unstoppable in the early part of the
year, holding number one at the US box office for three weeks in February and
ultimately raking in nearly £260m. It was similarly powerful in the UK: three
weeks at number one and the number one movie of the year. Shockingly, it did
not perform anywhere near as well anywhere else (with the exception of
Australia, where it took $27.8m).
Its international was so low (relatively!)
that it didn’t even make the international box office top 20 at the year end,
beaten by the likes of the 300 sequel and The Maze Runner and Noah. Indeed, 40%
of its international total came from the UK and Australia combined. Perhaps
Lego is not the worldwide brand that one thought – or was the movie too
US-centric?
Nevertheless, spin-offs and sequels are planned: the Batman
Lego movie for 2017 and Lego Movie 2 for 2018.
Adult entertainment
While the Lego Movie was ostensibly for kids, there was just
as much, if not more, in it for adults. And there was much else for adults in
2014, some fare becoming surprisingly large hits, of which three to spring to
mind: Gone Girl, The Wolf of Wall Street, and 12 Years A Slave.
Much-talked about Number One Bestsellers get adapted into
movies every other day, but very few prove as successful at the box office
(Time Traveller’s Wife, for example, wheezed its way to $101m worldwide a few
years ago). However, Gone Girl is an exception to the rule: $349.5m worldwide,
including $165m-plus in the US and £22m-plus in the UK. It opened well, and
then simply clung on to the charts, showing tremendous legs.
The Wolf of Wall Street was a curious beast and a surprise
financial success: $339.8m worldwide, including an additional $75.5m in the US
in 2014 (on top of the $41.4m it took in 2013), plus £22.3m in the UK
(including three weeks at number one).
Doing conspicuously well in the UK was 12 Years A Slave.
Rather than take the usual noble Oscar push route (open small with platform
screenings and then expand), 12 Years’ distributor treated it like a
blockbuster – and that move paid off handsomely with £20m banked.
This is the UK’s biggest ‘go figure’ for years: quite how a
133-minute American slavery epic made it that big in the UK, I’ll never know.
Is the white man’s guilt that rich a seam in the UK?
The UK chart witnessed as much over- and under-performance
as anywhere else: The Inbetweeners 2, at £33.4m, was a big hit, but well shy of
the original’s £45m in 2011; but Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, at £32.5m,
raked in 50% more than its predecessor.
As the year closed out, the third instalment of the Hobbit had
done just enough to get ahead of the Inbetweeners. However, it faces stiff
competition for the title of most successful film released in the UK in 2014
from a somewhat unlikely quarter: Paddington, the end-of-year gate-crasher.
The marmalade-loving bear garnered universally excellent
reviews and gave everyone, bar the Hobbit, a bloody nose in December, pulling
in £28m, with the potential for a few more million pounds more in 2015. Given
its exceptional legs, £40m is not out of the question.
God complex
The Bible and God were back with a bang in 2014. Darren
Arronovsky’s Noah may have been somewhat controversial and suffered similarly
poor word of mouth as Lucy, but nevertheless the dollars flooded in ($362.6m
worldwide). Ridley Scott rode in with Exodus in December, which didn’t really
catch on in the US and that seemed to translate into similar apathy
internationally.
But in the US, the faith-based movie bandwagon really got
rolling: from a combined budget of just $36m, the heavenly trio of Heaven Is
For Real, God’s Not Dead, and Son of God pulled in nearly $212m in the US
combined.
It almost goes without saying that they barely did anything anywhere
else ($19.8m worldwide combined for the three), nevertheless it can only be a
matter of time before a faith-based (ie Christian, not any other faith!) movie
passes through the $100m barrier (Heaven Is For Real was only $8.6m away from
doing so).
Original material
The most successful film of 2014 that was an original
property (ie not adapted from another medium nor a sequel/prequel/reboot, etc)
was also the most successful film not available in 3D: Christopher Nolan’s
Interstellar.
