‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay’ Passed ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ to Become the Biggest Movie of 2014
Sorry, Star-Lord. Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ was just passed by ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay’ as the highest grossing film of 2014. And, making that feat all the more impressive? ‘Mockingjay’ reached that mark in just 62 days, without the help of 3D or IMAX.
With $333,180,638, ‘Mockingjay’ is now the biggest movie of 2014, just barely inching by ‘Guardians’ at $333,172,112. While that’s a very slim margin ($8,526 by our estimations), ‘Mockingjay’ is still playing in 1,221 theaters and will still be padding its totals for weeks to come. (Oddly, though ‘Guardians is now available on DVD and Blu-ray, it is still playing in 65 theaters nationwide, but won’t be enough to catch Katniss.)
If this story feels familiar, it should. Just last year, following a December surge, ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ caught, um, fire and passed another Marvel movie, ‘Iron Man 3’, as the highest grossing movie of 2013. But, just because it’s familiar, doesn’t make it any less remarkable. In fact, it feels even more so.
Prior to ‘Catching Fire’, the last female-led movie to top the yearly box-office chart was ‘The Sound of Music’ in 1959. Now, a female-led movie has reached that mark in two straight years. And, as alluded to above, it’s the only movie in last year's top 10 that wasn’t either in 3D or IMAX.
We’d like to think that this would mean we’re making bigger strides towards gender equality in big-budget movies, but only one other film in the 2014 top 10 was led by a female (Angelina Jolie in ‘Maleficent’). The good news is that Marvel and Warner Bros. both have female-led superhero films scheduled (‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Captain Marvel’) and later this summer, Melissa McCarthy stars in a spy movie. And speaking of the latter, they’re planning an all-female ‘Ghostbusters’ movie.
These are all certainly steps in the right direction, but it may take a few more years of this trend before we really start to taste the fruits of this labor. Luckily, ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2’ opens next September and will certainly give ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ and ‘Avengers 2’ a run for their money.