10. Guardians Of The Galaxy Wasnt The Biggest Movie Of The Year
It's the sort of story that shows there's still hope in blockbuster cinema. Guardians Of The Galaxy, the closest Marvel will ever come to an original property, was the massive success in the summer 2014, with James Gunn's (almost) unhampered space fantasy clearing up at the box office. All the reports at the time, and in year reviews of the industry, trumpeted Guardians as the hit of the summer. And while it did make an unexpected amount of money ($772 million worldwide), to focus on Star Lord distracts massively from the bigger picture - it was actually only the third highest grossing film of the year. Maybe it was a lot more favourable to talk about how an actually fun movie did well over acknowledging the actual winner - Transformers: Age Of Extinction. It may have held minimal appeal with the cine-literate, but audiences flocked to see the latest Michael Bay mess, making it the only 2014 movie to pass $1 billion at the box office. The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies has also recently raced past Groot, easily hitting $800 million. Guardians did top the domestic box office, but that's only half the story. Sure, takings in the US used to be a major part of assessing how profitable a movie was, but as the overseas markets have blown up it's just one facet of measuring a movie's financial success.
