1. Institution Research
Top Grossing Psychological Thrillers of the 2000s
From these statistics we see that
Comedy is the highest grossing genre,
but Thriller is 5th in the list making
average gross above 15 billion. I think
that Comedy will be the highest
grossing, as there seems t be more
comedy films being released than any
other, so they will make more money. I
think there is more ‘desire creation’ for
comedy films than Thriller, and not
many thrillers receive that much ‘hype’
rather than any other genre.
These are the statistics of the top grossing
Movie Year Gross psychological thrillers of the 2000s. It seems by
this chart that Vanilla Sky made in 2001 made the
Memento 2001 $25.5 million
most money, so this makes us think that the newer
Vanilla Sky 2001 $100.6 million thriller as not as popular and there is loads of
Insomnia 2002 $67.3 million films being released at the same time by other
genres in other words Comedy, Adventure and
Paycheck 2003 $53.8 million Drama are the top three genres and therefore
The Butterfly Effect 2004 $57.9 million dominate the film industry (Oligopoly). Within
Wicker Park 2004 $12.4 million
these dominating genres there is certain films that
have made more money such as Insomnia,
Stay 2005 $3.6 million Paycheck and The Butterfly Effect. These films
Premonition 2007 $47.8 million were all released before 2006, this seems to show
that all of these films were ‘original’ and are not
The Eye 2008 $31.4 million
remakes of previous films that have already been
Push 2009 $31.8 million made and released.
The Box 2009 $15.1 million
Inflation-
Year Gross Tickets Sold Adjusted Top-Grossing Movie Gross that Year
Gross
1995 $329,212,569 75,681,051 $599,393,924 Se7en $87,046,142
1996 $281,943,466 63,788,114 $505,201,863 Executive Decision $56,472,312
1997 $645,507,898 140,633,530 $1,113,817,558 Titanic $157,467,971
1998 $785,740,347 167,535,253 $1,326,879,204 Titanic $443,319,081
1999 $574,022,658 112,996,584 $894,932,945 The Sixth Sense $276,386,495
2000 $569,881,367 105,729,382 $837,376,705 What Lies Beneath $155,370,362
2001 $620,909,355 109,701,300 $868,834,296 Ocean's Eleven $136,996,174
2002 $977,240,795 168,199,791 $1,332,142,345 Signs $227,535,166
2003 $382,824,712 63,486,685 $502,814,545 The Recruit $52,784,696
2004 $801,450,475 129,058,046 $1,022,139,724 The Bourne Supremacy $176,049,130
2005 $444,985,038 69,420,441 $549,809,893 Flightplan $89,160,336
2006 $742,127,938 113,301,974 $897,351,634 The Da Vinci Code $217,536,138
2007 $824,393,036 119,824,571 $949,010,602 The Bourne Ultimatum $227,471,070
2008 $779,942,619 108,627,100 $860,326,632 Eagle Eye $101,401,695
2009 $965,341,597 128,712,216 $1,019,400,751 Taken $145,000,989
2010 $946,250,434 119,930,349 $949,848,364 Inception $292,568,851
2011 $1,012,686,757 127,703,244 $1,011,409,692 Super 8 $127,004,179
2012 $1,500,674,664 191,494,209 $1,516,634,135 The Hunger Games $408,010,692
2. This chart shows the top grossing thriller films of each year, starting at Se7en making 87 million.
There aren’t any clear themes in this chart as the money made is up and down and there is no clear
rise or drop in ticket sales. The top-grossing thriller of all time is Titanic, although it is not a
psychological thriller, it still dominates the industry.
Our Studio
For out studio we have chosen to study the institution of Sony Pictures. As they have had more
thrillers, and they seem to make the most money from there releases. One of their most popular and
highest ranked thrillers was The Da Vinci Code released in 2006, this was a highlight film for thriller
watches and made $217,536,138 total gross. This is a high figure for a thriller considering that other
genres dominate the industry more, i.e. Drama, Comedy, but in this case Adventure.
The sequel to The Da Vinci Code was Angels & Demons; this was the next ranked thriller from the
producers of Sony Pictures. I think this made so much money because the audiences knew that it was
the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, and that was why it made so much money 4 years later.
I think that the return for all ready existing films is high, and this gives us the inspiration to create a
good opening sequence. However, our chosen studio is not the most popular released label. Walt
Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros dominate the thriller industry, but we chosen Sony as we think
although the figures do not match our genre, they have a higher return on films.
Walt Disney and Paramount have created some of the highest grossing thrillers, with The Sixth Sense
and Titanic. Even though these have had made the most money, I prefer Sony as they have had higher
returns on other film outside of the thriller genre.
