Predicting The Next 10 Billion Dollar Movies
Made up entirely of comic book movies and sequels, who'd have thought?
Earning a billion dollars at the box office is still regarded as a fantastic achievement for a movie, even if it isn't quite the mark of unqualified success that it used to be. With ticket prices constantly on the rise, blockbusters need to sell less tickets than ever to reach the lauded ten-figure mark.
To put things into perspective, by the end of 2011 only twelve movies had ever earned a billion dollars at the box office and two of them (Jurassic Park and The Phantom Menace) only reached that figure thanks to a theatrical re-release with the additional expense of 3D.
Today, there are thirty movies that have managed the feat, with nine of them coming in 2015 and 2016 alone. Predicting which studio projects are going to earn at least $1,000,000,000 is tougher than you'd think. Sure, comic book properties and sequels to established franchises are always a good shout, but did anyone think Alice in Wonderland or Zootopia would gain access to the exclusive club?
There may be a couple of surprise additions to the Billion Dollar Club to come over the next couple of years but by and large there are some that are absolutely nailed on...
10. Transformers: The Last Knight
The Transformers series is about as bulletproof as a movie franchise can get. Despite a consistent critical mauling (the four movies have an average Rotten Tomatoes score of just 32%), that hasn't stopped Optimus Prime and company from racking up over $3.7bn at the box office so far.
The last two installments both passed the ten-figure barrier and the latest entry will follow suit. While Age of Extinction grossed over $100m less at the domestic box office than its predecessor, the massive popularity of the Transformers series in the booming Chinese market will undoubtedly see The Last Knight earn upwards of a billion dollars worldwide.
Age of Extinction earned over 25% of its total box office in China alone, and it still ranks as the fifth highest-grossing movie ever released in the country. While the trailers have done nothing to indicate that The Last Knight will deviate from the 'big, loud and stupid' formula established a decade ago, the broad appeal of giant alien robots beating the sh*t out of each other virtually guarantees Michael Bay's latest sequel a comfortable place among the year's biggest earners.