6. 2012 - $769,679,473
You probably knew exactly what you were getting yourself in for with this mother of all disaster movies, revolving around solar flares causing the Earth's core to heat up rapidly, and with it cataclysmic tectonic displacement. All scientific implausibility aside, there's an interesting theme established in the film of how the world's governments would prepare us for disaster (i.e. they wouldn't) and the ethics and ruthless decision-making involved in ensuring the continuity of our species (beware that we don't lose our own humanity in the process!). Sadly the theme is all too often abandoned in favour of focusing on John Cusack's overblown attempts to simultaneously save and re-connect with his estranged family amid a plethora of stereotyped characters: a nasty Russian billionaire, his obnoxious twin sons, and far-too-young blonde girlfriend who is revealed to have been having an affair with his pilot at a pivotal moment. At least three airborne escapes from collapsing runways are effected over the course of the film and Cusack's one published and failed novel gets held up as a beacon of hope and inspiration by seemingly the one person who bought it. Personally I'd rather have died in the eruption, tsunami, or earthquake than have to survive amongst any of this film's cast. With a prolonged viral marketing campaign that heavily referenced the 2012 phenomenon, the film earned only a modest $166 million in North America but a mammoth $604 in other territories to make it the fifth highest-grossing picture of 2009. Director Roland Emmerich (he of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow fame) stated that this would be his last disaster film and has since directed Anonymous, a much quieter drama film concerning the authorship of the plays of William Shakespeare that only managed to gross $15 million. Perhaps he ought to stick to what he's successful at.