What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

It looks like the domestic blockbuster is doing well and good this year. Last year was the first year in decades where the highest film only sold so few tickets.

2014 American Sniper 43,118,400 tickets
1995 Toy Story 43,868,300 tickets
1988 Rain Man 43,291,700 tickets
1987 Three Men and a Baby 41,703,800 tickets

Biggest Box Office of 2015
$640,755,000 Jurassic World
$457,529,323 Avengers: Age of Ultron
$351,032,910 Furious 7
20 Nov The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
18 Dec Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Biggest Box Office of 2014
$350,126,372 American Sniper

Biggest Box Office of 2013
$424,668,047 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
$409,013,994 Iron Man 3
$400,738,009 Frozen
$368,061,265 Despicable Me 2

Watched Mission Impossible:Rogue Nation. Not quite as much fun as 'Ghost Protocol', but still pretty good. Saw some compliants about the lack of chemistry between Rebecca Ferguson and Tom Cruise. Didn't bother me, she was not meant to be the love interest. Tom Cruise still does action movies very well, even if I think he's a bit of a pratt. Simon Pegg was in it, so I was happy. 3rd Billing for a nerd from Crouch End. Most disappointing part:

Quote: TheCesspit

Tom Cruise still does action movies very well, even if I think he's a bit of a pratt.

Bit of a pratt.

While it is a somewhat faulty measure, the domestic box office of the films starring the top 20 actors is one way to collect names of the biggest film stars. Most of them think they are self-righteous.

I suppose Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, and Michael Caine get almost all good publicity. Robert Deniro spent most of his career in a blessed state, but recently has been seen as less sanctified.

But Tom Cruise seems to get the worst publicity of the whole bunch, while Eddie Murphy and Johnny Depp are not far behind.

Rank	Actor	Millions	Number	Average	Biggest
1	Samuel L. Jackson	$4,588.7	66	$69.5	The Avengers
2	Morgan Freeman	$4,315.9	58	$74.4	The Dark Knight
3	Tom Hanks	$4,264.2	42	$101.5	Toy Story 3
4	Harrison Ford	$3,935.1	40	$98.4	Star Wars
5	Eddie Murphy	$3,810.4	38	$100.3	Shrek 2
6	Tom Cruise	$3,562.4	36	$99.0	War of the Worlds
7	Robert Downey, Jr.	$3,538.0	52	$68.0	The Avengers
8	Robin Williams	$3,279.3	49	$66.9	Night at the Museum
9	Michael Caine	$3,262.0	56	$58.2	The Dark Knight
10	Johnny Depp	$3,229.0	43	$75.1	Dead Man's Chest
11	Bruce Willis	$3,186.4	58	$54.9	Sixth Sense
12	Stellan Skarsgard	$3,170.6	42	$75.5	The Avengers
13	Ian McKellen	$3,148.8	31	$101.6	Return of the King
14	Cameron Diaz	$3,031.7	34	$89.2	Shrek 2
15	Gary Oldman	$3,029.8	36	$84.2	The Dark Knight
16	Liam Neeson	$2,941.1	62	$47.4	The Phantom Menace
17	Robert DeNiro	$2,909.4	74	$39.3	Meet the Fockers
18	Orlando Bloom	$2,815.8	17	$165.6	Dead Man's Chest
19	Will Smith	$2,814.3	22	$127.9	Independence Day
20	Ben Stiller	$2,798.2	36	$77.7	Meet the Fockers

Quote: TheCesspit

Tom Cruise still does action movies very well,
even if I think he's a bit of a pratt.

I love Tom Cruise. I've never seen him
give a bad performance in a movie. I
like him in all he's done. I want to name
a dozen, but why bother. I've seen Jack
Reacher 4 times, and a sequel is coming.
MI franchise, multiple times. I even liked
him in War of the Worlds. He scared the
crap out of me so badly in Interview With
a Vampire, I have never watched it again.
Best vamp movie ever made. I could go
on and on, he's a national treasure. Who
cares if he's a Scientologist, he entertaining
as hell.

As far as war movies go, I tend to favor the realistic ones. I understand the director of Platoon put the actors through a week of obstacle courses and calisthenics and then started filming the movie with the actors still wearing the same unlaundered duds. In ww2 many soldiers landed in Normandy with blood and vomit all over their uniforms... and stayed that way. One soldier got to a field bathing station but there were MPs there if anyone tried to launder their uniforms. so he took a shower and put on the same dirty stinking clothes because there was no other option.

I remember one war film where it looked like star had just helicoptered in from his Malibu beach house... wasn't too realistic.

too much realism? I don't think audiences could take world war one trench warfare.. rotting corpses, dead horses, rain filled trenches, mud and gore all around.

Look at the Falkland Islands... Professional soldiers, well trained well equipped versus poorly equipped poorly fed conscripts but over and over again things were really close.

I have not seen it yet but its the movie I really cant wait to see
Will Smith
Concussion
Based on the true story of Dr Bennet Omalu
The preview looks awesome.
"You are going up against a corporation that owns a day of the week"
Awesome.

Does Sam Jackson really get starring credit for the "Avengers"? I am not sure how it was determined (Number of lines?, "Face" time?, Good contract negotiator?), but it seems pretty sketchy since his was a minor role, even with an ensemble cast.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Does Sam Jackson really get starring credit for the "Avengers"? I am not sure how it was determined (Number of lines?, "Face" time?, Good contract negotiator?), but it seems pretty sketchy since his was a minor role, even with an ensemble cast.

In the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeves, Marlon Brando gets top billing right after the Executive producer, before the Director, but he has at most a couple minutes of lines in the whole movie. Gene Hackman has a much bigger part but still gets third billing, than Reeves.

I always think of that movie, because it's so noticeable than Brando gets superstar billing regardless of effort.

Quote: Ayecarumba

[..] Good contract negotiator?), [..]

Close.

It's a mix of how big the name is, what demands they make and how good an agent they have.