Box office review 2018

Beyond the simple headline that super heroes and dinosaurs ruled the worldwide box office in 2018, there are other stories to tell, of daring release strategies, of little films that made it big, of audiences coming back time and again to see the same film.

But let's start with the unavoidable, inescapable fact: Avengers: Infinity War ruled the world, nudging over the $2bn barrier. That figures includes £70.8m from the UK (topping the chart), nearly $1.4m from the international box office (Thanos & co was the chart topper in Brazil, Mexico,  France, Australia, Germany and Russia, as well as being the best-performing foreign film in China and South Korea), and 'only' $678.8m in the US (trailing behind Black Panther with its seismic $700.1m).

Super hero movies dominated the worldwide top 20: in the Avengers' and Thanos's wake came Black Panther, Incredibles 2, Venom, Aquaman, Deadpool 2 and Ant-Man & The Wasp. Panther and Incredibles both skipped passed the $1bn barrier, while Christmas hit Aquaman is about to cross that barrier as I write.

Among the really big hits, one of the surprises - especially given its lengthy and difficult gestation - is Bohemian Rhapsody. With a budget of just $52m and without securing the right to be distributed in China, the Queen biopic closed 2018 with $713.4m - and continues to hold screen space through January and is closing on $800m. The film was spectacularly successful in Japan, being the number one foreign film (and the second-best foreign film in the past three years), and in South Korea, where it was second best performing foreign film behind the Avengers. Freddie & co finished fifth in the UK with £47.2m, and at number one in both Italy and the Netherlands. Freddie & co was only the second-best music-based film in the UK - Mamma Mia 2 took the title with £65.6m.

Indeed, musicals and music-based movies were one of the other key trends of 2018: the combination of MM2, Bo Rhap, A Star Is Born and the hold-over business from The Greatest Showman generated a worldwide box office total of $1.8bn off combined budgets of just $247m (note: MM2 cost $25m more to produce than its predecessor). In the UK, the four films generated £184m.

Indeed, The Greatest Showman became a sensation in the UK, showing tremendous legs as audiences returned again and again to see the film: it took more than £1m every weekend for 12 consecutive weekends - that's positively Titanic-esque. Aside from its bumper opening weekend, its weekend takings from its second weekend until its twelfth look like this: £2.4m, £2.1m, £2.1m, £2m, £2.2m (this was the first weekend in February and the only time the film hit the top spot), £1.9m, £1.9m, £2m, £1.2m, £1.6m, and £1m.

Awards season was a particularly fruitful time at the UK box office with Darkest Hour performing like a bona fide blockbuster, opening at number one with more than £4m and finishing its run just shy of £25m (the ballsy release strategy - pitching it as a blockbuster - was a stroke of genius). Three Billboards performed very well, raking in more than £15m. In both cases, the backers must have been pleasantly surprised at how well their films performed.

Other performances of note in the UK were Peter Rabbit's £40.9m steal and Mary Poppins returning in style, grabbing more than £23m in just 11 days before continuing to rule the roost at the start of 2019 (it should easily pass the £40m barrier).

A relative under-performer in the UK was A Quiet Place, hauling in just £11.8m, meaning the critical hit chiller didn't take the crown for best-performing movie based on entirely original characters and scenario: Coco's £18.9m sealed that title. However, A Quiet Place was the worldwide and US best-performing original on $340.7m and $188m respectively on a budget of just $17m.

Notably profitable movies - comparing production budget with box office receipts - were Bo Rhap, A Star Is Born ($389.2m haul from a $36m budget), and US hit Crazy Rich Asians ($238.5m - $174m from the US! - off a budget of $30m).

Challenging those Asians for the title of most one-sided performance of the year was Ready Player One, with more than three-quarters of its $582.9m worldwide haul coming from the international market - indeed, nearly half of its international haul came from China!

China was the number one worldwide market for not only Ready Player One, but also Venom, The Meg, Rampage, Pacific Rim 2, Skyscraper and Tomb Raider.

