Club 50 Wrap Up: 2013

Years Completed:
2003 |2010 | 2013
I recently passed the 90% mark on my Club 50 project and finished another year on the list. No surprise, it was a recent year: 2013. Between the number of movies I see in theaters and my access to HBO, it's only natural that I'm finishing these recent years pretty quickly.

2013 feels too recent. I can't quite look at it in the context of the year in the larger scheme of things. Sequels or franchises still dominated the box office, making up 20 of the 50 (14 of the top 25). Most of these were high marks of the series at that point (Catching Fire, Fast & Furious 6, Despicable Me 2) financially if not creatively. Others were showing signs of exhaustion (The Desolation of Smaug, Star Trek Into Darkness, Grown Ups 2). The Conjuring became the highest grossing horror movie in over a decade years (Signs in 2002). The Oscars had moved back into the art house with only 4 of the 9 best picture nominees (Gravity, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Captain Phillips) making the top 50 in the box office. Then there's the animated movies. Frozen was a freaking phenomenon and Despicable Me 2 quietly took over the world as well. Monsters University too.

What really marks 2013 for me though is that 2012 stole its thunder.
2013 would've been the first year ever with two $400 million movies (Catching Fire, Frozen) in the US box office if 2012 hadn't done it first (The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises).
Iron Man 3 would set the all time opening weekend box office record if The Avengers hadn't done it in 2012.
"Happy" (from Despicable Me 2) would've been the first Oscar-nominated song to reach the top 10 in the Billboard chart in a decade, except "Skyfall" (from Skyfall) did that in 2012.
I could keep going, but you get the idea.

To wind down each year as I complete them, I'm going to hand out a few superlatives or anecdotal awards to highlight some of the highs and lows of the year's top 50 box office earners.

First Seen: Identity Thief

It was the earliest released of the top 50 that year and I was there on opening weekend. I learned of the dangers of giving Melissa McCarthy too much freedom.

Last Seen: Lee Daniels' The Butler

I avoided it in theaters because it was certain to attract a lot more brunch crowd attention than I like in my matinee showings. Also, I had to see Kick-Ass 2 and The World's End instead.

Happiest Surprise: Frozen

I went into this movie expected a really solid effort from Disney, who'd had a good run of movies with titles like Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled. what I got with Frozen was vintage Disney Renaissance. There's a lot of people casting shade on it now, but that's because it's become so ubiquitous. Seeing that on opening weekend, I could tell Disney scored a big hit with this one and rightfully so.

Biggest Disappointment: Star Trek Into Darkness

I want to start by pointing out that being disappointed is not the same as hating something. It only means I didn't like it as much as I'd hoped.
Sequels didn't fare well this year. Iron Man 3 was a let down from The Avengers. Anchorman 2 confirmed that the original was as much magic trick as it was well-crafted comedy. Monsters University left me cold.
The biggest outright disappointment has to be Star Trek Into Darkness because J.J. Abrams built it up too much. The mystery of it drove the narrative going in. When it turns out that Benedict Cumberbatch is Khan after all, the franchise looks a lot more like a reboot than the boldly going where no man has gone before of the 2009 movie.

Looked Better Then: We're the Millers

This category and the next are really intended for less recent years. That said, I'm going to have to go with We're the Millers. That movie made $150 million in the box office and was somewhere between not that great and entirely forgettable. It filled a comedy void in August of that year and snuck into being notable, when it just as easily could've gone the way of The Internship.

Looks Better Now: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Faint praise. It's not as though this is slowly revealing itself to be a modern classic. This is the closest the Hobbit series got to feeling like the Lord of the Rings.

Favorite: This is the End

It's an uneven movie. It's not for everyone. It relies on a lot of penis humor. I won't deny any of that. I love the Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg writing/producing/directing team though. It's been two years since I first saw it and my enthusiasm has barely waned at all.

2nd Favorite: Frozen

This is a lovely movie, enhanced by a great experience when I first saw it, a good show I've now been to twice at Disney World inspired by it, and the fact that I don't have a 6 year old child who has made me watch it so many times that I hate it.

3rd Favorite: Gravity

It's a visual marvel that doesn't overstay its welcome at barely 90 minutes long. Few movies lose as much going from seeing in IMAX 3D to watching at home.

Honorable Mention:

Fast & Furious 6 

This series gets bigger with each installment. This time, they took down a friggin' plane. I was all-in after that.

Pacific Rim 

Pure unadulterated fun. Giant robots fighting giant monsters. What more do you need? This is an overlooked gem of 2013.

The Conjuring

Just a well made horror movie and a reminder that you don't need to use the found footage style to be scary.

Least Favorite: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

There's a lot of movies that rubbed me the wrong way in 2013. The Hangover Part III managed to engage me even less than Part II. Despite some good action, Elysium's story was rubbish. Planes is more uninspired than bad. Somehow, not even the train wreck [literally] that is The Lone Ranger is not the movie I liked the least.
That honor goes to Bad Grandpa. This isn't too surprising when I think about it. I absolutely disdain hidden camera humor. I don't like laughing at people who aren't in on the joke. And, in Bad Grandpa's case, I wasn't even impressed by the cleverness of the gags. Watching that movie was a wholly unenjoyable experience.