This was the year of superhero movies: Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Aquaman and Shazam!, drawing in movie-goers; but just as popular was the big screen “debut” of Downton Abbey and the return to Jumanji.
There were the tearjerkers: Five Feet Apart, A Dog’s Journey and The Art of Racing in the Rain as well as great action flicks like Men in Black International, Angel Has Fallen and Hobbs and Shaw, and of course, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Let’s take a look at the top 30 box office winners from this year (up through Sunday, December 22):
1. Avengers: Endgame – 858 million
2. The Lion King – 544 million
3. Toy Story 4 – 434 million
4. Captain Marvel – 427 million
5. Spider-Man: Far from Home – 391 million
6. Frozen II – 374 million
7. Aladdin – 356 million
8. Joker – 333 million
9. It Chapter Two – 212 million
10. Us 1 175 million
11. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw – 174 million
12. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – 171 million
13. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – 161 million
14. The Secret Life of Pets 2 – 158 million
15. Pokemon Detective Pikachu – 144 million
16. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood – 141 million
17. Shazam! – 140 million
18. Aquaman – 136 million
19. Dumbo – 115 million
20. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil – 113 million
21. Glass – 111 million
22. Godzilla: King of the Monsters – 110 million
23. The Upside – 108 million
24. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part – 106 million
25. Hustlers – 105 million
26. Ford v Ferrari – 104 million
27. The Addams Family – 97 million
28. Downton Abbey – 96 million
29. Rocketman – 96 million
30. Alita: Battle Angel – 86 million
NOTE: Please keep in mind that the box office results for movies released during the week before Christmas; namely Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, won’t be tallied until later this week.
On the other spectrum are the movies that were either a disappointment in the box office due to poor ticket sales or, more importantly, had a horrible trailer that made me completely uninterested in seeing them.
They appear in no alphabetical order below:
A Madea Family Funeral
Annabelle Comes Home
Black Christmas
Brightburn
Captive State
Countdown
Crawl
Doctor Sleep
Good Boys
Joker
Like A Boss
Long Shot
The Intruder
Ma
Murder Mystery
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Pet Sematary
Playing with Fire
Ready or Not
Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark
Stuber
The following list, provided by Business Insider, are the 16 box office flops, listed in no particular order:
Replicas (starring Keanu Reeves) – It fell short $26 million dollars from its production costs and earned only a 10% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The Kid Who Would Be King – It was short by $28 million dollars from its production costs.
Serenity (the Matthew McConaghey and Anne Hathaway film) – It fell short by $17 million dollars from its production value and only got a 19% score at Rotten Tomatoes.
Miss Bala (starring Jane the Virgin lead Gina Rodriguez) – While the film made just a little over its production budget, it only earned a 22% score from Rotten Tomatoes.
Captive State (which starred John Goodman and Vera Farmiga) – This move also lost $17 million from its production value with a 45% score from Rotten Tomatoes.
The Beach Bum (the stoner comedy that starred Zac Efron and Matthew McConaughey) – It lost about a million dollars from its production value with a 54% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Hellboy (the reboot that starred Stranger Things’ David Harbour in the lead role) – It fell short by $9 million dollars from its production value and earned only a 15% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Ugly Dolls (the animated film) – It lost $18 million dollars from its production value with only a 27% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Poms (the Diane Keaton flick) – It is unclear how much money it lost, but it raked in just a little over $13 million overall and earned a 34% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Tolkien (which starred Nicholas Hoult in the title role) – This is another one that under-performed, earning only 7.7 million in global sales with a 51% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Dark Phoenix (what could be the last in the franchise given how much it was reviled) – It made a lot of money in the box office, over $252 million in global gross sales, but critics and fans alike did not like it and it earned a 23% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The Kitchen (starring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elizabeth Moss) – It lost over $20 million dollars from its production budget while earning only a 21% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The Goldfinch (which starred Ansel Elgort and Nicole Kidman) – This film lost a whopping $42 million dollars below its production budget and received only a 25% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The Gemini Man (the Will Smith action flick) – It earned $34 million dollars over its immense production budget of $138 million dollars, but was not well-received by audiences. It also only earned a 26% score at Rotten Tomatoes.
Doctor Sleep (the “sequel” to The Shining) – It earned $24 million dollars over its production budget and got a 77% Rotten Tomatoes score, but given expectations it ‘should’ have performed far better.
Playmobil: The Movie (the animated film) – It fell incredibly short of its production budget – losing at least $30 million dollars) and earned only an 18% Rotten Tomatoes score.
What movies did you most enjoy seeing this year? Which movies were disappointments to you? Please share your thoughts and comments.
TOMORROW: Awards of 2019
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Rueben's Ramblings 
Leave a comment