2014 Box Office Recap! The Biggest Hits And Flops! Lego Movie! Maleficent! Captain America! And More!

With 2014 coming to a close, let’s take a look at the box office winners and losers. The overall box office numbers were definitely down this year. 2013’s top three films each made over $400 million, while 2014 had zero in that range.

Still, the top ten winners listed below should have no complaints.

Here are the top ten highest grossing films of 2014 (domestic only):

1 Guardians of the Galaxy $332,862,030
2 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 $306,719,406
3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier $259,766,572
4 The LEGO Movie $257,760,692
5 Transformers: Age of Extinction $245,439,076
6 Maleficent $241,410,378
7 X-Men: Days of Future Past $233,921,534
8 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes $208,545,589
9 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $202,853,933
10 Godzilla (2014) $200,676,069

What did we learn from this?

Betting all your action chips on an unknown, chubby television actor can pay off big time; everybody loves LEGOs; Superheroes rule; CGI characters are here to stay; if you have enough huge explosions then no plot is necessary; and Angelina Jolie can do no wrong.

And now for the flip side. Where there’s a hit, there’s a flop. While I enjoyed a few of these flicks, the numbers don’t lie. The following are the top ten biggest box office bombs of 2014:

10. Hercules (starring The Rock)
Budget – $100M
Gross – $72.6M
Loss – $27.4M

9. I, Frankenstein
Budget – $65M
Gross – $19M
Loss – $46M

8. A Winter’s Tale
Budget – $60M
Gross – $12.6M
Loss – $47.4M

7. The Expendables 3
Budget – $90M
Gross – $39M
Loss- $51M

6. The Legend of Hercules
Budget – $70M
Gross – $18.M
Loss – $51.2M

5. Sin City a Dame to Kill For
Budget – $65M
Gross – $13.7M
Loss – $51.3M

4. The Penguins of Madagascar
Budget – $132M
Gross – $70.9M
Loss – $61.1M

3. Pompeii
Budget – $100M
Gross – $23.2M
Loss – $76.8M

2. Transcendence
Budget – $100M
Gross – $23M
Loss – $77M

1. Edge of Tomorrow
Budget – $178 million
Domestic gross – $100 million
Loss – $78 million

What did we learned from this? Stop making movies about Hercules; Johnny Depp’s films only make money when he’s in weird makeup; Russell Crowe hasn’t had a hit in 7 years; Tom Cruise hasn’t had a hit in 4 years; animated movies are not guaranteed hits; and Arnold Schwarzenegger needs to stop making action movies, or any movies for that matter.

Better luck next year Hollywood!