TORONTO — Audiences flocked to cinemas in 2013 to see familiar characters in sequels, prequels and reboots.
In fact, only one of the 10 top-grossing films in the U.S. and Canada this year tells an original story. (All figures compiled prior to the opening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.)
The out-of-this-world Gravity, written by Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón, raked in $253 million domestically to claim the No. 6 spot.
The year’s top-grossing flick was Iron Man 3, with $409 million. It is followed by Despicable Me 2 ($367 million), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($357 million so far), Man of Steel ($291 million) and Monsters University ($268 million).
Behind Gravity are Fast & Furious 6 ($239 million), Oz The Great and Powerful ($235 million), Star Trek Into Darkness ($229 million) and World War Z ($202 million).
Not all familiar tales were hits, though. The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp, was an $89 million disappointment.
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It was a good year for George Clooney and Brad Pitt — both had their biggest-ever box office hits (Gravity and World War Z respectively).
But it was a not-so-good year for Canada’s two Ryans.
Ryan Gosling’s Gangster Squad was a $46 million dud, The Place Beyond the Pines earned a paltry $21 million and Only God Forgives flopped with less than $1 million.
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Ryan Reynolds was DOA with R.I.P.D. ($34 million), his only live-action movie of the year.
Fellow Canadian Jim Carrey’s two offerings — The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Kick-Ass 2 — flopped with $23 million and $29 million respectively.
Also hoping to put 2013 behind them are Robert DeNiro, Naomi Watts and Barbra Streisand.
DeNiro’s four movies earned a combined $120 million at the box office. Watts — who earned an Oscar nomination for The Impossible last year — was in three stinkers in 2013 (Diana, Adore and Movie 43). And Streisand’s comedy The Guilt Trip made a measly $37 million — her worst flick since 1987’s Nuts.
Vince Vaughn disappointed with The Internship ($45 million) and Delivery Man ($28 million).
Despite an aggressive promotional push, Will Smith experienced his biggest dud since 2001’s Ali with After Earth. The apocalyptic fantasy, co-starring his son Jaden Smith, earned only $60.5 million.
The Wikipedia generation shunned biopics in 2013, including The Fifth Estate ($3.3 million), Jobs ($16 million), Winnie Mandela ($80,000), Lovelace ($356,000) and Diana ($335,000).
Old dudes weren’t big draws, either. Not only did Last Vegas — where the average age of its four leading men is 70 — managed only $61 million. Arnold Schwarzenegger tanked with Escape Plan ($25 million) and The Last Stand ($12 million); Sylvester Stallone was in Escape Plan and the $9 million flop Bullet to the Head; and Bruce Willis had his worst turn as John McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard, which made only $67 million while Red 2 earned a mere $53 million.
So how well did movies made in Canada — where producers save millions thanks to tax breaks, exchange rates and other incentives — do at the box office in 2013?
Nine flicks shot in Hollywood North made it on the list of the year’s 50 top-grossing movies.
Parts of Man of Steel were shot in B.C. and it ended up as the No. 4 movie of the year. The Toronto-shot Pacific Rim was No. 28 with $102 million; Elysium, partly filmed in Vancouver, was No. 33 with $93 million; Montreal-made White House Down was No. 41 with $73 million; made-in-Toronto Mama was No. 42 with $72 million; The Smurfs 2, mostly filmed in Montreal, was No. 44 with $71 million; Toronto-shot The Best Man Holiday was No. 45 with $69 million; Vancouver-made Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters was No. 46 with $68 million; and the made-in-Montreal Warm Bodies was No. 48 with $66 million.
Some of the homegrown disappointments included the made-in-Ontario flicks Carrie ($35 million), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones ($31 million) and Kick-Ass 2 ($29 million).
A pair of Canadian directors were behind some fairly successful movies in 2013. David Soren’s animated Turbo earned a decent $83 million and Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners made more than $61 million. They are both ahead of Shawn Levy’s The Internship ($45 million) and Ken Scott’s Delivery Man, ($28 million) — which both starred Vince Vaughn.
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