The Written Podcast: Films Surpassing £1billion

As of writing this, 37 films have successfully broken the £1billion milestone at the box office. The list is inevitably going to continue growing. One film that’s an absolutely surety to be a part of the list is Avengers: Endgame. Avengers: Infinity War broke £2billion, which only four managed to do. Grossing that amount of money is an incredible achievement, there’s no doubt about that. James Cameron stands alone as he’s made two film, Titanic, and Avatar, become the highest crossing films of all time. Titanic remained at number one since 1997, only to be beaten by Avatar in 2009. Both are still the top two highest crossing films, with Avatar even nearing the monumental £3billion milestone.

There are many factors involved in making Titanic the highest crossing film for 12 years straight, but one of the most notable is the ground breaking special effects. Titanic reaches levels of epic never before seen – and ages incredibly well. It’s a film so incredible, it deserved a re-release on the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the real Titanic. Sure, it portrayed a fictional story on board, but the level of detail involved in the sinking hit people’s hearts across the world. It’s a masterpiece that deserved to be number 1.

And then came along Avatar, another film directed by James Cameron, and immediately shattered Titanic’s record. Again, there are many factors into why it became such a monumental hit, but one of the main reasons was the pioneering special effects. In fact, it has been documented that James Cameron couldn’t make the film until the technology caught up with his vision. James Cameron didn’t tone down his vision when discovering what technology was available and made the film anyway, he literally waited years. That’s dedication. The staggering special effects was the first of its kind. The end result was once again a masterpiece. Over time, however, as the technology used in the film has become more and more readily available, people started seeing Avatar’s story more and more instead of the special effects, and soon the film was criticised for being mundane and almost clichéd. The mind-blowing special effects overshadowed the story so much, it didn’t matter if it was clichéd or not. Avatar is still number 1.

It should be noted that if you adjust the final box office records in accordance with inflation over the years, then Gone with the Wind is the highest grossing film of all time. As of writing this, Gone with the Wind has surpassed the £3billion mark, nearing £4billion. Avatar being a close second, but it’s doubtful it’ll surpassed Gone with the Wind’s reign any time soon.

37 films have surpassed £1billion. It’s practically becoming a regular factor within Hollywood now. With the number of films breaking that record, it shouldn’t take away from the achievement. Anyone should be jumping with joy if their film they’ve spend months, maybe years, putting everything they have into making a film they’re extremely passionate about, smashing through the £1billion barrier. Who wouldn’t be? I certainly would.

With Titanic and Avatar, one of the most notable factors is the special effects. The grandness of both films had never been seen before. Titanic is nearly 3 hours long, yet people were willing to watch it. Avatar opened up opportunities for other directors and film studios to advance their film making abilities. Two big films having two big reasons why they’ve broken through the barrier no one ever believed would be broken. Since Titanic broke that barrier, 36 other films have followed suit.

How come all 36 films have achieved that goal? Transformers: Dark of the Moon has been critically panned by critics – compared to Titanic and Avatar, there’s nothing ground breaking about the special effects and the story is hardly even there at the best of times. Sure, it’s an action epic, but what does that film have which allowed it to gross over £1billion? Minions is another puzzler. Minions is a dreadful film – a spin off from the Despicable Me trilogy, it’s only purpose I can see is to pander toward the marketing which flooded every shop across the country, disallowing you to turn in a direction and be Minion free. The story is lacklustre and the jokes are clichéd, yet it surpassed £1billion. Going by the logic previous displayed when reaching that achievement, Minions is on the same level as Titanic and Avatar. How does that make any sense? It doesn’t.

Minions broke £1billion purely because they were the best part about the Despicable Me trilogy. They were unique characters with original comedy. The infrequent appearance throughout the parent trilogy hooked people in, and what felt like literally every company saw how much we enjoyed seeing the Minions in Despicable Me, we couldn’t escape from it. Everything had a minion on it. And then a film came along that purely focused on them, what could go wrong. Families flocked to see the film, because adults and children alike enjoyed the unique comedy the minions displayed. Unfortunately, the minions only work in small dosages, but the damage had already been done. The film had hit £1billion before word could spread about its terribleness -  but despite that, children still wanted to see it, and of course parents weren’t going to say no. People had too much of a good thing, but it still became a huge hit.

Frozen became a huge hit, probably because of the story, but we all know it was because of the songs, especially that one – now infamous song everybody has done a cover off because it was popular. Once again, every company put Frozen on their products, and once again marketing allowed it to become the next film to surpass what was only seen as an achievement only the outstanding, ground breaking films received.

Nowadays, the list is being populated by comic book films, specifically films from the MCU. In order of their placement on the list, from top to bottom – Avengers: Infinity War, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther, and Iron Man 3, Captain America: Civil War – all of which are on the list. Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home; I’m expecting all three to hit the list as well. It took a lot of effort to make the MCU what it is today. Marvel didn’t make Iron Man expecting to gross £1billion, nor did they make Avengers with that in mind, they focused on making the best film possible, building up respect of us fans, and now we are the ones propelling Marvel’s films up the list. Not them, we are.

What can we conclude from this? There’s no way anyone would say Minions is on par with Titanic or Avatar, nor are they going to say Transformer: Age of Extinction is ground breaking and outstanding from the rest, of course not. There are many factors when it comes to making a film a massive hit, but the most notable was the special effects and grandness – but nowadays as the technology that was once considered futuristic now becoming mainstream – giving the filmmakers and companies more opportunities to play with, those other factors that once played a small part in making the film surpass £1billion are now more apparent than before.

Titanic put a lot of marketing into its film, but it wasn’t the main reason why it became the hit it still is. Minions isn’t anywhere near Titanic’s grandness, but it was the marketing that made it the huge hit it.

Also, it should be noted, the prices of tickets at the cinema are constantly increasing. I remember when it only cost me £6.99 for a ticket, whereas the Cineworld Unlimited Card was only £7.99 per month. Now, a Cineworld ticket for an adult costs £11.20, and the Cineworld Unlimited Card costs £17.90 per month. That’s a staggering increase, and cannot be shoved to one side when analysing the reasons behind more and more films hitting £1billion. Just a thought.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)