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Found footage movies: Like the torture porn sub-genre of horror films in the early ‘00s, found footage films are cash cows. However, the omnipresence of them drove the genre into the ground. While still having a pulse of life, I believe that 2012 is the year that found footage movies have hit their downturn. Regardless, their dirt-cheap budget will keep the genre around for a couple more years. For every Chronicle ($64.6 million) that shows that found footage works with the right concept (one of my favorite films from the first quarter of the year), there is a Chernobyl Diaries ($18.1 million). Paranormal Activity 4 is the most obvious example of the genre’s downturn, raking in $53.8 million in total while only a year earlier, the third film in the series opened to a similar amount. Still a moneymaker, I don’t think it is too early to say that this genre is not with us.

Snow White: I remember Snow White and the Seven Dwarves as being one of the Disney movies of my childhood, with the titular princess being graceful yet captive. However, today’s young audiences will certainly have a different impression of the pale-skinned princess. Kristen Stewart made her into a rebel warrior against Charlize Theron in the entertaining yet misguided Snow White and the Huntsman, which generated $155.1 million (or enough to greenlight a sequel). On the lower end of the spectrum, a more PG-take on the tale starring Julia Roberts, Mirror Mirror, still drew the biggest crowd for a live-action kiddy flick ($64.9 million). After last year’s Red Riding Hood and Beastly flopped, Snow White proved that she is a fairytale still with us.

Taylor Kitsch: Like another Abercrombie & Fitch model turned actor on this list, Taylor Kitsch also headlined three films. Quality-wise, I think Kitsch has had a stellar year. He amazed me in the epic sci-fi of John Carter. He made Battleship a fun popcorn summer explosion movie. And by the beginning of July, he starred in Oliver Stone’s return-to-form thriller, Savages. The only problem is that combined, the three films raked in $185.6 million. The combined production cost is $504 million. In what could have been his breakout year, Kitsch most likely got himself blacklisted from headlining any other nine-figure production for quite some time, making him not with us.

3D: Have audiences had it with paying an additional $3 being tacked onto their ticket price to see in an extra dimension? As of right now, only four of the top 10 grossing films of the year have been shown in the surcharge-adding format. Compare that to five films in 2011 and six in 2010, with the addition of theaters offering the format, the numbers seems to be inverse. And out of the four films, it is hard to tell the percentage of the audience opting for the 2D showings (the usual seems to be roughly 50%). With plenty of films still being offered in three dimensions and the use of it being fine-tuned (Life of Pi is a recent highlight to show the power of adding an extra dimension), the “with us”-ness of 3D is TBD.

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