Halfway Mark - Box Office Hits of 2018 (Thus Far) in Multiple Categories

by Nathaniel R

It's time for the annual "halfway mark" festivities. With the first six months of the year done, we are triggered to look back at one came before. To make this far more interesting than just "biggest blockbusters" we're listing the biggest hits of multiple categories. If we've written about them extensively, talked about them, or reviewed them, that's where the links take you.

Key: The totals are domestic as of estimates this weekend.Titles that still have life in them (i.e. are still in active release and not done or just about to leave) have up arrows next to them. OKAY THE LISTS. Ready? Let's go!

HIGHEST GROSSING WIDE RELEASE FILMS
everything that crossed the 100 million mark...

Though Infinity War is the year's top grosser globally, at home it's "Wakanda Forever!"

1. Black Panther $699+
2. 🔺Avengers: Infinity War $671+
3. 🔺Incredibles 2 $439+
4. 🔺Deadpool 2 $310+
5. 🔺Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom $264+
6. 🔺Solo: A Star Wars Story $207+
7. A Quiet Place $187+
8. Ready Player One $136+
9. Peter Rabbit $115+
10. 🔺Ocean's 8 $114+
11. A Wrinkle in Time  $100+
12. Fifty Shades Freed $100+

66% franchise titles... 33% superhero titles.

HIGHEST GROSSING ORIGINALS

These films are NOT part of an existing franchise (though they may have started one) and are NOT remakes of an existing hit (That said some of them are based on pre-existing material.)

1. A Quiet Place $187+
2. Ready Player One $136+
3. Peter Rabbit $115+
4. A Wrinkle in Time  $100+
5. Rampage $97+
6. I Can Only Imagine $83+
7. Game Night $69+
8. Book Club $66+
9. Blockers $59+
10. Life of the Party $52+
11. I Feel Pretty $48+
12. Red Sparrow $46+

HIGHEST GROSSING LIMITED RELEASE FILMS
Excluding docs and foreign films which we'll give their own category

i.e. These never went wide. (For the record we count wide as 800 screens though opinions on this number vary. Some sites say 600 is wide but we say that's an out-of-date line of demarcation since it was that way back in the 1980s (when we first started being film-conscious) and back then films didn't used to ever reach 4,000+ screens let alone being opening-weekend common). We've also included their maximum screen count to give you a sense on just how "limited" their release was. 

I've included all titles that surpassed the half million mark

1. The Death of Stalin $8+ (548 screens)
2. Beirut $5+ (755 screens)
3. 🔺Gotti $3.6+ (503 screens)
4. Disobedience $3.4+ (247 screens)
5. 🔺First Reformed $3.1+ (334 screens)
6. Thoroughbreds $2.8+ (564 screens)
7. You Were Never Really Here $2.5+ (233 screens)
8. The Rider $2.2+ (224 screens)
9. 🔺American Animals $1.7+ (339 screens)
10. Finding Your Feet $1.4+ (277 screens)
11. 🔺Hearts Beat Loud $1.2+ (104 screens)
12. Lean on Pete $1.1 (187 screens)
13. The Seagull $1.1+ (211 screens)
14. Beast $785 (93 screens)
15. The Party $749k (92 screens)
16. On Chesil Beach $722k (203 screens)

HIGHEST GROSSING FILMS DIRECTED BY A WOMAN
(including co-directing efforts) 

1. A Wrinkle in Time (Ava Duvernay) $100.4+
2. Blockers (Kay Cannon) $59+
3. I Feel Pretty (Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein) $48.7+
4. Forever My Girl (Bethany Asthon Wolf) $16.3+
5. 🔺RBG (Julie Cohen & Betsy West) $11.5+
6. You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay) $2.5+
7. The Rider (Chloé Zhao) $2.2+
8. Let the Sunshine In  (Claire Denis) $847k
9. The Party (Sally Potter) $749k
10. 🔺Itzhak (Alison Chernick) $576k
11. Oh, Lucy! (Atsuko Hirayanagi) $373+
12. 🔺The Gospel According to André  (Kate Novack) $354k
13. Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (Sophie Fiennes) $354k

HIGHEST GROSSING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS
Excluding documentaries. I opted to include all films which crossed the half million mark

 

