Predicting The 10 Highest Grossing Films Of 2015

9. The Jungle Book ($650 million)

Live-action versions of classic stories that supposedly go back to the source but are really only reworking the Disney animated versions are big business at the moment. Maleficent made $757 million despite the handicap of being utterly rubbish, while next year sees the release of three more in the sub-genre Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland started. Cinderella and Pan will no doubt do admirably at the box office, but thanks to its star power and the feeling it'll actually be showing something new, 2015's winner will be The Jungle Book. A mix of live-action and CGI, Jon Favreau's film is still in production, but every element of it is shaping up to be a commercial hit. Chief amongst them is the long list of famous names bringing the now-iconic characters to life (Ben Kingsley is Bagheera, Idris Elba is Shere Khan and, best of all, Bill Murray is Balloo) - with so many A-List names there's the undeniable draw of star power. The most off-putting element is the inclusion of songs, but as they're childhood classics (The Bare Necessities' inclusion has been included), it shouldn't be too hard to convince mainstream audiences to get on board. The big thing The Jungle Book has in its favour is timing. Coming out in October, there's nothing within a month of it that comes close in terms of size, meaning it should stay on screens for a very long time.