1) The top 10 highest grossing films of all time at the domestic box office are led by Avatar at $760.5 million. Most are big budget blockbusters in genres like sci-fi, superhero, and animated films. 2) Titanic stands out as the sole romance/disaster film in the top 10 and has the most unique genre compared to the others. 3) Horror films are less successful than other genres, with Jaws ranked at #54, but remakes of classic horror films have proven lucrative despite mixed reviews. Franchises like Saw and remakes are a safer bet than original horror.

1. Institution Research<br />ALL TIME DOMESTIC GROSS<br />#Movie (Distributor)Release DateGross1Avatar (Fox)Dec 18, 2009$760,507,6252Titanic (Paramount)Dec 19, 1997$600,788,7263The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.)Jul 18, 2008$533,345,3954Star Wars (Fox)May 25, 1977$460,998,8825Shrek 2 (DreamWorks)May 19, 2004$441,226,4146E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Universal)Jun 11, 1982$435,110,8907Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (Fox)May 19, 1999$431,088,4358Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Disney)Jul 07, 2006$423,315,1999Toy Story 3 (Disney)Jun 18, 2010$415,004,88010Spider-Man (Sony / Columbia)May 03, 2002$403,706,983<br />Genre and possible trends<br />Avatar Science FictionTitanic Romance and disasterThe Dark knight SuperheroStar Wars (IV) Space OperaShrek 2 Computer animated comedy/family<br />E.T. Science FictionStar Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom MenaceSpace OperaPirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Adventure FantasyToy Story 3 Computer Animated comedy/family<br />Spider-man Superhero<br />Titanic stands out the most as it is the only romance and disaster film in the top 10. It is also the only film whose genre that doesn’t share any similarities with any other films whereas Spider-man can possibly fall into the adventure fantasy genre category. Horror genre films do not appear once in the top 10, the best grossing horror film of all time is actually 1975 film Jaws, which ranks at 54. Science Fiction appears to be the most successful genre with Avatar and E.T. making $1,195,618,515 combined.<br />Horror at the Box Office<br />The Saw franchise is the most successful with the horror film industry taking in a total of $848 million, which will average out at $121 million per film. Horror films are not as successful as they used to be like jaws, as the most recent successful horror film at the box office was paranormal activity in 2009 bringing in a gross of $196,681,656. In 2010 horror films did worse at the box office, as paranormal activity 2 was the most successful but ranked in at mediocre 37. <br />How To ensure a good return<br />This decade remakes of famous horror movies particularly slasher films in the second half of the decade have proved very successful at the box office despite mixed reviews from critics. For example arguably he trend started with the Texas chainsaw massacre remake in 2003. Which with a budget of less than $10,000,000 brought in a return of over $100,000,000. One year later a remake of zombie masterpiece dawn of the dead was released which again proved successful and again bringing in a return of over $100,000,000. However a remake in 2007 of horror classic Halloween did well at the box office bringing in a gross of $80,000,000 received very critical review at times. In 2009 another horror classic Friday the 13th was remade which was again successful but received mixed reviews.<br />Another way to ensure a good return is sequels. Horror films often gain a cult following and if a sequel is released people will pay to see it despite the likelihood it wont be as good as its predecessor. Saw for example, saw 3 was the most successful yet the continued to make 4 more movies which were heavily criticised by some critics but has gone on to become the most successful horror franchise of all time. In the Friday the 13th franchise its eleventh film (23 years after the original) proved the most successful (although it is a crossover) “Freddy Vs Jason”. This film has brought in $114,908,830, which is twice as much as the first film and the most successful horror of its decade.<br />Who tends to produce and distribute horrors?<br />In the early success of horror films in the 70s and early 80s most horror films were produced independently and have to this day remained a cult classics and the most successful. These films include the original Halloween, Texas chainsaw massacre. To this day growing distributors makes some of the most successful films and independent filmmakers such as the first saw film and paranormal activity. In the 00’s Michael bay has been responsible for producing 4 significant and successful remakes Texas chainsaw massacre, Amityville horror, Friday the 13th and nightmare on elm street. <br />