This year movie-goers were back in the cineplex in droves because the COVID restrictions were far less stringent than last year, and the box office included some heavy hitters this time around. There were still superhero-related movies like Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Adam and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but there were also huge blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World: Dominion and Elvis. And then there were more indie movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once and the much buzzed about screen adaptation of the best-selling novel Where the Crawdads Sing.
Among the much buzzed about news items in the world of box office movies have been the unjust cancellation of Batgirl just as the film was nearly at completion; the rave reviews for the performances by Brendan Fraser in The Whale and Austin Butler in Elvis and the impressive cast of The Woman King, including Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, Sheila Atim, Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu.
Now let’s take a look at the top 30 box office winners from this year (up through Sunday, December 18 that is):
1. Top Gun: Maverick – 718.3 million
2. Black Panther: Wakana Forever – 419.8 million
3. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – 411.3 million
4. Jurassic World: Dominion – 376 million
5. Minions: The Rise of Gru – 369.5 million
6. The Batman – 369.3 million
7. Thor: Love and Thunder – 343.3 million
8. Spider-Man: No Way Home – 231.8 million
9. Sonic the Hedgehog – 190.9 million
10. Black Adam – 167.7 million
11. Elvis – 151 million
12. Avatar: The Way of Water – 150.4 million
13. Uncharted – 148.6 million
14. Nope – 123.3 million
15. Lightyear – 118.3 million
16. Smile – 105.9 million
17. The Lost City – 105.3 million
18. Bullet Train – 103.4 million
19. The Bad Guys – 97.2 million
20. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore – 95.8 million
21. DC League of Super-Pets – 93.7 million
22. Where the Crawdads Sing – 90.2 million
23. The Black Phone – 89.9 million
24. Sing 2 – 86.3 million
25. Scream – 81.6 million
26. Morbius – 73.9 million
27. Everything Everywhere All at Once – 68.7 million
28. Ticket to Paradise – 67.9 million
29. The Woman King – 67.2 million
30. Halloween Ends – 64.1 million
NOTE: This list does not include Babylon or Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, both of which come out on December 23 nor does it include the Tom Hanks film A Man Named Otto, which comes out on December 30. Please keep in mind the box office results are currently low for Avatar: The Way of Water, as it just came out on Decmeber 16.
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. While several of the below were in the top 30 for ticket sales, they still weren’t very good (at least to me).
They appear in alphabetical order below:
Bones and All
Don’t Worry Darling
Halloween Ends
Jackass Forever
Marry Me
Massive Talent
Nope
Smile
Terrifier 2
The Barbarians
The Black Phone
The Menu
Violent Night
What movies did you most enjoy seeing this year? Which movies were disappointments to you? Please share your thoughts and comments.
TOMORROW: Awards of 2022
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Rueben's Ramblings 
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