A successful film that makes a large sum of money in the box-office is usually a part of a well-known franchise with a high standard that the audience trust. It is typically one that is suitable for all ages.

Bankable Stars

In the film industry, a bankable star is an actor capable of guaranteeing box-office success simply by being in the film.

Genres

Franchises

Adaptations

the top ten films in 2018 were mostly part of a franchise or a sequal to a movie. They were also all family films such as a 12a rating. A lot of these films had a fanbase already such as the movies from marvel and disney and the other movies that these companies have produced so then the audience will know that the films will be up to a certain standard

The top 10 box office films of 2018 follow various trends such as being tied to a mass-media franchise or huge conglomerate like 6 of them being owned by Disney or 8 of them being a sequel or remake. This trend is followed throughout the top 20 as well.

Most of the highest ranked films have a large cult following which can apply to multiple demographics. As well as a high budget, an inclusion of renowned actors; and a large portion are part of a series of franchise. A big fraction could be classed as action or animated family films which hold nostalgic value or are accessible in the sense that they are predictable; and fall under the same universe or storyline which has been known to create profit in the past with fans. An original soundtrack is also a theme, and this can help attract attention to ‘non-film-watchers’.

The top ten films from 2018 follow certain trends such as most of them are part of a trilogy and a franchise. As well as this most have the same genre being heavily Action based and mainly science fiction. Likewise a lot of the films are family friendly and everybody can watch. As well as this all of the films have a very good cast that have a lot of fans which draws more people into drawing into watching the films. Finally most of the films are made and produced by the same company’s and studios that all have very large budgets.

The list tells us that the formula for making a successful film is to be apart of a franchise since 6 of the 10 films are apart of a large franchise. People gravitate to these franchise films because they build hype over time since there are multiple films in the series. They construct a contract with the audience in a way where they know roughly what they are going to watch before they have seen it. Another way to make a film successful is to have a big company produce it, this is because the majority of the films were produced by Disney or Universal. These bigger companies have built a name for themselves past their films and therefore attract more viewers. Including famous actors is another way to have a successful films because their fandoms will watch the film purely because they are in it. Such as with the Avengers family because fans become invested in not only the films themselves but also how the cast interact on and off set. The more successful films also tend to cater towards children making their films “12s” and in more accessible genres like fantasy and Sci-Fi.

All films are considered to be mainstream films. Majority of them are fantasy. The formula of making a successful film is having connections or being a franchise that is trusted by the public. For example Marvel. Everyone expects a good marvel film and they know more will come out of that one films. Franchises creates fandoms and so people can connect over a film. Also having well known film actors involved is a big part. Titanic had Leonardo De Caprio which drew attention to box offices and therefore box offices publicised it everywhere. If a film is publicised everywhere and trailers played around for ADS or Posters being posted more people will get an insight into what the film is about and will be more intrigued into going to watch it. Communication plays a huge part in the formula for a film to become successful as if people enjoy the film they will share it with their friends and so on and the news about this film being good gets spread around and so more people will go to watch the film. Having the film be a well known and popular genre will entice more people to watch the film and help to create a successful film.

The majority of the films on this list were made by Disney and are either sequels or remakes. Disney has been investing a lot of time and money into Marvel which has been delivering in the box office. Most Marvel films tend to have a similar structure and are marketed towards men and families, leading to them having a massive audience. They tend to have similar concepts and messages but are enjoyed by their massive number of fans. A lot of these films also have incredibly high special effects and animation budgets to make it look as good as possible and one without would probably perform a lot worse with the public. They also have a lot of overlapping cast members who are known to be enjoyed by audiences which is a safe bet to make a lot of people watch the movie.

Is there a pattern to the top performing films in box office, what do they have in common that appeals to the masses.

The top ten most well-performing films in box office from 2018 are as followed: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Titanic, Star wars, Avengers…. As you can start to tell most of the top ten films are either a fantasy, Sci-fi, an adaptation or part of a franchise. These films appeal to the masses so well because the fantasy and sci-fi films are always interesting and have a great concept and the adaptations and franchises are lines of films that people come to trust and the target audience start to know what they’re going to get. Franchises also gather a fandom overtime, especially a franchise like Marvel since it has been going since 2008 it has had a long time to gather a fandom and since the target audience is so broad it turns out to be huge. some of the films have gained such a good box office because they’ve stood their test against time and still manage to gain a larger viewing years later so if its a franchise it will always grow each year.