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| Pictured: A handful of Warner Bros. executives celebrating the box office success of Wonder Woman |
There are seven big movie studios and they all released a number of movies in 2017. Today, I shall use my box office savvy mind to look at their yearly grosses from 2017 and see which ones were on a financial roll and which ones are hoping to make 2018 a better year!
Let us begin with a studio I'm sure you're all shocked is on top....
Total Gross: $2,410,448,444
It feels like us box office analysts are just broken records at this point talking about Disney's yearly box office this decade. Disney had yet another massive year at the domestic box office, giving them their second-biggest year in history (only 2016 was bigger). Their biggest movie this year was Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with a $517.2 million domestic haul despite that one only getting to play for 17 days in 2017. Not too far behind was Beauty And The Beast, which grossed $504 million for the year and became one of the biggest movies of all-time at the worldwide box office. Next up are two Marvel Cinematic Universe titles, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok, which grossed $389.8 million and $311.2 million respectively in 2017 and became some of the biggest titles ever for the lucrative superhero franchise.
Coco managed to continue the winning streak Disney's had with Thanksgiving animated family movies thanks to it grossing $179.8 million. Even the newest Pirates of the Caribbean, which took the franchise to new domestic box office lows, managed to hold better compared to its predecessors than other recent long-in-the-works blockbuster sequels like Independence Day: Resurgence (those massive overseas box office also help). Interestingly, the lowest-grossing non-blockbuster for Disney this year was Cars 3, which became the second-lowest grossing PIXAR movie of all-time with a $152.9 million domestic cume. The lack of appeal to adults and the disdain for Cars 2 meant this one was always gonna struggle and competition from Despicable Me 3 only further hurt it. Cars 3 appears to be the only real money loser amidst Disney's meager eight film 2017 slate (which also included documentary Born In China) which, along with 2016 holdovers like Moana and Rogue One, managed to deliver some of the biggest box office figures of 2017.
Total Gross: $2,034,889,838
The second biggest year ever for Warner Bros. was chock full of financial riches, particularly in their top title, Wonder Woman, which ended up becoming the third biggest movie in history for Warner Bros. With a $412.5 million domestic haul, the first live-action movie for Diana Prince surpassed the domestic grosses for all but two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, was the fifth-biggest superhero movie in history and had some of the best week-to-week box office holds of all-time for a film opening to over $100 million. Also surpassing all expectations was It, a $30 million horror movie that managed to perform more like a massive summer blockbuster that grossed $327.4 million, leaving all other horror films in the dust.
Dunkirk also managed to beat out projections with a $188 million gross, an insane sum of money for a World War II drama. Though it's both likely and understandable that WB would have liked to see The LEGO Batman Movie hew a bit closer to it's predecessors $257.7 million domestic gross, The LEGO Batman Movie's $175.7 million haul is still strong in it's own right as it became the third biggest animated movie of all-time while Kong: Skull Island was able to perform much better than expected with a great $168 million haul that's worth the studio thumping it's chest over. Who knew an Annabelle prequel would end up being one of the few bright spots at the August 2017 box office with a $102 million haul that was noticeably higher than it's predecessor.
All that being said, there were duds in WB's 2017 calander, perhaps exemplifying the "best of time, worst of times" axiom. Justice League was the biggest box office disappointment, grossing only $225.5 million by the year's end. It looks like it only has about $3-4 million left in the tank that it can gross in 2018, so this one's gonna handily become the lowest-grossing movie in the DC Extended Universe by a long shot. Even with $425 million overseas, it's likely this $300+ million budgeted feature ends up losing money. Blade Runner 2049, which Alcon Entertainment financed and marketing while WB just distributed, was also a big-budget misfire though at least that one did hold well after it's opening weekend and got strong reviews. It was obvious that WB had zero confidence in Geostorm and King Arthur: Legend of The Sword due to how much they had been shuffled around the studios schedule, but meager sub-$40 million domestic hauls for titles that each cost well over $100 million is dismal business nonetheless.
