The people have spoken: Three-quels, comic books, and ‘Ratatouille’ top box office, with comedy the overall big winner.

By Robin Rowe

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 12/16/07 – When it comes to popularity, the most reliable measure of a film’s success isn’t what critics say and isn’t what awards it wins. It’s how much people paid to see it. We’re all voting for the best movies with our wallets. What are the most popular movies of 2007 and why? What do people really like to watch?

Sequels and comic book adaptations dominate 2007. Three-quels ‘Spider-Man 3’, ‘Pirates 3’, and ‘Shrek the Third’ took the top thee spots in 2007 opening weekend box office. Opening weekend reveals what audiences expect to be good, while overall box office shows staying power. Eight of the top ten openers held on for top ten gross. ‘Fantastic Four 2’ dropped to 15^th and ‘Ghost Rider’ fell to 21^st place, while ‘Ratatouille’ and ‘Wild Hogs’ moved up into the top ten grosses. ‘Ratatouille’ is the only original screenplay to make it into the top ten 2007 box office. (See related chart)

But, what about the overall picture beyond the top ten?

Comedy, as usual, was the overall king of the box office. Dramas win Academy Awards, but funny is money. With a U.S. box office of $2.5B, 154 comedies were more popular with audiences than any other genre. The sub-genre of romantic comedy performed essentially the same as other comedies (37 for $618M). ‘Knocked-Up’ reached 11^th place in overall U.S. grosses. However, the numbers show an appetite for adventure (27 for $1.8B) and action films (34 for $1.5B). Although adventure and action films average high grosses per film, many have big budgets. Dramas came in fourth in popularity at $1.1B, but with 216 films were what the most filmmakers made.

Thrillers did not thrill audiences in 2007, with 48 films drawing $555M. Westerns showed similar performance with 5 films and $59M, but that was due to ‘3:10 to Yuma’, a Western remake, that came in at 39^th with $54M. For all the hype about the horror market, it only saw $461M with 28 features released. ‘1408’, ‘Saw IV’ and ‘Halloween’ were the winners. Only a handful of musicals were released (e.g., ‘Hairspray’, ‘Across the Universe’), but audience appetite for them is high with 9 films drawing $222M (plus romantic comedy ‘Enchanted’ which could be classified as a musical.) Documentaries continue to have a rough time with 94 films drawing $68M. Michael Moore’s ‘Sicko’ came in at 84^th with $24M.

When looking at popularity by MPAA rating, PG-13 is the clear winner with 124 movies grossing $4B. That outperformed 202 R-rated movies that grossed $2.2B. ‘Ratatouille’ was the only movie with a G rating to place in the top ten. ‘300’ was the only movie with an R rating to place in the top ten. If you’re curious what the only picture released in 2007 with NC-17 was, that’s ‘Lust, Caution’ with $4M.

U.S. DVD sales are as significant financially as U.S. box office. The DVD numbers reveal two big winners: ‘Transformers’ and ‘300’. ‘Ratatouille’ is coming on strong, selling $100M in DVDs in its first month of release. ‘Knocked Up’ is doing well with $84M. Direct-to-DVD ‘Cinderella III’ came in with a respectable $67M. Many 2007 DVD bestsellers don’t count as such because they’re actually 2006 movies. DVDs traditionally come out after theatrical release. In fact, ‘Peter Pan’ from 1953 did well in DVD this year with $67M.

Before Christmas, total box office grosses for 2007 stand at $8.4B with 1.3B tickets sold at an average price of $6.55. The total for 2006 was $9.3B. Ten distributors did 90% of the business with 188 films. That’s only eight distributors when you consider that New Line is part of Warner Bros. and Screen Gems is part of Sony. Paramount Pictures led the way, setting sales records while releasing 18 films grossing $1.3B. Their acquisition of DreamWorks SKG, in particular ‘Transformers’, made a significant impact.

For those bemoaning that it seems like there’s nothing original to watch, 310 out of 590 films were based on original stories. However, audiences vastly preferred adaptations, which grossed $5.5B compared to $2.9B for originals. Adaptations of comic books and graphic novels look huge at $420M, but there were only four titles released. Sequels (27 for $1.9B) were more popular than remakes (14 for $395M). Movies based on books or short stories did well (78 for $1.5B). Movies based on TV stories did well (8 for $575M). Real life stories were less appealing (135 for $484M). Digital animation took 13% of the market with 14 films and $1.1B.

The People have spoken. Give us comedy, adventure or action films that are rated PG-13. And, we love adaptations, preferably sequels. And, throw in some musicals. Disagree? Vote with your wallet.

See related story for more numbers

Robin Rowe is film critic for Hollywood Today and a partner in MovieEditor.com.