Michael Bay's Transformers 4 may have been beaten at the US box office in 2014 - but it's the 2014 movie that's made the biggest profit.
NewsWell here's some cheery news. Just because a film has topped the box office, or raked in what seems to be lots of cash, it doesn't necessarily result in profit at the end of it. Case in point: The Amazing Spider-Man 2may have clawed in just over $700m at the global box office, but the high production and marketing bill for the film means its profit, thus far, is quite low (currently standing at around the $70m mark).
Deadline has compiled an intriguing chart, then, which plots the revenues of 2014's movies across their box office, home entertainment, TV, merchandise and non-US takings. It's then set those against production costs, residuals, the releasing bill and such like, and reckons it's worked out what the most profitable movies of last year are.
Clearly there's an element of guesswork here. For instance, studios are increasingly reluctant to share how much it cost to make individual movies, yet alone market them. Furthermore, it's not always clear how the participant bill lands: who gets what percentage of the gross is something of a mystery. And then, all of the films here will keep making money over the coming years, through an assortment of home formats. Yet its chart is still an interesting indicator, one that shows the importance of non-US revenue to a modern day blockbuster.
For, in spite of its US gross being notably down on the previous installment, it's Michael Bay's Transformers: Age Of Extinction that's come out on top. Its US total was $245m, but thanks in no small part to a huge haul in China (where the film grossed a staggering $300m alone), Transformers 4 banked $1.091bn at the box office alone. And, crucially for Paramount, a profit of $250.155m.
The top 10 chart reads thus:
1. Transformers: Age Of Extinction: $250.155m
2. American Sniper: $242.58m
3. The LEGO Movie: $229.008m
4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: $211.609m
5. Guardians Of The Galaxy: $204.2m
6. Maleficent: $190.77m
7. Big Hero 6: $187.339m
8. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes: $182.179m
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: $166.224m
10. 22 Jump Street: $144.476m
Rounding off the top 20 are films such as Neighbors, theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, Divergent, and Gone Girl. The full chart, and detailed numbers, can be found at Deadline. It goes some way to explaining how Transformers 5and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 got such a quick greenlight...
See also:are we responsible for the cinema we get?
