I just took a look at the feature films released in 2018 and ranked by popularity according to IMDb. It is an interesting list, in that it shows that superhero movies are still very dominant, and that there are a lot of releases that I have never heard about.
I have looked at the top-100 movies, and marked the list with following:
Normal text – movie I have heard about, and which I haven’t watched, but might watch
Blod text – movie I have watched (‘-‘ after the movie indicates I didn’t like it, ‘+’ indicates I liked it)
Italic text – movie I haven’t heard about
Strikethrough – movies I don’t want to watch
A * after a title indicates that I plan on watching that movie.
1. Aquaman (-)
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse *
3. Bumblebee
4. Bird Box
5. Mary Poppins Returns
6. Roma
7. Mortal Engines *
8. Creed II
9. The Mule
10. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
I have only seen one movie in the top 10, and didn’t like it. The rest of the movies I either plan on watching, or are fine with watching. The ones I am least interested in watching are Creed II and the Mule (which i just read about on IMDb).
11. Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
12. Venom *
13. Welcome to Marwen
14. Zero (III)
15. Bohemian Rhapsody *
16. A Simple Favor
17. Vice (I)
18. The House That Jack Built
19. Dumplin’
20. Bad Times at the El Royale
21. Grinchen
22. The Favourite
23. The Christmas Chronicles
24. Ralph Breaks the Internet *
25. Mary Queen of Scots
I am doing decidedly worse on the next 15. Here there were quite a few I hadn’t even heard about, and when looking at them, I have absolutely no interest in seeing them. I guess that the algorithms that pushes movies on me must be working.
26. The Predator *
27. Avengers: Infinity War (+)
28. A Star Is Born
29. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
30. Hunter Killer
31. Robin Hood (I)
32. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
33. White Boy Rick
34. First Man
35. Deadpool 2 (+)
36. Ready Player One (-)
37. Peppermint
38. Smallfoot
39. Crazy Rich Asians
40. Widows
41. The Sisters Brothers
42. Green Book
43. Holmes & Watson
44. The House with a Clock in Its Walls
45. Second Act
46. The Equalizer 2
47. Halloween (I)
48. The Meg
49. Blockers
50. Backtrace
There are a lot of movies in place 26 to 50 that I hadn’t heard about, and a lot of movies that I don’t particularly care to see, and a few that I actively don’t want to see. I will say that the only movie on the list that makes me angry is Blockers, which I hadn’t heard about before looking at this list. It is a movie about 3 fathers trying to block their daughters from loosing their viginity on prom night. There are so many things problematic with this premise, that I am not going into it, but it definitely makes for a movie that I won’t watch.
I have indicated that I don’t want to see The Meg, but I might do it as part of a bad movie night.
51. Andhadhun
52. BlacKkKlansman
53. Incredibles 2
54. Black Panther (+)
55. Cold War
56. Dragon Ball Super: Broly
57. A Quiet Place (+)
58. The Little Mermaid
59. The Nun
60. Instant Family
61. Ant-Man and the Wasp *
62. Under the Silver Lake
63. Destroyer
64. Hereditary
65. Mile 22
66. Outlaw King
67. Night School
68. Searching (III)
69. Vox Lux
70. Overlord
71. Solo: A Star Wars Story *
72. Tomb Raider (+)
73. Assassination Nation *
74. The Happytime Murders
75. The Guilty
76. Suspiria (I)
77. Johnny English Strikes Again
78. Ben Is Back
79. Ocean’s Eight
80. On the Basis of Sex *
81. Annihilation *
82. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (-)
83. K.G.F: Chapter 1
84. If Beale Street Could Talk
85. Colette (I) *
86. Alpha
87. The Possession of Hannah Grace
88. Christopher Robin
89. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms *
90. 2.0 *
91. Life Itself
92. Mandy (I)
93. Rampage (-)
94. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
95. Beautiful Boy
96. The Princess Switch
97. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
98. Sorry to Bother You
99. Red Sparrow
100. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Looking at this list, it is surprising to me how many I hadn’t heard about before, but I guess this is due to using the internet as my newssource, including for stuff like movie trailers.
I’m baffled by this list.
It purports to list in order of “Popularity”. It does not, however, define “Popularity”, at least in any obvious way.
I can tell you what “Popularity”, in this context, is NOT.
It is not “Number of votes”. That list has a predictable order: Infinity War, Black Panther, Deadpool 2, A Quiet Place, Mission Impossible:Fallout, Annihilation, Venom, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Solo. This looks like a realistic top ten for the year.
It is not “US Box Office”, because that’s very similar: Black Panther, Infinity War, Incredibles 2, Jurassic World, Deadpool 2, The Grinch, Mission Impossible, Ant Man and the Wasp, Solo and Venom.
It is not “IMDb rating”, because the top 50 of those are entirely films I’ve never heard of, hardly any of which have more than fifty ratings (for comparison, Infinity War has been rated over half a million times). Half a dozen people giving you five stars and one giving you four puts you at the top of this list.
“Popularity”, I suspect, is highly time based and means what people are talking about or watching RIGHT NOW, hence Aquaman at the top, since it’s out currently. It’s the only possible way a middling DC effort is beating ANYTHING by Marvel, much less the juggernaut that is the buildup and aftermath of Infinity War.
It will also go some way to explaining the obscurer members of the list.
Question from the peanut gallery: is the plot of Aquaman exactly the same as the plot of Black Panther, or did the trailers just make it look that way?
I hadn’t thought about it before, but there are definitely a lot of similarities.
Yeah, it is hard to figure out what they mean, and I think you are probably right in your guess.
I watched the Aqua’d Man. It was very festive. Apparently, a massive hit in China. That reminds me of something from the nearly forgotten tiniest years of my childhood – The Man From Atlantis, starring TV’s Patrick Duffy. That was also about a fish dude and popular in China. Also that Jason Momoa’s breakout performance was on Stargate: Atlantis.