A-List: Best of the Top Opening Weekend-Grossing Movies
By J. Don Birnam
April 16, 2015
But without a doubt, the five best movies from that top 50 list now are to be found elsewhere.
5. Marvel’s The Avengers
Perhaps one of the most highly anticipated movies in film history, the agglomeration of past, popular superheroes, from Ironman to Hulk to Captain America and Thor, is the only movie in film history to gross over $200 million ($207.4 to be precise) in its opening weekend. The second closest, Ironman 3, sits far behind at $174 million. The movie itself is solid, entertaining, and exactly what one would expect from a superhero franchise. The only question that remains is whether its highly anticipated sequel, Age of Ultron - which will be released this summer - will be able to blow past that record. My own conservative nature tells me that the sequel will not do so, but at some point it is inevitable that $200 million openers become a norm. That Furious 7 did so well shows as much. The only question is which will be the movie to topple The Avengers from the crown it has held for three years (the longest the top title has been held since it started changing places almost biannually in 2006).
Could the new Star Wars flick be the one to do it, or will The Avengers hold on to the record for another year? Stay tuned.
4. Skyfall Building off a popular run in the United Kingdom, the most recent of the James Bond franchises has also been the most successful with audiences and critics alike. Receiving a franchise record five Oscar nominations (and winning two, its third and fourth Oscars ever), Skyfall opened at a surprising $88 million weekend in 2012, enough to currently sit at #42 on the list. The praise and buzz were both worth it, as the movie was the first time the franchise really became a lot much than just another spy thriller. It was a full-on adult suspense film that required a lot less suspension of disbelief than prior entries, while still thrilling audiences with exciting danger sequences. It also featured one of the best Bond songs in history, Adele’s Oscar-winning Skyfall. Overall, it is undisputedly among the best of those 50 top weekend openers. Will Spectre, the 24th overall James Bond film, and the fourth starring Daniel Craig, manage to top this total when it opens in November later this year? I, for one, am eagerly anticipating its release.
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Of the eight movies in the franchise, the Harry Potter films hog a total of six spots in the top 50 opening weekends (only Half-Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix miss out). Indeed, the Harry Potter movies lay claim to a long list of box office records, including the third-highest opener of all time (Deathly Hallows Part 2, opening to $169 million in 2011), and the then-highest opener of all time when the first movie stunned Hollywood’s expectations by taking in $90 million in 2001.
But of all the entries it is only Alfonso Cuarón’s Prisoner of Azkaban, the third movie in the franchise, that is worthy of mention today. Azkaban opened to a fantastic $93 million in 2004, good for fourth place in the franchise after the Deathly Hollows entries and Goblet of Fire, which means it currently sits at #34 on the list. But it is Cuarón’s usual mastery of movies that make this a memorable film. It was the first time the main characters were shown outside their wizard robes, taking the movie from pure fantasy into the realm of wishful possibility. The time-motifs that the book revolves around are masterfully handled by the modified tick-tock score and the constant shots of clocks. And it is the first movie of the series that is really dark, setting the right tone for the events to follow in later films.
Goblet of Fire is hailed by many as the best book in the Harry Potter series, but I wager a lot would agree that it was Azkaban that stole the show amongst the big screen adaptations.
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