SURE-FIRE HITS – The Kings of the Box Office
Black Panther ($700 million)
Avengers: Infinity War ($678.8 million)
Incredibles 2 ($608.5 million)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($416.7 million)
SURPRISE SUCCESSES – They got there through word-of-mouth or succeeded where others failed
A Quiet Place ($188 million)
*Crazy Rich Asians ($174 million)
Book Club ($68.5 million)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? ($22.6 million)
CONSOLATION PRIZES – Didn’t do so hot here, but made up for it overseas
Ready Player One ($137 million) – made $445.2 million outside North America
Skyscraper ($67.7 million) – made $236.3 million outside North America
Tomb Raider ($57.4 million) – made $216.4 million outside North America
Detective Chinatown 2 ($1.9 million) – made $542 million outside North America
DISAPPOINTMENTS – Movies that should have done better
Solo: A Star Wars Story ($213.7 million) – all three previous entries were the biggest movies of their respective years; in fact, no previous Star Wars movie had ever finished worse than No. 3 for the year. This barely finished in the top 10.
*Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ($156.7 million) – previous film made $234 million
Pacific Rim: Uprising ($59.5 million) – previous film made $101.8 million
Paddington 2 ($40.4 million) – previous film made $76.2 million
FLOPPIEST FLOPS – These cost a lot and didn’t come close to returning their investment
*The Nutcracker and the Four Realms ($54.5 million) – cost $120 million
The Predator ($51 million) – cost $88 million
*Mortal Engines ($14.8 million) – cost $100 million
*The Girl in the Spider’s Web ($14.8 million) – cost $43 million
LOW BUDGET VICTORIES – Low-cost, high-yield successes
*Halloween ($159.3 million) – cost $10 million
I Can Only Imagine ($83.4 million) – cost $7 million
Breaking In ($46.5 million) – cost $6 million
Truth or Dare ($41.2 million) – cost $3.5 million
SADDEST STATISTIC – Death Wish made more than Annihilation.
(all grosses through Dec. 31, 2018)
*still in release