the year in review lists are winding down but not quite yet done!
If you had predicted that Bad Boys 3 would be the biggest grosser of 2020 in January, nobody would have believed you.
We shan't rehash what's happened to movie theaters this past year (everyone knows). But normally at this time we have tons of fun compiling extensive deep-dive lists of how well movies of various genres and types of releases did. And of course we can reflect on how the success impacted their awards chances (Parasite never would have won Best Picture without that incredible theatrical run, becoming the biggest subtitled hit in the US in the past 16 years. Since there was only the first three months of the year with normal box office the lists are VERY strange and in some cases we just couldn't do them. But here's an extremely abbreviated version of what we normally do...
US TOP TEN BEFORE THE PANDEMIC
01. Bad Boys for Life $206.3
Released in January 17th, it was still in 1451 theaters when the pandemic hit but was mostly out of steam and on its way out of theaters.
02. Sonic the Hedgehog $146
Not quite a "surprise" as a hit but it had definitely conquered its pre-release bad buzz. Released in mid February it probably had another solid weekend in it when the pandemic hit.
03. Birds of Prey $84.1
Like Bad Boys for Life it was already leaving theaters when the pandemic hit
04. Dolittle $77
Was just about out of theaters so this was the number it would have reached. Not a huge success given the genre, studio, and star.
05. The Invisible Man $70.4
Definitely had a bit of juice in it still when the pandemic hit. Would have surpassed Dolittle it not Birds of Prey
06. Call of the Wild $62.3
Released in mid February it probably had a couple more okay weekends in it when the pandemic hit.
07. Onward $61.5
Was only entering its third week when theaters closed so it would have moved up on the list
08. The Gentleman $36.4
09. Fantasy Island $27.3
10. Like a Boss $22.1
Just outside the List: The Grudge and The Photograph
US TOP TEN POST PANDEMIC
01. Tenet $57.9
02. 🔺 The Croods: New Age $34.5
03. 🔺 Wonder Woman 1984 $28.5
04. The New Mutants $23.8
05. Unhinged $20.8
06. 🔺 The War with Grandpa $18.6
07. Honest Thief $14.1
08. Come Play $9.5
09. Let Him Go $9.3
10. 🔺 Freaky $8.7
Just outside the list: 🔺 Monster Hunter and News of the World (both only in their second week at theaters)
US TOP FIVE ANIMATED
* released after the pandemic
01 Onward $61.5
02 🔺 Croods New Age* $34.5
03 My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising $13.3
04 Weathering with You $7.7
05 The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run* $4.8
US TOP TEN FEMALE DIRECTED
* released after the pandemic
01 Birds of Prey $84.1
02 🔺 Wonder Woman 1984* $28.5
03 The Photograph $20.5
04 The Turning $15.4
05 Emma. $10 (still had steam in it when the pandemic hit. sigh)
06 The Rhythm Section $5.4
07 Broken Hearts Gallery* $4.0
08 Portrait of a Lady on Fire $3.7
09 The Lodge $2.1
10 🔺 Promising Young Woman* $1.8
Just outside the list: The Assistant and Relic* both broke $1 million. (First Cow and Never Rarely Sometimes Always had both just been introduced when the pandemic broke but we'll never know how well they might have expanded with critical fever or if they would have vanished quickly only to be rediscovered on streaming when critics top ten lists began)
US LIMITED RELEASE ONLY
never played in more than 800 theaters
* released after the pandemic
01. Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run* $4.8
02. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France) $3.7
03. Oscar Nominated Short Films $3.3
04. My Boyfriend's Meds (Mexico) $2.9
05. The Last Full Measure $2.9
06. After We Collided* $2.3
07. The Lodge $2.1
08. The Wretched* $1.8
09. The Rental* $1.6
10. Train to Busan Presents Peninsula* (South Korea) $1.2
Just outside the List: True to the Game 2*, The Assistant, Love and Monsters*, Relic, and The Tax Collector*
GLOBAL TOP 10
01 The Eight Hundred* (China) $472.5
02 My People My Homeland* (China) $433.2
03 Bad Boys for Life (US) $424.2
04 Tenet* (US/UK) $362.6
05 🔺 Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train* (Japan) $305.4
06 Sonic the Hedgehog (US) $304.9
07 Dolittle (US) $250.9
08 Legend of Deification* (China) $243.8
09 Birds of Prey (US) $201.8
10 The Sacrifice* (China) $172
Just outside the list: The Invisible Man (US), Onward (US), After We Collided (US), 🔺 Wonder Woman 1984 (US), 🔺 Croods New Age (US)
With the US out of comission all year but many other countries including China, getting their pandemic under control with government restrictions, US films were not the top grossers for once; 50% of the top global grossers from the top ten list this year came from Asia (mostly China but one very popular Japanese title, too).
After the pandemic it's tough to say but obviously Tenet has done fairly well given the dire circumstances under which it was released. $362 million during a pandemic suggests that it would have been a bigger hit than Dunkirk (global gross $519.6) and possibly Interstellar, too (global gross $652.5) had it played in a normal year.
OH WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THIS PAST FILM YEAR... DUNE, WEST SIDE STORY, BLACK WIDOW. And what would have been the small film to break out in a huge way?
What do you make of these lists?