| By Mike Tyrkus |
Once again, superhero films dominated the domestic box office. The king of the box office this past year also happened to be the newly-crowned ruler of Wakanda and the star of his self-titled film Black Panther. The latest Marvel blockbuster earned over $700 million domestically to garner a worldwide total of just over $1.3 billion, making it the highest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), at least it was until Avengers: Infinity War was released in April, just two months later.
The highest-grossing film in the MCU (worldwide), Avengers: Infinity War, was also the second-highest-grossing domestic film of 2018. While Infinity War may have finished just behind Black Panther’s domestic total, it managed to topple its predecessor with a worldwide cumulative haul of over $2 billion. The Disney/Pixar entry to the superhero box-office battle, Incredibles 2, finished in a not-too-distant third place bringing in just over $600 million domestically as well as boasting a worldwide total of over $1.2 billion.
A few other notable superhero flicks also made their mark in 2018. The Ryan Reynolds vehicle Deadpool 2 did respectable business, finishing admirably among the year’s top ten with over $318 million domestically, yet it still fell a bit short of its predecessor’s impressive surprise hit $363 million domestic total. Elsewhere, Ant-Man and the Wasp, the sequel to Ant-Man (2015), brought in approximately $40 million more domestically and over $60 million more worldwide than its predecessor did.
As in previous years, sequels dominated various studio release schedules, as well as the box office. This past year saw another popular entry to the “Jurassic” canon with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as well as one more successful Tom Cruise-led impossible mission in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. There was even a third entry of the Transylvanian bed-and-breakfast series, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, which offered a counter-programming family alternative to the big summer blockbusters. While not a sequel per se, director Ron Howard’s addition to the “Star Wars” canon, Solo: A Star Wars Story, received moderate reviews while adding just over $390 million in worldwide box office to the franchise coffers. So, we leave this year much as we did last, with an optimistic belief that the movie landscape is looking not nearly as desolate as it once was.
Moving forward, we’d like you to think of VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever as your go-to-guide when looking for information and helpful reviews about the latest movies available in a variety of home entertainment formats. VideoHound has the scoop on almost 30,000 movies, all with entertaining plot synopses and critical reviews to help you find the best entertainment choice for your mood and taste. As always, there are more Category and Kibbles subjects to enjoy. Some existing categories that were either redundant, confusing, or simply too big or too small to be of use anymore have been removed to make room for even more movie entries. Again, we strive to be as complete as possible for theatrical and higher-profile direct-to-video titles while still covering niche, foreign, and documentary movies. So, please allow VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever 2019 to guide you through your movie-watching experiences!
Meet the Author
An award-winning independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, Mike Tyrkus has spent much of the last two decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema. He is a standing member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group’s webmaster and current president. His contributions to the world of film criticism can be found in such places as the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Magill’s Cinema Annual, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). Mike is also the editor of VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their two dogs. You can find Mike on Twitter and Facebook, or at CinemaNerdz.com.