Top List Thursdays – The top ten grossing movies of 2014…so far

We’re more than halfway done with the year so far, and what a year it has been. A ton of films have been released so far, but after August, we hit that usual lull where the big name releases wait for the festive season in order to maximise cash potential. That’s not to say that there haven’t been some massive money-makers this year already. In fact, these were the top ten booty-shakers of 2014 so far.

Transformers: Age Of Extinction – $890.8 million

The fourth Transformers movie may be a vapid two and a half hour ride of poor story-telling, product placement and egregious characters, but it’s a highly profitable vapid two and a half hour ride of poor story-telling, product placement and egregious characters movie. Unlike all the other flicks on this list, Trans4mers is the youngest film of the year, and thanks to some Eastern pandering and some far-fetched notion that every single person in China carries a minimum of two black belts worth of Kung-Fu with them wherever they go, the latest Transformers movie has been a runaway success.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past – $736.6 million

For a long time, the most successful X-Men movie was the rather mehtastic X-Men 3: The Last Stand. And then along came X-Men: Days Of Future Past a film which made a metric s**t-load of mutated cash, and while it has yet to surpass that awful, terrible third movie, it has come the closest so far. Hopefully, that means that the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse can finally jump over that money-bar, provided that director Bryan Singer can stop hosting those kinds of parites.

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier – $712.9 million

When Captain America throws his mighty shield, you best yield to his box office superiority. In terms of improvement, the Captain America sequel made the original film look like a pre-super soldier serum Steve Rogers in comparison, thanks to a high level script, espionage and a big twist that had massive ramifications for the entire Marvel cinematic universe.

It’s not the most successful Marvel movie, not by a long shot, but it may be one of the biggest sequel successes in the history of the studio.

• The Amazing Spider-Man 2  – $706.3 million

Despite the latest Spider-Man not making enough cash for Sony, the amazing web-head certainly wrapped up a decent sum at the box office this year. And it did all this with the disability of sacrificing story, plot, interesting character development and a villain who attacked New York with the power of dubstep.

Still, $700 million isn’t nearly enough cash to fill the gigantic Olympic-sized swimming pool at the Sony lot, which is why changes are currently hitting this franchise, so that we don’t have an entire trilogy of Spidey films that smell like Batman and Robin.

• Maleficent  – $700.6 million

Well well well, what have we here? A leading actress who still has plenty of star power, a beloved tale told from a different viewpoint and some of the most beautiful visual effects seen in film to date. Add all that up and you have the runaway hit of the year, as audiences flocked to see Maleficent.

And for director Robert Stromberg’s debut flick, that’s a total haul that even seasoned directors would be jealous of.

• Godzilla  – $491.1 million

SKREEEEOOOONK! Godzilla was a big hit this year, eclipsing the 1998 film considerably, then giving it an atomic flame-powered kiss of death. A mixture of Jaws and big budget action, Godzilla kept the Kaiju king in reserve, making his few appearances feel awe-inspiring and epic. A sequel is inevitable, but it might be a few years before that happens.

Still, it’ll hopefully be worth the wait to see the king of monsters throw down with even bigger threats.

• Rio 2  – $489.8 million

Here’s a shocker. If Frozen was the animated movie of 2013, then that’s an honour that The Lego Movie should easily receive. But in terms of box office, the only other animated competition this year that could dethrone the blocks of that massive franchise was found in a blue parrot on vacation. Dreamworks is leading the animated charge this year, with a sequel that did slightly better than the first film.

• The Lego Movie  – $467.8 million

And speaking of The Lego Movie, second-place in the animated rankings is nothing to be ashamed of. The Phil Lord and Chris Miller flick looked like a ton of fun from the start, but no one saw just how damn good it was going to be. $467 million later, and everything is indeed awesome.

• How To Train Your Dragon 2  – $388.7 million

And rounding out a trio of animated films, comes How To Train Your Dragon 2. The first film was majestic, and the sequel even more so as the Dreamworks project took to the skies. While $388.7 million might be a great total, it’s still felt short of the original film which cleaned up at the box office with $494 million. There’s still time for the sequel to reach for the $500 million mark, but it’s going to be a tough climb.

• Noah  – $359.2 million

Making movies, writing songs, fightin’ around the ark! Noah! Say what you like about Russell Crowe, but the bugger from down under can clearly sell a movie when he needs to. The biblical epic got the Darren Aronofsky treatment this year, wowing audiences with a tale that was beautiful, endearing and epic on a massive scale, giving it a mid-year top ten spot on this list.

Last Updated: July 24, 2014