These Are the Highest-Grossing Movies of the Year (So Far)Everything is awesome for The Lego Movie, which is currently the highest-grossing domestic box office release of the year—though Captain America: The Winter Soldier didn't go down without a fight.The superhero blockbuster has earned $256,690,279, only $6,038 less than the toy franchise's first animated movie—despite its bigger opening weekend—according to industry analysts at Rentrak, Deadline reports. But both may end up getting squashed by Optimus Prime and the Autobot gang when Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth film in the Transformer series, flies into theaters this Friday.Captain America isn't the only superhero flick hanging out in the top five, either. X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 have grossed around $217 million and around $200 million, respectively.To dominate the box office, it seems a movie needs two things: spandex and a sequel.“” (Warner Bros.), “” (Universal), and “” (Lionsgate) present the strongest week of openers so far in 2017.
Combined, they could gross over $125 million. That would be great news not only because we need a strong weekend, but also because these new films represent what’s on deck for the rest of the year. Whatever happens, this weekend isn’t the same as this time last year, when it was President’s Day weekend and Valentine’s Day on Sunday. That boosted the Top Ten to $216 million, led by “Deadpool” and its unexpected $132 million total. (Two other openers, “How to Be Single” and “Zoolander 2,” opened to under $20 million each). READ MORE: ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ Review: Keanu Reeves Kicks Ass (Again), And the Franchise Has Begun These three openers are all part of franchises, and they come at a time when non-franchise films flourish. The last eight films to reach $100 million include six standalone entries (although “Split” looks like it will now have a sequel); two others (“Rogue One” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”) were offshoots with a degree of originality.
Throw in two other recent titles just under $100 million (“Arrival” and “Passengers”), and eight of the 10 best-grossing recent releases are unique efforts. “The LEGO Batman Movie” plays off two past successes; that alchemy, with its expectation of originality, makes it the likely top-grossing film. The first “LEGO” animated feature opened to $69 million three years back and a great $258 million domestic total. The $60 million-$65 million that serves as the consensus guess for its opening might seem like a disappointment. But the first one came out with less competition and as a presold concept that added to its appeal. Still, an opening around this level would be a respectable initial showing. It would place it ahead of both “Moana” and “Sing,” the two most recent animated smashes, though holiday-related playdate caveats reduced both numbers. The first “LEGO” did a majority of its business at home. That wasn’t the case for “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which did 70 percent of its business overseas.
That’s important to Universal, since the second of the three planned renditions of this story is expected to gross far less than the $88 million two years ago. The range for “Fifty Shades Darker” is more likely to fall in the $35 million-$40 million range. The curiosity factor will be way down, and the first one only ended up doubling its three-day weekend total, a weak performance beyond the initial audience. Still it’s the right weekend for this and should be adequate for its draw at this point. The least predictable release is “John Wick: Chapter 2.” The first iteration of the Keanu Reeves revenge thriller in October 2014 took in over $14 million its first weekend, with a fairly evenly split worldwide total of $86 million. It had later strength in home viewing, and with a lower budget (the 2014 film cost $20 million) justified a second. Its initial reviews have been ahead of the favorable ones last time (currently 97% on Rotten Tomatoes), so combined with a male fan base that’s been underserved in recent weeks this could hit $20 million or more.
This weekend will end the reign of “Split” at #1 for an unexpected three weeks, with fellow $100 million+ grossers “Hidden Figures” and “La La Land” still just below and likely maintaining decent levels. Last weekend’s #2, “Rings,” could easily drop five positions in its second weekend. The specialized scene is starting to unveil major titles unrelated to the current awards race. Fox Searchlight is the first of the heavyweight companies to launch one with “A United Kingdom.”It’s based on the true story of African prince Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), who in 1948 met and fell in love with a white British office worker, Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike). READ MORE: ‘A United Kingdom’ Review: David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike Bring Historical Love Story to Satisfying Life – TIFF Review Director Amma Asante previously directed 2014 Searchlight release “Belle,” another historical film that centered on a controversial racial situation in England, which grossed nearly $11 million.
It opens in New York and Los Angeles initially. Turkish documentary “Kedi” (Oscilloscope), about the population of itinerant cats that are an accepted part of Istanbul’s urban scene, opens exclusively at New York’s Metrograph. Strong advance sales are reported by the distributor, so this could become a surprise success. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.With over $200 million in box office receipts worldwide, a sequel to The LEGO Movie is already in the works. Warner Bros. hired Jared Stern to write the follow-up last month. The studio is also planning on expanding the Lego universe with the stand-alone LEGO Ninjago movie. Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman starting writing the script in June, although Warner Bros. currently faces a dilemma, as to which of these two movies will hit theaters first.Warner Bros.' greenlight committee is currently tasked with deciding whether or not they will move forward with both projects at the same time.
The studio previously had a November 2013 deadline from LEGO regarding the LEGO Ninjago project, but sources say the toy company has granted an extension. LEGO Ninjago is an important project for the studio, since they currently only have rights to one sequel for The LEGO Movie, and it is believed that Warner's can strengthen their relationship with LEGO by moving forward with LEGO Ninjago before The Lego Movie 2.Sources claim that both LEGO and producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee are free to take the property to another studio after The LEGO Movie sequel. The producers are expected to stay at the studio, if the franchise should move somewhere else, since they both have first-look deals with Warner Bros.Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman, who created the popular Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu animated TV series and received story credit on The LEGO Movie, are also expected to be involved in both projects. LEGO Ninjago is viewed as more of a risky proposition, since the toy line and TV series are more aimed towards young boys, with the story said to be an action-adventure with comedic elements, as opposed to the straight comedy of The LEGO Movie.