I was talking to the husband of my wife's best friend about movies, and he was trying to convince me that Paranormal Activity deserved more acclaim and praise because of all the money it made compared to how much it cost. Cripes, not only is that argument shallow and void of any appreciation of artistic integrity, but he was actually trying to tell me I was wrong for not liking it.
I recently checked out the box office for this year:
http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2013
I enjoy the fact that a decent movie like The Hunger Games is on top of that list, and family friendly material always makes more at the box office, so Monsters University, Frozen, and Despicable Me 2 are totally expected to be there. The usual fodder of Iron Man, Man of Steel, Hobbit, Thor etc. are always up there because they are crowd pleasers…so I regularly ignore the top of the list. I do however check further down the list to see how much the crap films make compared to the great films. Here's an example:
48. Safe Haven-$71,349,120
62. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters-$55,703,475
vs.
70. 12 Years A Slave-$46,531,274
84. Blue Jasmine-$33,242,114
And the problem is that those 2 horribly crap movies above had double the amount of screens to generate revenue. But still, people often miss brilliant films in favor of watching crap…and not just "I'm a snooty film snob who can't enjoy anything that isn't an art house film" definition of crap. I'm talking Grownups 2. Oh yeah, that gem made $133,668,525. People suck and have horrible taste. /end rant.