2015 will be the biggest box office year of all time – by a lot.

The total box office earnings in a year usually end up around $10 billion. However, the ridiculous amount of blockbusters coming out this year means that 2015 will be well ahead of the $10 billion mark.

For example, Universal Studios has produced two of the top three biggest films of the year with “Furious 7” and “Jurassic World.” The gross of just these two films together ($858 million) outweigh the year to date totals of all Universal movies in any other year. Add that to the success of “Pitch Perfect 2” and “Fifty Shades of Grey,” and Universal has more than doubled their year-to-date (YTD) totals from most years. Plus, they still have “Minions” and “Trainwreck” coming out this summer, both of which will make at least a couple hundred million.

 

Not to be outdone, Buena Vista (Disney), and Warner Bros. set YTD records of their own. “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Cinderella” and “Inside Out” are all massive hits for Buena Vista ($845 million just after “Inside Out”’s opening weekend). Warner Brothers has been making their cash in a bit of a different way. 2014 films “American Sniper” and “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” came out late enough in December that a lot of the money was earned after January 1. Plus, 2015 films “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “San Andreas” brought in nearly $300 million together. The reality is that the big studios are all making big money in 2015.

These giant studios keep jockeying for the most gross, which comes down to how many successful blockbusters they can finance. Each of them continues to grow and make more blockbusters per year, which actually allows them to make even more. The industry becomes a franchise/sequel system to guarantee more money. Despite the revolving door of big budget releases, there are no signs that blockbusters have oversaturated the market. As long as studios make franchises and other huge movies, people will go see them. This year’s totals prove that.

The year to date totals are crazy on their own, but it’s about to get even crazier.

Here’s a list of more blockbusters still to come out this year:
“Ant-Man” — Marvel does not miss at the box office
“Fantastic Four” — Young stars, superhero movies make money
“Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” — Benefits from the sequel bump
“Vacation” — Another remake
“Spectre” — Bond 24
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” — Finales always make the most, see Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings
“The Good Dinosaur” — Another Pixar surefire
“In the Heart of the Sea” — A Ron Howard thriller
“The Hateful Eight” — Directed by Quentin Tarantino, which guarantees acclaim and money.

 

And oh, by the way “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” comes out in December. Every person alive will probably go see the new Star Wars within the first few weeks of its release.

Two films from this year, “Furious 7” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” are already in the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time, and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is sure to join them.

So what does this all really mean? In general, it means people are getting what they want. Audiences are showing up for blockbusters, so studios are producing more. We are far past the time when a single movie would define a summer or record-breaking weekends would be breaking news.

Every new movie tries to be more epic than the last, and as a culture we crave actors who are stars and for the biggest movies to be the best ones. 2015 happens to be a culmination of the biggest stars, the biggest franchises and therefore the biggest audiences. The end of 2015 will not look like $10 billion; it will be closer to $15 billion, maybe more.

Kyle Stevens is a sophomore advertising major. You can email him at ksteve03@syr.edu or reach him on Twitter at @kstevs_.

Published on July 1, 2015 at 1:28 pm