Some didn’t like it and others were confused (for the
record, I loved it), and thus with uneven word of mouth, Interstellar closed
out the year on $640m: in reality, that’s not bad for a film with no really big
stars, and that was as ambitious as it was. Nolan may have lost some of his box
office lustre (Inception did $825.5m in 2010), but let’s be clear, there was
only one other ‘original’ hit in the worldwide top 20 (Lucy).
Looking ahead, 2015 appears to follow this current trend:
lots of adaptations, an awful lot of sequels/reboots (Avengers 2, Mad Max,
Terminator 5, Ted 2, FF, Bond, Hunger Games 4, M:I 5, and the small matter of
Star Wars 7) and very few, if any, genuinely original megahits are on the
cards.
Worldwide
Transformers 4 $1.1bn
Guardians Of The Galaxy $772.2m
Maleficent $757.8m
X-Men: Days Of Future Past $746m
Frozen $744.5m
Captain America 2 $714m
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $709m
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes $708.3m
Hunger Games 3 $676.2m
Interstellar $650.1m
Hobbit 3 $628.8m
How To Train Your Dragon 2 $618.9m
Godzilla $525m
Rio 2 $498.7m
TMNT $477.2m
The Lego Movie $468m
Lucy $458.9m
Edge Of Tomorrow $369.2m
Noah $362.6m
Gone Girl $356.6m
International
Transformers 4 $842m
Frozen $607.5m
Maleficent $516.3m
X-Men: Days Of Future Past $512.1m
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $506.1m
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes $499.7m
Interstellar $470.7m
Captain America 2 $454.3m
How To Train Your Dragon 2 $441.9m
Guardians Of The Galaxy $439.6m
Hobbit 3 $439.3m
Rio 2 $367.1m
Hunger Games 3 $363m
Lucy $332.2m
Godzilla $324.3m
TMNT $286m
Edge Of Tomorrow $269m
The Wolf of Wall Street $264.3m
Noah $261.4m
Hobbit 2 $250m
US
Guardians Of The Galaxy $332.7m
Hunger Games 3 $313.3m
Captain America 2 $259.8m
The Lego Movie $257.8m
Transformers 4 $245.4m
Maleficent $241.4m
X-Men: Days Of Future Past $233.9m
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes $208.5m
Big Hero 6 $204.6m
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $202.9m
Godzilla $200.7m
22 Jump Street $191.7m
TMNT $191.2m
Hobbit 3 $189.5m
Interstellar $179.4m
How To Train Your Dragon 2 $177m
Gone Girl $166.2m
Divergent $150.9m
Neighbors $150.2m
Frozen $137m
UK
The Lego Movie £33.9m
Hobbit 3 £33.5m
The Inbetweeners 2 £33.4m
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes £32.5m
Hunger Games 3 £30.1m
Guardians Of The Galaxy £28.5m
Paddington £28m
X-Men: Days Of Future Past £27m
How To Train Your Dragon £24.7m
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 £23.7m
The Wolf Of Wall Street £22.3m
Gone Girl £22.3m
Interstellar £20.1m
12 Years A Slave £20m
Maleficent £19.5m
Transformers 4 £19.2m
Captain America 2 £19.3m
22 Jump Street £18.4m
Godzilla £17m
Bad Neighbour £15.7m
China
Transformers 4 $301m
Interstellar $122m
X-Men: Days Of Future Past $116.5m
Captain America 2 $115.6m
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes $107.4m
Guardians Of The Galaxy $96.5m
Amazing Spider-Man 2 $94.4m
Godzilla $77.6m
Hobbit 2 $74.7m
Expendables 3 $72.9m
Need For Speed $66.4m
Edge Of Tomorrow $65.7m
How To Train Your Dragon 2 $65.1m
TMNT $62.1m
Despicable Me 2 $53m
Robocop $50.8m
Frozen $48.2m
Maleficent $47.7m
Lucy $44.8m
Penguins of Madagascar $40.7m
Data sources: Boxofficemojo, BFI
No comments:
Post a Comment