In terms of domestic box office, the highest-grossing movie of 2019 was Avengers: Endgame, followed by The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen II, and Captain Marvel. The best-performing original movie (not based on existing IP and/or a sequel) is Jordan Peele’s Us, all the way down at #12, followed by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at #18.
No wonder Quentin Tarantino is on a “war” against Marvel movies.
In a recent interview, the Oscar-nominated writer and director told Deadline that “a war for movies got played out this last year,” with Endgame/The Rise of Skywalker/The Lion King (Disney, basically) on one side of the battlefield and Us/Hollywood/Knives Out on the other. “As far as I can see, the commercial product that is owned by the conglomerates, the projects everybody knows about and has in their DNA, whether it be the Marvel Comics, the Star Wars, Godzilla, and James Bond, those films never had a better year than last year,” Tarantino explained. “It would have been the year that their world domination would have been complete. But it kind of wasn’t.” He continued:
“A lot of original movie comment came out and demanded to be seen, and demanded to be seen at the theaters. That ended up becoming a really, really strong year. I’m really proud to be nominated with the other films that just got nominated. I think when you sum up the year, it’s cinema that doesn’t fall into that blockbuster IP proof status, made its last stand this year.”
At least 2019 had three original movies in the top 21 — 2018 only had one, A Quiet Place, which of course has a sequel coming out soon. What non-sequels/remakes/adaptations might do well at the box office in 2020? There’s Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, two Pixar titles (Onward and Soul), and Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, which could be a Knives Out-level hit. Say, that’s four movies right there! By 2022, who knows, maybe 25 percent of the top 20 will be wholly original. Or Disney’s Avatar 3 will make $7 billion, leaving nothing for the rest of the studios. Oh well.
(Via Deadline)
