From Wikipedia:
How many of these involve crime, violence, death, graphic violence, and graphic death?
Virtually everyone of them. I was counting them up, and nearly every film features crime and violence. Even relatively tame films like Kung Fu Panda and show a large amount of violence.
Some are obviously highly violent, featuring visuals of murder and mass death & destruction.
By "grossing," of course, I meant money.
But maybe grossing also means something else!
List of worldwide highest-grossing films
| Rank | Title | Studios | Worldwide gross | Year | Ref. |
| 1 | Avatar | 20th Century Fox | $2,713,395,000 | 2009 | [# 1] |
| 2 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | New Line Cinema | $1,119,110,941 | 2003 | [# 2] |
| 3 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | Walt Disney Pictures | $1,066,179,725 | 2006 | [# 3] |
| 4 | The Dark Knight | Warner Bros. | $1,001,921,825 | 2008 | [# 4] |
| 5 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Warner Bros. | $974,733,550 | 2001 | [# 5] |
| 6 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | Walt Disney Pictures | $960,996,492 | 2007 | [# 6] |
| 7 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Warner Bros. | $938,212,738 | 2007 | [# 7] |
| 8 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Warner Bros. | $929,359,401 | 2009 | [# 8] |
| 9 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | New Line Cinema | $925,282,504 | 2002 | [# 9] |
| 10 | Shrek 2 | DreamWorks Animation | $919,838,758 | 2004 | [# 10] |
| 11 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Warner Bros. | $895,921,036 | 2005 | [# 11] |
| 12 | Spider-Man 3 | Sony Pictures/Columbia | $890,871,626 | 2007 | [# 12] |
| 13 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky | $887,566,024 | 2009 | [# 13] |
| 14 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Warner Bros. | $878,643,482 | 2002 | [# 14] |
| 15 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | New Line Cinema | $870,761,744 | 2001 | [# 15] |
| 16 | Finding Nemo | Disney/Pixar | $864,625,978 | 2003 | [# 16] |
| 17 | Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith | 20th Century Fox | $848,754,768 | 2005 | [# 17] |
| 18 | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | DreamWorks/Paramount Pictures | $834,969,807 | 2009 | [# 18] |
| 19 | Spider-Man | Columbia Pictures | $821,708,551 | 2002 | [# 19] |
| 20 | Shrek the Third | DreamWorks Animation | $798,958,162 | 2007 | [# 20] |
| 21 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Warner Bros. | $795,634,069 | 2004 | [# 21] |
| 22 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | Paramount Pictures | $786,636,033 | 2008 | [# 22] |
| 23 | Spider-Man 2 | Sony Pictures | $783,766,341 | 2004 | [# 23] |
| 24 | The Da Vinci Code | Columbia | $758,239,851 | 2006 | [# 24] |
| 25 | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Walden Media/Disney | $745,011,272 | 2005 | [# 25] |
| 26 | The Matrix Reloaded | Warner Bros. | $742,128,461 | 2003 | [# 26] |
| 27 | 2012 | Sony Pictures/Columbia | $736,257,842 | 2009 | [# 27] |
| 28 | Transformers | DreamWorks/Paramount Pictures | $709,709,780 | 2007 | [# 28] |
| 29 | Up | Disney/Pixar | $683,004,164 | 2009 | [# 29] |
| 30 | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | Summit Entertainment | $669,259,961 | 2009 | [# 30] |
| 31 | Ice Age: The Meltdown | 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky | $655,388,158 | 2006 | [# 31] |
| 32 | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl | Walt Disney Pictures | $654,264,015 | 2003 | [# 32] |
| 33 | Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones | 20th Century Fox | $649,398,328 | 2002 | [# 33] |
| 34 | Kung Fu Panda | DreamWorks Animation | $631,744,560 | 2008 | [# 34] |
| 35 | The Incredibles | Disney/Pixar | $631,442,092 | 2004 | [# 35] |
| 36 | Hancock | Columbia Pictures | $624,386,746 | 2008 | [# 36] |
| 37 | Ratatouille | Disney/Pixar | $623,707,397 | 2007 | [# 37] |
| 38 | The Passion of the Christ | Icon Productions | $611,899,420 | 2004 | [# 38] |
| 39 | Mamma Mia! | Universal Pictures | $609,841,637 | 2008 | [# 39] |
| 40 | Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa | DreamWorks Animation | $603,900,344 | 2008 | [# 40] |
| 41 | Casino Royale | Sony/MGM/Columbia | $594,239,066 | 2006 | [# 41] |
| 42 | War of the Worlds | DreamWorks / Paramount | $591,745,540 | 2005 | [# 42] |
| 43 | Quantum of Solace | MGM / Columbia | $586,090,727 | 2008 | [# 43] |
| 44 | I Am Legend | Warner Bros. | $585,349,010 | 2007 | [# 44] |
| 45 | Iron Man | Paramount | $585,133,287 | 2008 | [# 45] |
| 46 | Night at the Museum | 20th Century Fox | $574,480,450 | 2006 | [# 46] |
| 47 | King Kong | Universal | $550,517,357 | 2005 | [# 47] |
| 48 | Mission: Impossible II | Paramount | $546,388,105 | 2000 | [# 48] |
| 49 | The Day After Tomorrow | 20th Century Fox | $544,272,402 | 2004 | [# 49] |
| 50 | Madagascar | DreamWorks SKG | $532,680,671 | 2005 | [# 50] |
