I thought 2016 was a good year.
With Rogue One, Finding Dory, Captain America: Civil War, Jungle Book, Moana, Doctor Strange, and Zootopia, it was hard to go wrong. In fact, of the top 10 movies of 2016 these six take most of those spots. Internationally, Disney has the top 4 films of 2016 and probably will have the top 5 with Rogue One. As of December 23, the top 4 were Civil War, Finding Dory, Zootopia, and Jungle Book. I was a little off in my predictions for total box office gross from last year. I hadn’t anticipated Zootopia or Jungle Book being the smash hits they turned out to be. I don’t feel too badly. I don’t think most people would have predicted 2016 to be THIS good and my other two picks for top 5 have done very well.
To sum up, here were my predictions next to where they are as of today globally (12/23):
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story / Captain America: Civil War
- Captain America: Civil War / Finding Dory
- Finding Dory / Zootopia
- Moana / Jungle Book
- Doctor Strange / Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
In all fairness, Rogue One will likely end up being the #1 film of the year, so I will have correctly predicted the top 3, but I guessed wrong on Moana which I thought for sure would be the second highest grossing animated movie of the year. That honor will likely go to Zootopia which did gangbusters! Wonder how I will do in 2017…
Which looks to be a pretty good year. I don’t know if it will be as good as 2016 financially, but that’s the funny thing about Hollywood – you just never know. At least right now there are fewer movies slated to be released in 2017 with only six from the studios (including Star Wars VIII) and two from Marvel. My guess for top 5 among the movies coming out looks like this:
- Star Wars Episode VIII (no matter what they title it)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Cars 3
The top 3 were pretty easy, but hard to tell where they will end up. Pretty sure Episode VIII will be on top no matter what, but knowing where Pirates and Guardians will end up was tough. The safe money is on Pirates which has earned either close to or more than a billion dollars in its last three films. But I’m putting my money on Baby Groot. The previews only hint at the story, but its easy to see that all of our favorite characters are back in both fun and adventure.
The same goes with Cars 3 and Thor: Ragnarok. Both made similar amounts last time out, both are strong franchises, both have compelling stories based on what little is out there. But this time I’m going to give the slight edge to Thor over Cars but just barely. With the success of Doctor Strange, magic is in! And with Benedict Cumberbatch hinted at being in Thor: Ragnarok, I think that will tip the scales in favor of Thor.
Beauty and the Beast didn’t make the list just based on previous history of live action princess remakes. All of them have done very well, but haven’t made the same kind of box office gross as the others. However, with this year’s Jungle Book having gone gangbusters, who’s to say it can’t? I’m just not convinced that the live action versions of Cogsworth, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts and the gang can capture hearts the way Baloo and Bagheera did (the furniture look a little creepy to me, but my wife loves it so maybe I’m completely wrong). But I’m definitely looking forward to it! It should be a hit and very popular. And why isn’t Spider-Man: Homecoming included in this list? Well, technically it’s still a Sony Pictures movie produced in conjunction with Marvel Studios. When listing it under “distribution” it would listed under Sony. BUT if I were to include it, I would probably take the chance and list it as #2 right below Episode VIII. I think it’s going to be THAT gangbusters. For me, Coco is the underdog of the bunch. Pixar has a long history of hits, but with The Good Dinosaur underperforming from last year will Coco be more along those lines or will it end up being like Inside Out and be a surprise hit?
No matter what, Disney is set to have another spectacular year! How do you think the movies will fare?
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