2016's Box Office Scorecard. Big & Minor Hits (Some Flops due to Budget)
Monday, January 2, 2017 at 2:22PM 
Each day for the past two weeks we've been looking back on the year that was from different angles. Today, the biggest hits of 2016 in two different categories (franchise vs original).
It will surprise no one that the year's biggest hits continue to prove Hollywood right (sigh) in pursuing nothing but animated and superhero pictures and franchisable intellectual property and neglecting the nurturing of movies for adults. On the bright side quality pictures do occassionally break through audience resistance to original concepts and voices, often with the help of awards at year's end. So next time you hear people complain about awards season, remind them that we might never get movies made for adults if there weren't shiny gold statues to chase.
How many of these 35 pictures have you seen and which will you hit next?
TOP SIXTEEN OF 2016 THUS FAR
01 Finding Dory $486.2
Though Zootopia was the year's biggest animated hit globally, this significantly less spectacular Pixar sequel was the one US moviegoers cared most about.
02 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $439 🔺
The Star Wars prequel is still roaring. Though a Force Awakens sized gross is out of the question it could still end up as the year's biggest hit.
03 Captain America Civil War $408
One of the only blockbusters of the summer that people didn't bitch about after spending their money on it.
04 The Secret Life of Pets $368.3
The ad campaign that seemed to last 3 years paid off with a massive gross.
05 The Jungle Book $364
Jon Favreau's remake of the animated musical gave audiences exactly what they wanted: the movie they knew and loved plus CG advances.
06 Deadpool $363
The most "viral" of the blockbusters this year far exceeding anyone's expectations.
07 Zootopia $341.2
Marvelous.
08 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice $330.3
Embarrassingly dour.
09 Suicide Squad $325.1
Just embarrassing.
10 Doctor Strange $230 🔺
It seems strange that DC superhero movies that are so wildly reviled still manage to outgross the non-team Marvel movies that people theoretically enjoy so much more.
11 Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them $225 🔺
The Harry Potter franchise lives on under a new name.
12 Moana $213 🔺
Frozen was an unrepeatable phenomenon but bless Disney for trying. Without them we'd have so many fewer musicals in the past 20+ years.
13 Sing $180 🔺
14 Jason Bourne $162.1
15 Star Trek Beyond $158.8
16 X-Men Apocalypse $155.4
A textbook case perfect storm of what's wrong with franchise culture. This is the darkest side of franchises, that they have such a massive safety net for risks and original stories (the audience will turn up no matter what) and take none, providing no sustenance to their eager appreciative audiences... just empty calories. The X-Men universe is one of the richest and most multi-faceted in comic book culture and the movies just don't reflect that at all.
TOP SIXTEEN (NON-ANIMATED / NON-FRANCHISE)
The second number listed is their overall rank in the year's box office. If it was clearly a franchise launch (despite no sequel news) or if a sequel has already been announced or heavily inferred by the talent it's not included so goodbye Central Intelligence, Bad Moms, Don't Breathe, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
01|22 Sully $124.8
Whatever you think of Clint Eastwood's films, he continues to be one of the only filmmakers that doesn't have much difficulty luring audiences to dramas.
02|29 Arrival $92 🔺
One of the year's greatest films. While a marginal hit the public failed it as it should have been much bigger. It's tough out there for adult pictures even when they deliver the genre goods.
03|33 The Accountant $85.4
04|38 The Girl on the Train $75.3
05|44 Passengers $66 🔺
Its massive budget means it's a flop but it's not like audiences ignored it. A lesson to studios to try to keep costs down, surely.
06|46 Hacksaw Ridge $64 🔺
07|48 The Boss $63
Melissa McCarthy doesn't always knock them out of the park but the movies always make decent money.
08|50 Miracles From Heaven $61.7
Christian films regularly do well now. Partially because they keep budgets down.
09|51 Deepwater Horizon $61.4
10|53 Me Before You $56.2
The book's fanbase helped it find ticket buyers
11|55 The BFG $55.4
Another film that wasn't totally ignored but felt like it due to costs to make it.
12|57 The Shallows $55.1
We thought this high-concept thriller would go more viral but $55 isn't bad for a low budget one actor summer actioner.
13|59 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi $52.7
14|60 Office Christmas Party $52 🔺
15|64 How to Be Single $46.8
Not spectacular but perhaps underappreciated for what it did pull off. But it will probably fall off this list soon with the "rising" films below which were released in December.
16|65 Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates $46
...AND THE STILL RISING FILMS
It was a been a dismal year for the mainstream success of originals as you can see from the list above, where even in a "top 16" of hundreds upon hundreds of releases there were films which are regarded as flops or at least significant disappointments. Can some of the soon-to-be Oscar nominated late bloomers save the year? The answer is a happy yes: La La Land is currently at $37 million and likely to earn much more still. Let's hope it becomes a phenomenon to make the world a safer place for daring original ventures AND musicals. The other big 2016 hopefuls that still have much earning potential in them are Fences (currently at $32) and Hidden Figures which goes wide next weekend and could capitalize on real mainstream appeal.
