If you look at the
top 10 grossing movies of 2012, you’ll see that only two were not either animated or marketed directly at nerds, and a case can definitely be made that James Bond carries its own unique brand of rabid followers.
“Marvel’s The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises” were two of the most anticipated movies ever made, and both performed pretty much exactly as everybody hoped, nabbing the first and second spots. While the third Christopher Nolan directed Batman entry didn’t quite live up to its predecessor (and some of this may be due to the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado), both movies managed to rake in over a billion dollars each worldwide. This helped make 2012 the most profitable year at the movies ever, at $10.83 billion in domestic earnings. The previous record was 2009 with $10.596 billion.
The rest of the top ten is littered with genre faire, including “The Hunger Games” in the number three spot, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” in at number five, and “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” at number six. “The Amazing Spider-Man” is in the seventh spot, a movie which does not compare in any way to the Sam Raimi directed "Spider-Man" series, but proves that rebooting a franchise after only five short years is a viable option for studios, and bodes well for the upcoming “Fantastic Four” and “Justice League” films, the latter of which will most likely give us yet another new version of Batman. Also, one has to take into account that “The Hobbit” is still relatively early in its run, and will probably see overall numbers increase as we get closer to the second installment.
2013 is on track to have just as much to watch for the nerds with disposable income out there. While we don’t get tent poles quite as high as “The Avengers” or “The Dark Knight Rises”, we do have an awful lot of Nerd offerings. Most are franchises, with arguably the most anticipated of which being
“Star Trek Into Darkness”(my personal bet for highest earner of the new year). We also get “Thor: The Dark World” and “Iron Man 3” which desperately needs a subtitle with the word “dark” in it somewhere if wants to be in with the cool kids.
We also get “Man of Steel” in June, one that I am cautiously optimistic about. Zack Snyder can be a very good director when he wants to, but he doesn’t always want to. The good thing here is that he has Christopher Nolan watching his back.
Other highly anticipated films include “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” mercifully taking the November spot that “Twilight” has held onto for so long, and we also get “Pacific Rim,” “After Earth,” “The Wolverine,” and “Ender's Game.”
I guess you could throw in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” and “World War Z” but why bother?
Other Notables for 2013:Warm Bodies
Beautiful Creatures
Oz: The Great and Powerful
The Host
Oblivion
Kick-Ass 2
300: Rise of An Empire
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
The World's End
Frozen
All figures courtesy
Box Office MojoDo you have a topic you would like the Prairie Nerds to address? Let us know at PrairieNerds@tulsaworld.com