1. Padmaavat (India) $11.8+
2. La Boda de Valentina (Mexico) $2.7+
3. Bharat Ane Nenu (India) $2.6+
4. 🔺Sanju (India) $2.5+
5. A Fantastic Woman (Chile) $2+ Oscar winner
6. Detective Chinatown 2 (China) $1.9+
7. Race 3 (India) $1.6+
8. Padman (India) $1.6+
9. Operation Red Sea (China) $1.5+
10. 102 Not Out (India) $1.3+
11. Baaghi 2 (India) $1.3+
12. Nothing to Lose (Brazil) $1+
13. Raid (India) $1+
14. The Insult (Lebanon) $1+ Oscar nominee
15. Let the Sunshine In (France) $847k
16. How Long Will I Love U (China) $746k
17. Monster Hunt 2 (China) $706k
18. Foxtrot (Israel) $618k Oscar finalist
19. Loveless (Russia) $566k Oscar nominee

HIGHEST GROSSING DOCUMENTARIES

1. 🔺RBG $11.5+
2. 🔺Won't You Be My Neighbor $7.4+
3. Pope Francis - A Man of His Word $1.8+
4. 🔺Itzhak $576k
5. Leaning Into the Wind $400k
6. 🔺The Gospel According to André $354k
7. Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami $354k
8. 🔺Mountain $243k
9. Suicide the Ripple Effect $240k
10. The Final Year $191k
11. 🔺Three Identical Strangers $163k
12. Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michael Basquiat $154k

HIGHEST GROSSING ANIMATED FILMS

Yes, Ready Player One is an animated film.

1. 🔺Incredibles 2 $439+
2. Ready Player One $136+
3. Peter Rabbit $115+
4. Sherlock Gnomes $43+
5. Isle of Dogs $31+
6. Early Man $8+
7. Sgt Stubby: An American Hero $3+
8. Mary and the Witches Flower $2+
9. Bilal: A New Brand of Hero $490k
10. Condorita: La Pelicula $447k
11. Monster Family $127k
12. Lu Over the Wall $109k

HIGHEST GROSSING HORROR FILMS

Please no quibbling about "that's not a horror movie!" because horror is a much broader genre that people can admit and includes 'thrillers' and 'monster movies' that are meant to be upsetting/scary/creepy.

1. A Quiet Place $187+
2. Insidious The Last Key $67+
3. Breaking In $45+
4. Truth or Dare $40+
5. 🔺Hereditary $39+
6. Winchester $25+
7. Strangers: Prey at Night $24+
8. Unsane $7+
9. Bad Samaritan $3+
10. But Deliver Us From Evil $285k

Do you have any feelings about the fates of these films? Why were they so much more popular than others, etcetera. And which film are you most aggravated did not become a bigger hit? 

Comments

[huh]

why do we care about domestic grosses most? aren’t total grosses more important? I’ve always found the exclusion of other country receipts to be very very odd. Money is money. Success is success

go Incredibles 2, Wakanda and A Quiet Place (the most stunning/unexpected success)!

[Jonathan]

Remember when it was almost impossible to cross $500 mil domestic? When "The Dark Knight" did it in 2008 it hadn't been done in over a decade. But now it happens almost annually. Obviously mass audiences are seeing these films but inflation has really distorted the picture in a major way.

[NATHANIEL R]

huh -- i can only speak for myself and the reason i focus on it is that it's so much easier and more accurate (from appearances). Foreign grosses are wildly confusing and often not reported at all and then you suddenly hear something has made xxxxxxxx more than you'd thought and it's very disorienting. There's also the matter of films coming out at different times in different countries.

jonathan -- inflation plus moviegoing habits. I'm always shocked when i talk to people who dont see movies all that often and even if they are an artsy type person or an intellectual (say really invested in dance or live theater or in academia or whatnot) it seems like the only things they go and see are the blockbusters. It'd be nice if the pendulum could swing back a little to people being interested in non visual fx driven films. I still can't figure why films like Moonlight or Lady Bird or whatnot -- films that people really loved if they saw -- have such a low ceiling in terms of actual grosses. I'm going to keep assuming part of the problem is the short theatrical distribution window and platform releasing as well. By the time people have heard of something it's gone from the theater unless it has a blockbuster type advertising budget... either that or they hear about it a lot and get frustrated because it never shows up and when it does they have already moved on.

[Mike in Canada]

I look at lists like these, and it makes me so happy that things like First Reformed, The Rider, Disobedience and Never Really Here can be released and make over 2 million. They're not blockbusters - they're smart, beautiful, tricky movies, and they have an audience that eats them up.

