Toy Story 3 ruled. Alice in Wonderland made a bundle. This, you know.
Here's what you don't about the box-office year that was:
1. Twilight Beat Harry Potter! For the First Time! Ever! Yes, the franchises have released films in the same year only one other time. Yes, Deathly Hallows Part 1 only opened last month. And, yes, the Potter people are making their usual pile of money overseas—Deathly Hallow's worldwide gross is already at $825 million, per Box Office Mojo, compared to $693 million for Eclipse.
But, domestically speaking, Eclipse set a new franchise record, while Deathly Hallows could wind up as "only" the third-, fourth- or fifth-biggest film in the Potter series.
2. Katherine Heigl Is Underrated! Remember when the actress detonated "her first bomb?" Or when her "image problem" threatened her latest romantic comedy? Well, two funny things happened: Both of Heigl's 2010 movies made good. The $75 million Killers grossed $93 million worldwide, while Life As We Know It, the real success story, took in nearly the same—off a $35 million budget.
3. The No. 2 Movie of the Year Got Snubbed! Per the box-office site The Numbers, James Cameron's Avatar (the pre-rerelease version) grossed more money in 2010 than any film save Toy Story 3. But where will you find it in the year-end rankings? Nowhere!
Because Avatar was released in 2009, its ticket sales go down on that side of the ledger, and it goes down as that year's No. 1 movie. Note we never said Avatar got totally snubbed.
4. Human Beings Are Not Funny! Adam Sandler's Grown Ups and Jackass 3D were the only live-action comedies to crack $100 million. (Robert Downey Jr.'s Due Date, still plugging away, may join them.)
In contrast, one of every four Top 20 hit was a CGI laugher thanks to the success of Toy Story 3, Despicable Me, Shrek Forever After, Megamind and Tangled.
5. Movies Still Bomb! Remember how over the summer we learned to never count out anything—why, even The Sorcerer's Apprentice wound up making back its gargantuan budget, with a $215 million worldwide gross?
And now, in looking over the year-end stats, we learn something else: chiefly, moviegoers in the United Arab Emirates cannot save all. Some flicks, no matter how many countries or theaters they play in, cannot make money.
Jonah Hex ($47 million budget; $11 million worldwide gross), The Warrior's Way ($42 million budget; $8 million worldwide gross), and The Nutcracker in 3D ($90 million budget; $234,928 worldwide gross), we're looking at you.
The astounding Nutcracker in 3D stats, by the by, are per the trusty Box Office Mojo (as are the others). So you know, we did put a call into the film's distributor to see if we were missing something. Like a digit.
Here's a look at the year's top-grossing films through Wednesday, per domestic stats compiled by Box Office Mojo:
- Toy Story 3, $415 million
- Alice in Wonderland, $334.2 million
- Iron Man 2, $312.1 million
- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $300.5 million
- Inception, $292.5 million
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, $267.8 million
- Despicable Me, $250.6 million
- Shrek Forever After, $238.4 million
- How to Train Your Dragon, $217.6 million
- The Karate Kid, $176.6 million