15 Highest Grossing Movies Of The Decade: Ranked Worst To Best
Money doesn't always equal quality.
As a filmgoing culture we put far too much stock in the box office. A new release feels like it's not really "great" unless it's secured the #1 spot for three weeks on the trot and smashed every record available. Now, of course it's nice to know that an awesome movie you loved is actually getting seen, rather than completely buried, but what about the absolute cack that rises to the top because the mass audience is driven by a lot more than raw quality?
Take Avatar: it's a fine enough movie, but hardly one of the giant pillars of cinema, yet still sits as the highest grossing movie of all time (a crown it's unlikely to lose any time soon). The reason it became such a box office dominating force is down to factors that exist well outside of it simply as a film - technology, marketing and the good, old-fashioned hype machine
Because of such things (the movie business is a business, after all), the list of the highest grossing movies ever made is far from being a list of the best. In fact, taking a look at the biggest successes from the 2010s so far you'll see the full range of blockbuster cinema, from unashamedly cynical attempts to hock toys to the expert meshing of high art and thrilling action.