10 Mest sóttu kvikmyndirnar í USA þetta árið

10. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!

This CGI flick was the first movie of 2008 to really make a big, lasting dent at the box office. It opened at $45,012,998 and finished with a domestic haul of $154,529,439 for what looks like a tenth-place finish for the year — although some movies still in theaters (such as Marley and Me ) could still possibly catch up.

Horton ends the year just ahead of the Sex and the City movie, which female audiences rushed to in droves to the tune of $152 million.

9. Quantum of Solace

Quantum outperformed Daniel Craig’s winning debut as James Bond in Casino Royale by a large margin. It opened to a domestic haul of $67 million and its overall domestic gross now stands at $164 million. The movie also set box office opening records abroad in the UK and elsewhere. Before Daniel Craig took over as Bond, there were people around who were questioning the future of the franchise. Not anymore. Rest assured that James Bond will be back … soon.

8. Twilight

The vampire love story opened just one week after James Bond did, and to long line-ups. Its domestic opening haul was $69 million and its overall domestic gross of $167 million.

7. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

This was the most successful of a long line of what I call “nice clean movies” that dominated the fall schedule (including Beverly Hills Chihuahua and High School Musical 3). Its domestic haul was $174,862,381 and its $63 million opening weekend was way ahead of the original’s $47 million opening haul.

6. Kung Fu Panda

This turned out to be a big year at the box office for Paramount/DreamWorks, which not only hit it big again with the Madagascar animals but scored a hit with Jack Black voicing Kung Fu Panda. This flick’s domestic haul was $215 million after a $60 million opening.

5. WALL-E

This was the last of a long line of passion projects for PIXAR — and arguably its best. It opened to $63 million and its haul for the year stands at $223 million smackeroos. Not bad for a robot.

4. Hancock

Hancock was the latest Independence Day blockbuster to star Will Smith — and as it turned out, it may well be the last in a string of eight consecutive $100-million domestic hits in a row for him if Seven Pounds doesn’t start doing better business in the next couple of weeks. Hancock made almost $228 million.

3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I think the bigger story here is the fact that this movie finished number three for the year, and not first place where people thought it would finish before the summer started. A lot of the Indiana Jones die-hard fans were disappointed by the movie, though, and that might have been enough to stop this movie from shattering the record books. In the end, the box office was still nothing to sneeze at: a $100 million opening for a domestic haul of $317 million dollars. A hit is a hit is a hit.

2. Iron Man

Iron Man was a breath of fresh air for superhero fans and the box office story of the year before The Dark Knight showed up. This action-packed feature, starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role, won raves from critics and kicked off the summer movie season with a massive $98 million opening. It was first at the box office for two weeks in a row and its domestic gross stands at $318 million.

Now — drum roll, please.

1. The Dark Knight

The domestic haul for The Dark Knight stands at $530 million as of this writing and if you throw in the international markets, the overall haul stands at almost one billion dollars! It’s also not done making money: this flick is going to be re-released wide in theaters in January for one last shot at reaching Titanic’s $600 million record. Right now The Dark Knight stands as the number two box office hit of all time, ahead even of Star Wars. Here’s a look at the records that The Dark Knight set this year:

• Best opening weekend ever: $158 million
• Widest domestic release ever: 4366 theaters
• Best opening day/best Friday gross ever: $67 million
• Top 4-Day Opening Gross: $182,904,796
• Top 5-Day Opening Gross: $203,773,518
• Fastest Movie to reach $200 Million (five days)
• Fastest Movie to reach $300 Million (ten days)
• Fastest Movie to reach $400 Million (18 days)
• Four weeks at Number One at the box office
• Only the second movie in history to reach $500 Million (along with Titanic) and the fastest to do so (45 days)