“ Ahead of release, Guardians of the Galaxy was viewed as the riskiest project yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: were people really going to see a movie starring a talking raccoon and an anthropomorphized tree? Moviegoers answered “yes” to the tune of over $330 million at the domestic box office, which will likely rank first for the year once all is said and done.
This wasn’t Marvel’s only hit this year, though. They also scored with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which earned over $700 million worldwide (nearly twice as much as its predecessor). ”
“ Everything is awesome about The LEGO Movie’s performance at the domestic (U.S.) box office, where the movie earned a stunning $257.8 million. That ranks first among animated movies this year ahead of How to Train Your Dragon 2, Big Hero 6 and more.
However, while it was also one of the highest-grossing movies of the year in the U.K. and Australia, it didn’t really connect in non-English-speaking countries. Still, that’s a minor mark against it, and Warner Bros. is forging ahead aggressively with sequels and spin-offs (Ninjago, LEGO Batman). ”
“ The fourth installment in the Transformers franchise was the lowest-grossing one yet at the domestic box office, and was off a whopping 30 percent from its predecessor. So how did it make this list?
Simply put, because it was an overseas juggernaut. Thanks to a massive $300-million-plus haul in China, Transformers: Age of Extinction is the only 2014 release (so far) to earn over $1 billion worldwide. In fact, the race isn’t even close: the runner-up, Guardians of the Galaxy, is wrapping up with around $300 million less. Keep an eye out for a Transformers 5 announcement in the near future. ”
“ Maleficent earned a massive $241 million at the domestic box office: while that’s not quite on par with Alice in Wonderland, it’s above last year’s Oz the Great and Powerful. Even more impressive was its overseas haul, where it wrapped up with over $516 million (which will be enough to put it in the Top 5 for the year).
The movie’s success reaffirmed Angelina Jolie’s status as one of the most bankable performers working today, and also suggests that Disney’s strategy of mining their animated library for live-action content is a strong one. Next year, they’ll try this again with Cinderella and The Jungle Book. ”
“ X-Men: Days of Future Past essentially matched the franchise high at the domestic box office ($233 million), which is a solid result. At the same time, though, it took the franchise to the next level at the international box office, where it earned over $500 million (nearly twice as much as the previous series record).
That put the movie well over the $700 million mark worldwide, which is a really sustainable level for a big-budget comic book franchise like this. Fox is moving forward aggressively with the next installment, X-Men: Apocalypse, which is on track to open in May 2016. ”
“ Unless The Interview makes a stunning amount of money, 22 Jump Street will wind up being the highest-grossing comedy of the year with over $191 million. Remarkably, that’s a 39 percent improvement over its predecessor, which is nearly unheard of with sequels.
It also more than doubled 21 Jump Street’s international haul, leading to a total over $330 million. While the (very entertaining) end credit sequence seemed to rule out the possibility of a 23 Jump Street, I’m guessing they’ll find a clever way around that in the very near future. ”
“ Based on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel and directed by David Fincher, Gone Girl always looked like it was going to be a solid box office performer. But no one expected it to be this big.
After a strong $37 million debut, word-of-mouth turned Gone Girl in to the must-see adult movie of the Fall. It has never dropped more than 38 percent from one weekend to the next, and is on track to earn over $170 million total. That makes it Fincher’s highest-grossing movie ever, and it could even top Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (a much more expensive – and more anticipated – movie). ”
“ Surrounded by sequels and animated movies, Lucy stood out as a refreshingly original Summer movie. It wound up earning $126.7 million, which was above a handful of much pricier Summer movies like Edge of Tomorrow, Hercules and The Expendables 3.
It was also a massive success internationally, where it took in over $330 million. There probably won’t be a sequel – the story doesn’t really allow for that – but its success does seem to be generating more interest in female-centric action movies, which can only be a good thing. ”
“ With a modest $12 million budget, The Fault in our Stars is the least-expensive movie to earn over $100 million at the domestic box office this year. This goes to show that you don’t need tons of computer-generated effects to sell tickets – just a massive popular young-adult book.
Surprisingly, the cancer drama was also huge internationally, where it earned over $179 million. On a worldwide basis, it actually grossed more than Shailene Woodley’s other young-adult adaptation, Divergent (which had a much more international-friendly sci-fi set-up). ”
“ God's Not Dead is arguably the biggest box office surprise of the year. The low-budget movie’s biggest star was Kevin Sorbo, and its distributor (Freestyle Releasing) hadn’t gotten a movie past $3 million since 2009. Its faith-affirming themes wound up connecting with Christian moviegoers, though, and it became a word-of-mouth sensation.
Ultimately, it wound up earning over $60 million – or over twice as much as indie hit Boyhood. This massive success is a reminder that there’s a large portion of the country that’s not connecting with Hollywood’s output, and craves something more in line with their worldview. It hasn’t been easy to replicate, either: a handful of indie Christian movies have bombed in the months since. ”