With Hunger Games: Catching Fire gallantly close behind, Iron Man 3 tops the year-end box office of Hollywood’s record-setting revenues.

Reports from Rentrak Corp., an entertainment industry’s global media measurement and research company, indicate an impressive financial year for Hollywood, putting the box office revenues at over $10.9 billion, a new annual record and about $90 million more than the total in 2012.

Rentrak reports revealed that the most lucrative were the franchise sequels that were released during last summer.

The feat by these flicks is heightened by the fact that within a short period of exposure, they were able to gross more than the films that started airing much earlier in the year.

Iron Man 3 is a Disney’s Marvel Studios unit said to have led the pack over the calendar year with a domestic gross of $409 million.

But The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, from Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, even though staggering behind, has the potential to surpass this record.

Rentrak’s review indicated that the movie is on track to become the top-grossing release of 2013.

According to the survey, the movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence as warrior Katniss Everdeen, has already collected more than $395 million and remains in wide release.

The top 10 movies of the year, most of which were summer releases with production budgets exceeding $100 million, were said to have accounted for about 27 percent of the total year gross.

These films, with the exception of Frozen and Gravity, were not sequels or franchise reboots.

Findings also revealed that there was a saturation point for the big-budget movies often based on comic books or older franchises.

Two of the most high-profile duds in 2013 -Walt Disney Co.’s The Lone Ranger and After Earth from Sony Pictures Entertainment, flopped on arrival, despite huge budgets and prime summer release slots.

Disney released four of the year’s top 10 movies, including Monsters University and Oz the Great and Powerful, while Warner Bros., the studio behind hits like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and We’re the Millers, collected more revenues than any other major Hollywood studio.

Warner Bros. released 19 movies this year, the second-highest of any studio behind Lions Gate, according to Box Office Mojo.
Print Friendly

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/iron-man-3-is-2013-top-grossing-hollywood-film/