Movies With Butter

Remember in 2011, when the annual box office dipped slightly from 2010 and entertainment columnists started announcing the death of cinema (even though it was the third best year ever, in terms of revenue)? Well, as it turns out, 2012 proves that the film industry is still alive and kicking ass, thanks to a bunch of superheroes who’ve decided to assemble and tackle our box office problem.

According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, as of December 31, the annual box office has already tallied $10.8B, a new annual record.

The top ten highest grossing films of the year so far are “Marvel’s The Avengers” ($623M), “The Dark Knight Rises” ($448M), “The Hunger Games” ($408M), “Skyfall” ($287M), “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” ($284M), “The Amazing Spiderman” ($262M), “Brave” ($237M), “Ted” ($219M), “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” ($216M), and “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” ($214M).

Of the top ten, “Ted” is the surprise hit of the year. I mean, who would have predicted that a comedy written and directed by Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane starring Mark Wahlberg and a CGI teddy bear would become this year’s “Hangover?” Not me.

“Marvel’s The Avengers,” “The Hunger Games,” and “Skyfall” all exceeded already high expectations.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” did as well as its predecessors, surprisingly usurped by another film targeting young adults -- “The Hunger Games,” which is able to go beyond the teenage girls demographic.

Three animated features made it to the top ten, with Pixar’s “Brave” as the top performer.

Even though Chris Nolan’s concluding chapter in his Batman franchise did $448M, it’s still kinda disappointing because it was expected to do $500M+. Reviews were great -- 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, way better than the third chapter of other popular comic book franchises like “Spider-Man” and “X-Men.” And yet, it didn’t even get close to The Dark Knight’s $535M. If it’s possible to consider a film that grossed $448M a disappointment, “The Dark Knight Rises” is that film.

I wonder how much the Aurora theater shooting during the opening of “The Dark Knight Rises” have on the film and the overall market. Without that incident, would 2012 have reached $11B? I’m not sure if we’ll ever know. Despite that, 2012 is still a record breaking year for the box office.

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