2017 was also a year that WB struggled in regards to an area they used to excel in: comedies. The studio that had recently released comedic box office juggernauts like The Hangover, We're The Millers and Horrible Bosses found themselves releasing a string of yukfest duds like The House, Fist Fight, Father Figures, Going In Style and CHiPS, only one of which (Going In Style) grossed over $35 million domestically and none of them got over $50 million. Their other 2017 LEGO movie, The LEGO Ninjago Movie, grossed an anemic $59.2 million. From this analysis, this lowly nerd would note that WB should be celebrating their big wins in horror and blockbuster fare, especially since some of their losses either were titles from other studios they were just distributing or, in the case of the comedies, low-budget enough to not be too costly of misses. Wonder Woman and Pennywise led a massive year for WB and one whose momentum they'll be looking to continue into 2018 and beyond.
Total Gross: $1,528,939,170
Universal continued their recent string of box office success with their second biggest year ever at the domestic box office. The newest entries for their Despicable Me and Fast & Furious franchises may have fallen beneath their predecessors, but they still generated massive billion-dollar worldwide hauls that managed to make them the biggest movies for Universal. The studio's lucrative relationship with Blumhouse resulted in their two biggest movies ever in 2017, with Get Out becoming a pop culture phenomenon that grossed $175.8 million while Split was the first box office hit of 2017 with a $138.2 million gross. Another low-budget title that managed to make big bucks for the studio was Girls Trip with $115.1 million while Fifty Shades Darker performed better than expected with $114.5 million and The Bella's concluded the Pitch Perfect trilogy with an entry that's well on its way to grossing over $100 million. A Dog's Purpose and Happy Death Day were also lower-budgeted hits for the studio that surpassed $50 million domestically.
But, like all studios, Universal wasn't devoid of it's own box office misfires in 2017, most notably they had The Mummy. Intended to kickstart a new cinematic universe, The Mummy topped out at only $80.2 million domestically and became one of Tom Cruise's lowest-grossing summer blockbusters ever. Cruise's American Made fared better in comparison to expectations but it's still likely Universal wanted more out of the title than just $50 million domestically. The Great Wall, meanwhile, failed to clear $50 million domestically while October 2017 delivered a pair of box office duds that failed to clear $10 million domestically in the form of Thank For Your Service and The Snowman.
Total Gross: $1,325,997,407
Logan ruled the box office for 20th Century Fox in 2017 as it grossed $226.2 million domestically, Costing only $97 million, this R-rated action movie became one of the biggest X-Men movies of all-time and the fifteenth biggest movie ever for the studio. Released the same month as Logan as the studios second biggest movie for 2017 which was The Boss Baby. 20th Century Fox distributed the title for DreamWorks Animation and it grossed $175 million domestically, one of the biggest movies ever for DreamWorks Animation in recent years. War For The Planet of The Apes and Kingsman: The Golden Circle fell beneath their predecessor's domestic hauls but still took in respectable $146.8 million and $100.2 million domestic totals, respectively. Murder On The Orient Express also became a sleeper hit as it grossed $100.6 million domestically, and while it'll make most of its cash in 2018, The Greatest Showman, which is well on its way to surpassing $100 million domestically, became a word-of-mouth driven hit.
As for the rest of the slate, well, it was a mixed bag. The newest Alien movie, Alien: Covenant, grossed only $74.2 million, less than Alien vs. Predator in 2004 despite costing $37 million more to produce. A pair of animated movies aimed at younger audiences, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie and Ferdinand, underwhelmed, though at least the former was able to minimize it's box office losses with a small $38 million budget. A new attempt to kick-start the Diary of A Wimpy Kid franchise with The Long Haul was another family movie dud for the studio, with that film grossing only $20.7 million, less than the opening weekend of two of its predecessors. Snatched failed to come to close to the box office numbers of Amy Schumer's last movie, Trainwreck, while The Mountain Between Us came and went with only $30.3 million at the domestic box office. As for A Cure For Wellness, well, things didn't go so well for that horror feature at the domestic box office...
