Could this be the year where the world sees ten titles claim the title of billion dollar films?
With Fast & Furious 7 racing to become the fastest film ever to join the billion box office club, achieving in 17 days what the final Harry Potter film, the first Avengers film and Avatar had previously done in 19.
There are now twenty films to have achieved this monumental money-spinning feat. The earliest release to reach the mark is Jurassic Park, the 1993 release which scraped past one billion dollars with its 2013 re-release in 3D. Titanic then sailed past both the 1 and 2 billion dollar marks in 1997. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was the only other film to achieve such a gross in the twentieth century.
BILLION DOLLAR GROSSING FILMS WORLDWIDE (USD)
| RANK | FILM | GROSS | YEAR |
| 1 | Avatar | $2,787,965,087 | 2009 |
| 2 | Titanic | $2,186,772,302 | 1997 |
| 3 | The Avengers | $1,518,594,910 | 2012 |
| 4 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 | $1,341,511,219 | 2011 |
| 5 | Frozen | $1,279,852,693 | 2013 |
| 6 | Iron Man 3 | $1,215,439,994 | 2013 |
| 7 | Fast and Furious 7 | $1,152,710,000 | 2015 |
| 8 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | $1,123,794,079 | 2011 |
| 9 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | $1,119,929,521 | 2003 |
| 10 | Skyfall | $1,108,561,013 | 2012 |
| 11 | Transformers: Age of Extinction | $1,091,405,097 | 2014 |
| 12 | The Dark Knight Rises | $1,084,439,099 | 2012 |
| 13 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest | $1,066,179,725 | 2006 |
| 14 | Toy Story 3 | $1,063,171,911 | 2010 |
| 15 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | $1,045,713,802 | 2011 |
| 16 | Jurassic Park | $1,029,939,903 | 1993 |
| 17 | Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace | $1,027,044,677 | 1999 |
| 18 | Alice in Wonderland | $1,025,467,110 | 2010 |
| 19 | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | $1,017,003,568 | 2012 |
| 20 | The Dark Knight | $1,004,558,444 | 2008 |
SOURCE: BoxOfficeMojo.com
Four more titles blew up the box office in the first decade of this century, with Avatar approaching the 3 billion dollar mark. Since then we’ve had thirteen in five years, but now it is possible that we could see nearly that number again in the space of one year, and not a one an “original” title.
Four films have franchise siblings already in the club – Star Wars: The Force Awakens, SPECTRE, Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron – and of those, only Jurassic World could be seen as an outside chance , with the others all set to keep box office registers ringing.
Should they all do as well as their predecessors, this would already be the most successful year for box office champions, eclipsing 2012 in which four titles made the list, including Skyfall and the first Avengers film.
After that, it’s a case of Nostradamus blended with a fraction of Sherlock Holmes to establish the other commercial champions.
The second Despicable Me film grossed a fraction over $950 million which bodes well for spin-off Minions.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 will hope to build on the immense box office success of the first three films to go out with a billion dollar bang, though Part 1’s $750 million gross fell short of the $865 million of the second installment.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation will have to climb a tower as high as Tom Cruise did in Ghost Protocol in order to upscale that film’s $700 million.
An even bigger mission lies ahead of Terminator: Genisys which will hope that it’s quasi-reboot plot and the return of Arnie will help it double the gross of Terminator 2: Judgment Day which grossed $520 million in 1991 rather than the $370 million posted by Terminator Salvation six years ago.
Then there is the Australian entrant, Mad Max: Fury Road whose most recent prequel released thirty years ago, making it a worthy candidate for inclusion in this list, if somewhat lacking the same box office pedigree.
Finally of all the new films, Ridley Scott’s The Martian starring Matt Damon may hope to be the next original title to join the club, taking the list to eleven, though its producers would most likely rank the $672 million grossed by last years’ Interstellar as the “wildest dreams” scenario.
TEN FRANCHISE FILMS TO CRACK A BILLION IN 2015 – AND ONE NEWBIE?
| TITLE | RELEASE DATE |
| Fast and Furious 7 | 2nd April |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron | 23rd April |
| Mad Max: Fury Road | 14th May |
| Jurassic World | 11th June |
| Minions | 25th June |
| Terminator: Genisys | 1st July |
| MI5 | 6th August |
| SPECTRE | 12th November |
| Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 | 19th November |
| The Martian | 26th November |
| Star Wars Ep 7: The Force Awakens | 17th December |
So what does a list of such billion dollar length mean for us mere mortal cinema-goers?
Firstly, more of the same. Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Pixar, Bond and their ilk – even the Fast and Furious family – have all got the next decade of our viewing planned. 2014 was a $48 billion dollar year at the box office worldwide, and the studios plan to carve the anticipated $50 billion plus for the forthcoming years across a shrinking number of predictable titles.
It also means little in the way of choice this year. This will be the first of many weeks where most distributors duck for cover and avoid releasing anything in competition with the hundred pound gorilla of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The same can be said for the weeks of Star Wars, 007, Hunger Games and Terminator.
So get set to fork out for a year of blockbusters, but if you’re looking for the small-to-medium indie flicks, it might be time to contemplate that video on demand service you have your eye on.
But remember, as Ben Kenobi once kind of said: the Box Office will be with you. Always.
Scroll on and watch the latest trailers for these potential billionaires:
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Mad Max: Fury Road
Jurassic World
Minions
Terminator: Genisys
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Spectre
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
