The Big Money for Films of 2008

(The number sources are Variety, Wikipedia, Box Office Mojo, and my calculator)

Estimated combined box-office earnings of the top ten movies of 2008: $4.554 Billion USD

1. The Dark Knight: $996.8 million USD | Warner Brothers
Chris Nolan's sequel to the 2005 Batman Begins rakes in enough money that for awhile some people had legitimate hopes it might reach the numbers scaled previously by James Cameron's Titanic ($1.8 billion). Instead it (only!) topped the year of 2008 and showed that Nolan's Batman Begins (released June 15, 2005) was no fluke, beating the previous film's take of $371 million USD worldwide. Dark Knight's DVD sales started December 10th, selling 3 million copies on the first day of sale alone. Total projected copies sold were over 15 million by Christmas, putting its home video earnings upwards of $300 million. (Batman Begins brought in $125 million USD with its DVD sales)

2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull : $786.8 million USD | Paramount
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas bring out Harrison Ford and Karen Allen for a reunion and new adventure that vastly outperformed the previous three films, all of which were big hits in their years. (The original Raiders of the Lost Ark pulled in $384 million USD in its original worldwide release starting on June 12, 1981) DVD sales on Indy IV only made appprox $24 million USD, though, with a projected sale of 1.4 million copies.

3. Kung Fu Panda : $631.9 million USD | Paramount and Dreamworks
The animated story of a martial arts loving, but under-exercised and slothful panda that learns there's more to the mystique of fighting that he ever suspected. Lead voice work by Jack Black and directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osbourne, the film also had the vocal talents of Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan and Dustin Hoffman. The opening and credit sequences were hand-drawn, but the bulk of the film is computer derived 3-D animation. Premiered June 1, 2008, and is already slated for a 2010 sequel likely to be titled Pandamonium. DVD sales are approximately 9 million copies, with $150 million USD in earnings.

4. Hancock : $624.4 million USD | Sony
Will Smith was the top drawing movie star of 2008, with the tail-end of I Am Legend crossing over into 2008, and then Hancock's summertime worldwide gross. Directed by Peter Berg, the film was released July 2, 2008. The DVD version of the film was released November 25, 2008, and sold a little over 5 million copies, pulling in $110.3 million USD additional monies for Sony.

5. Ironman : $581.9 million USD | Paramount
Robert Downey Jr., a longtime critcal favorite, buoys Ironman from typical superhero fare into a phenomenal ticket-seller with almost unanimous positive reviews. The September 30, 2008 release of the DVD and Blu-Ray versions prompted another wash of money, nearly $130 million USD by the end of 2008.

6. Mamma Mia! : $572.1 million USD | Universal
This adaptation of the 1999 musical of the same name has the distinction of being the biggest money making film of all time for Britain (replacing Titanic), and it's worldwide gross makes it the highest earning muscial of all time, too. Meryl Streep stars and the pop group ABBA's catalog is the underlying music. The DVD release in Britain sold 1.6 million copies on its first day, and topped out with 3.1 million sold in it's first week, all UK records. Total DVD earnings are estimated at $75 million USD.

7. Quantum of Solace : $544.5 million USD | Sony
The 22nd James Bond movie, and the second with Daniel Craig broke records for opening weekend numbers in the UK. The USA DVD and Blu-Ray release is not expected until March 2009.

8. Wall-E : $507.3 million USD | Pixar / Disney
Directed by Andrew Stanton (who did the Pixar Finding Nemo), Wall-E generated the third-highest weekend numbers for any Pixar release, and the subsequent DVD and Blu-Ray releases sold over 6.2 million copies and pulled in another $112 million USD.

9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Price Caspian : $419.6 million USD | Disney
This was the first of six projected sequels to the highly profitable original movie The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe film of 2005 (worldwide box office $896 million USD). But Prince Caspian production costs moved Disney to decide to drop the series to a three film trilogy, and after the returns on Caspian didn't hit the peaks attained by the first film, the series was dropped altogether with no plan for the third film (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, originally slated for 2010). It is assumed the owners of the movie rights to the C. S. Lewis property will shop it to another studio. The DVD release of Prince Caspian sold 3.34 million copies , making approximately $54 million USD.

10. Sex and the City : $415.1 million USD | Warner Bros / New Line
Based upon the popular television series. The DVD and Blu-Ray releases made $88.76 million USD.

Original Page Dec 2008 | Updated July 2012

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