[Tom Ford]

Ugh. This shows more than ever how forgettable tentpoles for kids and teenagers have taken over moviegoing.

[Rdf]

@Tom Ford. My exact thoughts too.

[Steve G]

Sherlock Gnomes made more than Isle of Dogs? Wow, I had no idea.

[/3rtful]

Isle of Dogs played less theaters. It never really went wide. I had to travel to see it.

[MJS]

"50% franchise titles... 33% superhero titles."

Are we not counting Oceans 8 and Fifty Shades as "franchises?" If we are I'm counting 66% franchise.

[eurocheese]

(insert my weekly plea for a review on Won't You Be My Neighbor?, the best movie of 2018 so far)

[PoliVamp]

Speaking for West Texas, a lot of the smaller films never make it here. I went and saw Hereditary at my first opportunity because I knew it would be in theatres in my area for a short while. And when some of those films do make it here, it's sometimes a choice between seeing it now or waiting for it to come out on streaming/Red Box. Given how expensive moviegoing has become, sometimes it's 'Let's see the one that is meant for the big screen, the other can be watched at home'

I would love to see RBG or Won't You Be My Neighbor, but chances are we will never get them.

[CharlieG]

Wow. This is the most depressing post ever. The top grossers and limited releases lists are overly filled with crap. I might have to give up on the year.

Wake me when it's time to watch Glenn FINALLY win that Best Actress Oscar.

[Glenn Dunks]

eurocheese, I would love to review Won't You Be My Neighbor, but it's not available for me in any way.

I find it amazing that movies on 800 screens is barely considered wide release. Weren't numbers like that the upper limits of releases 'back in the day'?

[Rob]

I agree w/ the general sentiment: it's just depressing looking at the top-grossing films, nothing but kid stuff and CGI-choked blockbusters - many of these are just in an of themselves, but when they are the dominating fare, I just check out and skip almost all of it. Since Oscar season passed I think I've been to the movies maybe once, to see Hereditary (tho I plan to see Won't You Be My Neighbor as soon as I can). Otherwise I'm basically waiting for fall.

[Rob]

Oops, didn't proof my post: I meant to say many of these are *just fine in and of themselves*, but when they are the dominating fare, I just check out and skip almost all of it.

In case anyone other than me cares! Carry on.

[Dave in Hollywood]

There's a hundred million dollar movie out there called Peter Rabbit?!

[Jono]

Doesn't Ocean's 8 need to gross $300 million to be profitable? I thought I read somewhere the final price tag on that movie with prints and advertising was $150 million. With that and Book Club, I feel like the ladies get fed leftovers, at best hospital food. These lists are sad!

[Troy H.]

Compare that first list with the year-end list of top grossers from 1988:

1. Rain Man
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
3. Coming to America
4. Big
5. Twins
6. Crocodile Dundee II
7. Die Hard
8. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
9. Cocktail
10. Beetlejuice

Thirty years ago there was virtually something for everyone, and audiences made hits of things which weren't part of a franchise or noisy, effects-heavy messes. Can you imagine something like Rain Man being number one for the year nowadays?

[Edward L.]

Troy H.: I second your every word. Man was it nice back then to have such great choices and to see such a wide variety of films becoming the top hits of the year.

I'm hoping the current phase will pass.

[eurocheese]

Glenn - I'm surprised they haven't pushed it even wider, though I suppose with docs you have to keep building. They are wisely cashing in on the buzz but with Neighbor breaking into the top 10 two weeks in a row, you'd think they'd want it as wide as possible. I would think love for Mr. Rogers is pretty universal among certain age groups.

[Hayden]

I haven't seen Ocean's 8 because the reviews were pretty disappointing. I'm glad the box office is strong enough to warrant a sequel, though. Give the same team a truly great script and the thing basically directs itself.

Elliott Gould and Carl Reiner were two of the most fun elements of the Clooney movies. So it was such a missed opportunity to avoid actresses over 60 in the "8" cast. No offense to Blanchett and Bullock, but imagine the cast with some legends: Redgrave, MacLaine, Huston, Tomlin, Fonda, etc.

[Glenn Dunks]

eurocheese, I am not in America and they did not offer pre-release screeners. Hence my viewing absence. I am also, however, not American and have no relationship to Mr Rogers in any way, so...

[ajnrules]

Peter Rabbit made $115 million domestically? I am disappointed.

[Kurt Reyes]

Sherlock Gnomes made more than Isle of Dogs? Wow, I had no idea. slime rancher 2