Total Gross: $1,059,888,314
Problems still abounded, as they have in recent years, for the heavily troubled Sony/Columbia studio. Most notably, their trio of 2017 animated releases, included the heavily marketed The Emoji Movie, all failed to cross $100 million domestically, continuing their struggle to gain a consistent foothold in the animated family movie realm. Basically any drama they released in 2017, which includes T2: Trainspotting, Only The Brave, Roman J. Israel Esq and All The Money In The World, failed to go anywhere at the domestic box office while The Dark Tower was a widely derided motion picture whose $50.7 million domestic box office haul kills off any chance of it becoming a new franchise for the studio. Even the cheaply made Underworld and Resident Evil movies, reliable moneymakers in the past, hit domestic box office lows for the studio
Luckily, the studio cleared $1 billion at the domestic box office for the first time since 2014 thanks to it's three biggest 2017 titles. Spider-Man: Homecoming revived the web-crawler's franchise with big box office, with the feature grossing $334.2 million that made it the studio's fourth biggest movie of all-time. We all expected a Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man movie to make big bucks, but no one thought a Jumanji sequel would be as successful it's turned out to be. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle grossed $169 million and looks to be on it's way to surpassing Skyfall's $304.3 million cume to become the biggest non-Spider-Man movie ever for Sony/Columbia. Though not as big as these two films, Baby Driver became a major sleeper hit this past summer to gross $107.8 million. There's plenty of room to improve at the domestic box office but at least these hits show that Sony/Columbia can make big moneymakers like the kind that Disney, Warner Bros, and Universal constantly churn out.
Total Gross: $884,962,093
Having a sneakily strong year in 2017 was Lionsgate. With a slate mostly reliant on mid-budget features, Lionsgate had their third biggest year in history. Their biggest title was Wonder, which shattered all expectations as it grossed $121.5 million in 2017 and became only the twelfth movie ever for the studio to cross $100 million domestically. La La Land also grossed just over $120 million in 2017, heavily helping the studios results for the year, while their second biggest movie released in 2017 was John Wick: Chapter Two, which increased mightily over its predecessor with a $92 million domestic haul. The Hitman's Bodyguard became a late summer sleeper hit with $75.4 million, The Shack was one of the biggest Christian movies of all-time with $57.3 million and distributing The Big Sick for Amazon Studios gave the year one of it's biggest indie movie successes as The Big Sick grossed $42.8 million domestically.
The lower-budget nature of Lionsgate's titles meant that even box office non-starters like American Assassin and The Glass Castle weren't all that distressing. One exception to this was Saban's Power Rangers, an attempt to start a massive franchise for the studio turned out to be heavily front-loaded and grossed only $85.3 million domestically while bombing internationally. It's also worth noting Tyler Perry delivered the lowest grossing Madea movie of all-time with Boo! 2: A Madea Halloween while both Rock Dog and My Little Pony: The Movie continued Lionsgate's struggles to launch animated family movie hit. Still, even with all this considered, 2017 was a great year for Lionsgate and proved the studio doesn't need Katniss Everdeen to launch lucrative movies.
Total Gross: $534,273,892
It was just not a good year for Paramount Pictures in 2017, which had their worst year at the domestic box office yet in the 21st century. Some of that can be chalked up to a meager 11 film slate, but it's more due to how heavily nearly everything they released underperformed. Their biggest movie, Transformers: The Last Knight, grossed only $130 million domestically, about a 47% drop from its predecessors domestic gross. Their only other 2017 movie to clear $100 million, Daddy's Home 2, was a rare bright spot for the studio as, though it dipped from its predecessors domestic gross, it did do better than expected. Meanwhile, Baywatch topped out at $58 million, far beneath expectations while Ghost In The Shell's $40.5 million domestic gross immediately killed off any talks of sequels. Monster Trucks may have inspired countless fun memes but it's $33 million haul registered it as a big box office bomb Rings and it's $27.7 million gross fell way beneath the box office of its predecessors. The end of the year brought a trio of adult-skewing dramas (mother!, Suburbicon and Downsizing) that all became box office duds, with Suburbicon (which had the worst opening weekend ever for a Paramount Pictures movie released in over 2,000 theaters on opening weekend) only grossing $5.7 million and ending up as one of their worst-performing wide releases of the 21st century. It's hard to imagine that the film slate produced by the newly installed Paramount Pictures regime can do worse in terms of annual box office hauls than the one seen by Paramount in 2017.
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