Some of the movies listed, one would never think of them being violent. But we as a consumer audience like violence, whether it be an action movie or slap stick comedy. The media knows what sells, obviously from some of these gross sales numbers, and are willing to cash in on societies wants and needs
ReplyDeleteI think there is more to think about...like the reason behind having so much violence in the media entertainment. I mean it can't just be coincidence that the top 50 most grossing movies, with the exception of a couple, have varying level of violence from constant gun fights and explosions in an action to the occasional fist fight in a comedy. There must be an explanation as to why we flock to see these movies packed with violence. Is it acting as a substitution so we can experience violence without have to be caught in the trouble and pain violence can lead to?
ReplyDeleteWe all know that violence in movies has increase, because people like it. The problem is that the demographics, gore, murders, are more depicted in those movies. And this of course brings more profit to the movie makers. They make billions of dollars each year and employed thousands of people that tells us how much power and influence they have in society.
ReplyDeleteViolent movies are part of our culture, we like them them and we watch them, the problem is that our kids are also watching them, like Kun Fu panda, Madagascar, and others... It has been shown that this affect their behavior and some become aggressive,the problem also, is that they create a misconception about real violence.
Our textbook explains how a lot of people rely on films to form their ideas and perceptions about crime and real violence. This leads to misconceptions about real violence but also depending on how the movie portrays individuals people tend to stereotype some individuals especially minorities. In some movies for example African Americans or Hispanics tend to be the evil offenders while whites tend to be the "heroes." And if people rely on movies as a source to perceive violence this leads to an erroneous perceptions of certain individuals.
We are a society that craves violence! I think that we are becoming numb to the violence. For example, "Halloween" originally came out in 1978. It was not that gory, you saw killing, but not a whole lot of blood and guts. "Halloween" was remade in 2007 and it was probably one of the goriest films I have seen. All you ever saw was blood and more blood! This seems to be the common trend for most slasher remakes. Clearly, movie producers think that the gorier you make a movie and the more violent a movie is, the more a consumer is going to enjoy it. The movie producers think that we have become numb to the violence as well, since they are promising more violence in every sequel that is made!
ReplyDeleteWhat can be said is that violence sells. In an economy like we have to day, the movie makers try to find themes that will get people to spend their money on movie tickets with the price that they are at. I know that I have not gone to the regular movie theater in a year because of the price of the tickets. Today people are spending all of their money on gas and food and they don't have that much money to spend on things that are not needed.
ReplyDeleteViolence produces profits. The list of the top grossing films is just another example of this. Movie producers and makers know what sells. As we can see from the list, most of these movies are sequels. Even Star Wars third release makes the top fifty. Some of these movies are remakes such as King Kong.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard not to say that we condone violence. All of these violent movies could make people more fearful that more crime exists than they do. With that said, I can't wait for Transformers 3.
It amazes me just how much violence sells!! Even in kids movies!! Who doesn't love a good comedy though with a bit of violence in it?! I think we are so drawn to violence in movies because we know it is all fake and that no one really gets hurt. If it were actual reality being filmed and people were fighting all of the time an getting hurt, I don't think things would be as popular. Though humans love to watch violence, I do think they are still human and don't really want to see anyone hurt. Well, not the good guys at least!
ReplyDeleteIn most of the things I have read, people who saw silly/cartoon-ish violence didn't actually consider it "violent" in the same way that certain ratings count total acts of violence. Even smaller children can recognize the difference in silly violence from danger
ReplyDeleteLike what dbake005 said cartoon violence is generally not considered violence, mostly because the acts are just not possible in real life. Like when Wile E Coyote would run five feet off a cliff, fall, only to get back up and return to chasing the Road Runner. Everyone knows that none of that is possible but when you look at the meaning behind the plot it can be quite violent. Most of the movies that are shown do in fact have violence if not all of them.
ReplyDelete