Top Film Industry Stories of 2015:
#2 Universal is Practically Perfect

By Kim Hollis

January 22, 2016

This is pretty much the scene in the Universal offices all throughout 2015.

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Sometimes, everything just goes your way.

2015 was just such a time for Universal Pictures, a year that saw them place six films in the top 20 highest domestic grossers - and that’s competing with five other major studios, six if you count Lionsgate. Even more impressive, three of Universal’s top six grossing films ever were released in 2015. They didn’t achieve these lofty heights as a matter of routine, either. Every couple of weeks, the BOP staff was discussing another Universal breakout success and analyzing how they continued to defy expectations.

It all kicked off with the Valentine’s Day weekend release of Fifty Shades of Grey. Over the past few years, we’ve seen female-targeted films excel at the box office, from Sex and the City to Twilight. With its built-in book audience, Fifty Shades of Grey took advantage of its 68% female audience to debut with an absolutely massive $85.2 million. It stole the record for top February opener from The Passion of the Christ, and it did so even though reviews were pretty subpar. This audience didn’t particularly care, as they were going to pack into theaters on opening weekend regardless. Ultimately, the $40 million-budgeted film finished with $166.2 million and has a worldwide total of $570.5 million.

Only two months into the year, Universal was already setting the pace.




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When April rolled around, it was time for the studio to kick it into an unimaginable gear. Furious 7 debuted on April 3rd, and as it did it rewrote the rules for what people believed to be possible for the franchise. It opened $50 million higher than the previous film in the series, Fast & Furious 6, as it came in with $147.2 million in its first three days. It also had an almost ridiculous overseas opening of $250.5 million. Eventually, it went on to tally $353 million from domestic venues, and a gaudy $1.51 billion worldwide. It is currently the sixth biggest all-time worldwide earner - and is only in that position because Jurassic World and Star Wars would pass it later in the year. Furious 7 is a rare example of a multi-demographic film, appealing to men, women, and minorities. Yes, the film’s success can partially be attributed to Paul Walker’s death, but ultimately, the studio presented a well-received, entertaining movie that pulled all the right levers.

They could have rested on their laurels for the rest of 2015 and still called it a great year.

You probably remember Pitch Perfect as one of those “little movies that could.” It debuted with $5.1 million in 2012 before going on to leg it out to $65 million in domestic earnings. From that point, it became a hugely popular home video selection, which paved the way for Universal’s next big thing in 2015. During the weekend of May 15th, it debuted to $69.2 million, $4 million more than the original film made during its entire domestic run. Considering the tiny $29 million budget, the film didn’t really even have to do anything else before exiting theaters, but it still came in with $184.3 million domestically and $287.1 million worldwide.


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