Year in Review
Best Movie Cats | Co-Star Chemistry | Coping Mechanisms | 25 Female Performances | Most Coveted Things | Grief and Letting Go | Ladies Who Lush | #52FilmsByWomen | Foreign Box Office Hits | Biggest Mainstream Hits | Music Videos | Worst of the Year | Red Carpet Looks | Hunkiest Hunks
Highlights of the Blog by Month
Jan | 88th Oscars | March | April | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec
Reader Comments (19)
I've seen 9 out of 35.
The other ones that might be more interesting than I originally thought would be The Shallows and Sully.
I'm more looking forward to 20th Century Women, Jackie, and Fences.
The Shallows I Ioved,maximum thrills low budget..
Where are the horror movies The Conjuring 2 100 million plus,Lights Out near 70 million,Don't Breath near 90 million.
Of the 32, I've seen eight. Of the three mentioned at the end, all of them. So eleven in all. The next one I'm likely to see is Hacksaw Ridge (due diligence).
Surprised Ghostbusters didn't make the list.
3 of the first 16 and 6 of the second, which I feel is a good stab given the disconnect between the quality films and the top-grossing films.
I worked out my top 10 for 2016 today and staggered to calculate that here in the UK for every 1 person who saw Time Out of Mind (brilliant thematic filmmaking, excellent performances from Gere & Vereen, movie that has stayed with me all year, and my number 4 pick), nearly 2000 saw Bridget Jones's Baby (which was fine but nowhere near anyones top 10).
But was it always this way? Has there ever really been a time when the higher sales correlates to quality?
Y'all, he prefaced it upfront:
TOP SIXTEEN (NON-ANIMATED / NON-FRANCHISE)
...If it was clearly a franchise launch (despite no sequel news) or if a sequel has already been announced or heavily inferred by the talent it's not included...
Hence, no Don't Breathe, Ghostbusters, etc.
While visiting family for the holidays, we wanted to see Arrival, La La Land, and Hidden Figures. But Arrival had just left the theaters in my parents' town, and La La Land and Hidden Figures hadn't made it there yet. So we saw only Rogue One. Now it's much harder to find the time and child care to go see those movies we couldn't during the holidays. That's just how things work out for a lot of us.
@BJT
Most definitely there once was a time where quality and box office were more closely linked. It really is remarkable to see how profoundly the box office has shifted and how poorly adult dramas do now. Nathaniel had an article pre-Slumdog (sorry, I can't find it) where he showed the gross-for-inflation of all the best picture winners since the 70s and it was almost shocking to see just how well certain films did. I recommend drifting through box office mojo and seeing the actual dollar values of some of those movies.
I've only seen three of the 32 films mentioned (5 with the "rising" films). I'll definitely see Hidden Figures and a few of the others listed.
BJT, Arkaan: Indeed - some Best Picture winners, such as The Godfather, The Sting, Rocky, Kramer vs. Kramer, Terms of Endearment, Out of Africa and Rain Man, were colossal hits. And plenty of nominees were as well. It's less common now. I guess the most recent really big box office Best Picture winners are The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Departed.
I've seen about 18 out of 35.
One New Year's resolution I have: Continuing to try and put my money where my mouth is and support more original and more inclusive content. While I will make some exceptions (Blade Runner 2049, Star Wars, Wonder Woman, etc.), I won't see as many tentpoles because a.) superhero movies are starting to feel repetitive and b.) That's where the studios will put most of their money, preventing them from taking risks on original content.
Arkaan -- i remember that article. I should try and find it. I'm not sure it's online anymore but should be in my archives. Two perfect examples though are KRAMER VS KRAMER and TERMS OF ENDEARMENT which were both literally "blockbusters" in the modern understanding of the term, and both either the #2 or #1 grossing pictures of their year. Impossible to imagine now when audiences don't support adult dramas, even great ones like those.
@ Mareko:
I was surprised Ghostbusters didn't make it into the other list, i.e., I thought it made more money than it actually did.
Finding Dory off the first list and Sully and Arrival off the second. Other than maybe Zootopia, I doubt I'll be seeing any of these.
All in all, a pretty depressing list...I hope adult dramas still exist in five years.
Are you guys surprised that 'Allied' performed as poorly as it did?
Ten out of the list - I did manage to avoid a lot of crap
I think Arrival has done pretty well for the type of film it is.
While I agree about the "audiences don't support adult dramas," it's often not by choice. Adult dramas don't play in nearly as many theaters as the blockbusters. I was just in central Wisconsin for the holidays and all the theaters had Rogue One, Office Christmas Party and Collateral Beauty. We had to drive almost an hour to find one that had Manchester by the Sea and Fences. La La Land was nowhere to be found.
It's easy for city-dwellers to assume everyone has their picks of movies all the time but a lot of the country is not like that.
Why you assume Accountant won't have a sequel or wasn't meant to have one if you so easily add bunch of films to the list that were meant to have sequels?
2016 was great for Hollywood as a lot of the movies were released and break the records and few were heartbreaking. Some of the movies of 2016 I liked were KungFu Panda3, Doctors Strange, Suicide Squad, Deadpool and many more.