The Future of Film

Here is a list of the movies with the biggest box office from the last 365 days. Let’s see if we can uncover some patterns that will tell us about movies in the future.

3 were comic book franchises ("Batman", "Iron Man", and "Hulk").

4 were superhero movies ("Batman", "Iron Man", "Hancock", and "Hulk").

3 were animated children’s movies ("Wall-E", "Kung Fu Panda", and "Madagascar").

4 were chick flicks (“Twilight“, “Sex and the City“, “Mamma Mia“, and “Marley and Me“).

9 were franchises (“Batman“, “Iron Man“, “Indiana Jones“, “Madagascar“, “Bond”, “Sex and the City“, “Narnia“, “Hulk“, and “Get Smart“. You could also include “Twilight” because, although it is the first in a series, it is based on a series of books with a proven track record. This would bring the total up to 10 of the top 20 movies being franchises. Half.) Movies cost a lot to make. Backers want to see a return on equity. One way to reduce risk is to support projects with a proven track record. Hence franchises.

It is safe to say that more than two thirds have action elements in their story lines. Movies are for showing, books are for telling. The camera likes action -- and so do audiences.

A little more than half did better overseas than domestically. The exceptions were “Batman” (comic book action), “Iron Man” (comic book action), “Grand Torino” (social commentary) , “Marley and Me” (comedy), “Paul Blart” (slapstick comedy), “Taken” (revenge), “Hulk” (comic book action) and “Get Smart” (slapstick comedy). Box office for “Twilight” was evenly split between foreign and domestic. Among those that did better abroad, “Mamma Mia” (76%), “Bond” (70%), and “Madagascar” (69%) were the top three. Both “Mamma Mia” and “Bond” are based on brands that originated in Europe (the Swedish rock band ABBA in the case of “Mamma Mia“). Sure enough, a closer look at the box office receipts of “Mamma Mia” reveal a big return from Sweden.

Looking back, top-grossing animated movies make most of their money abroad. "Cars" is an exception. So is "Toys 2", but that was a movie from more than 10 years ago -- before foreign distribution became a big part in movie revenues.

All of the comic book action films did better at home than abroad. Looking back at the record of all comic book action films, this appears to be the general pattern. Usually, but not always, comic book action films do better domestically than abroad.

“Twilight” was produced by Summit Entertainment, and was its only top 20 showing -- the only film from Summit that has made over $100 million (so far). Expect to see more in the Twilight series from Summit in the future. Readers at BoxOffice Mojo gave it a solid B average.

"Slumdog Millionaire"’s worldwide take was almost 20 times its production budget -- the highest profit-to-production-cost ratio in the top 20. A Best Picture award from the Academy can do a lot for a small budget picture’s bottom line.

The next biggest p-to-pc ratio was from "Sex and the City", which earned nearly ten times its small $35 million production budget. It is unlikely we have seen the last of Carrie and her friends.