Of course, there were a number of box office disappointments - and the world's most successful was not immune. While Disney had Avengers 3, the Panther, the Incredibles sequel and the Ant-Man sequel generating an astonishing $5.3bn worldwide between them, it also caught a cold on Star Wars spin-off Solo, which spectacularly underwhelmed with less than $400m, while the combination of A Wrinkle In Time, Christopher Robin and The Nutcracker & The Four Realms could only muster $503m between them.

The Pacific Rim sequel fell noticeably short of its predecessor ($291.4m v $411m respectively), but arguably the biggest flop was Robin Hood: off a $100m budget, it missed the target, generating just $79.8m.

Forecast for 2019: another banner year for Disney with (deep breath) Captain Marvel, Dumbo (live action), Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin (live action), Toy Story 4, The Lion King (live action), Artemis Fowl (the new Harry Potter?), and the end-of-year double whammy of Frozen 2 and Star Wars 9.

2018 charts
Worldwide top 20
Avengers: Infinity War   $2,048.7m
Black Panther   $1,346.9m
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom   $1,304.9m
Incredibles 2   $1,242.6m
Venom   $855.2m
Aquaman   $836.1m
Mission: Impossible - Fallout   $791m
Deadpool 2   $735.6m
Bohemian Rhapsody   $713.4m
Fantastic Beasts 2   $628.7m
Ant-Man & The Wasp   $622.7m
Jumanji   $615m (also took $342.7m in 2017)
Ready Player One   $582.9m
The Meg   $$30.2m
Hotel Transylvania 3   $527.2m
The Grinch   $474.2m
Rampage   $428m
Mamma Mia 2   $393.8m
Solo   $392.9m
A Star Is Born   $389.2m

UK top 20
Avengers: Infinity War   £70.8m
Mamma Mia 2   £65.6m
Incredibles 2   £56.1m
Black Panther    $50.6m
Bohemian Rhapsody   £47.2m
The Greatest Showman   £41.9m (also took £4.8m in 2017)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom   £41.6m
Peter Rabbit   £40.9m
Deadpool 2   £32.7m
Fantastic Beasts 2   £32.7m
A Star Is Born   £29.3m
The Grinch   £26.6m
Mission: Impossible - Fallout   £24.4m
Darkest Hour   £24.9m
Mary Poppins Returns   £23.2m
Venom   $20.2m
Jumanji   £20.1m (also took £17.8m in 2017)
Hotel Transylvania 3   £19.9m
Solo   £19.4m
Coco   £18.9m

International top 20
Avengers: Infinity War   $1,369.9m
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom   $888.2m
Black Panther    $646.9m
Venom   $642.1m
Aquaman   $637m
Incredibles 2   $634m
Mission: Impossible - Fallout   $570.9m
Bohemian Rhapsody   $523.6m
Ready Player One   $445.2m
Deadpool 2   $417.1m
Ant-Man & The Wasp   $406m
Jumanji   $396m (also took $157.5m in 2017)
The Meg   $384.8m
Hotel Transylvania 3   $359.7m
Rampage   $327m
Mamma Mia 2   $273.2m
50 Shades Freed   $271m
The Nun   $248.1m
Skyscraper   $236.3m
Peter Rabbit   $236m

US top 20
Black Panther   $700.1m
Avengers: Infinity War   $678.8m
Incredibles 2   $608.6m
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom   $416.8m
Deadpool 2   $318.5m
The Grinch   $266.3m
Jumanji   $235.5m (also took $169m in 2017)
Mission: Impossible - Fallout   $220.2m
Ant-Man & The Wasp   $216.6m
Solo   $213.8m
Venom   $213.3m
A Star Is Born   $201.2m
Aquaman   $199.1m
Bohemian Rhapsody   $189.8m
A Quiet Place   $188m
Ralph Breaks The Internet   $177.6m
Crazy Rich Asians   $174m
Hotel Transylvania 3   $167.5m
Halloween   $159.3m
Fantastic Beasts 2   $156.8m

China top 10
Avengers: Infinity War   $359.5m
Venom   $271.7m
Aquaman   $261.4m
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom   $261.2m
Ready Player One   $218.5m
Mission: Impossible - Fallout   $181.2m
Rampage   $156.4m
The Meg   $153m
Ant-Man & The Wasp   $121.2m
Black Panther   $105.1m

Data sources: boxofficemojo.com, BFI