8. 2012 (2009) - $769.7 million
Roland Emmerich likes to blow things up, that much is clear. Whether you love his films or loathe them, you can't deny that the German director was born to orchestrate destruction on a global scale. Following the disappointment of the bafflingly inaccurate and disappointing 10,000BC, Emmerich made the wise decision to go back to what he does best; destroying the planet. Just when you thought that Emmerich had run out of ways to visualize Armageddon, he gave us his magnum opus. Fireballs, explosions, floods, entire cities disappearing in an instant; it was certainly a feast for the eyes. Of course, like most Roland Emmerich movies the quality of the script was called into question but nobody went into the theater expecting character development and nuance. Not while the neutrinos were mutating, anyway. As strange as it was to see John Cusack in the lead role of a $200 million movie, the supporting cast was filled out by talented character actors such as Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt and Thandie Newton, while Woody Harrelson even showed up to chew on the scenery before being obliterated. Subtlety was never going to be this movie's strongpoint, and it's definitely
not the reason audiences parted with three-quarters of a billion dollars. The director credits Graham Hancock's book 'The Fingerprints of the Gods' as an influence on the movie, but that's like me saying I read a newspaper once and now I'm remaking
Citizen Kane. Despite the paper-thin characters and nonsensical science, the movie is Roland Emmerich at his finest. People wanted to have a fun couple of hours at the movies watching the end of the world, and 2012 certainly delivered in that respect, and then some.