The possibility of travelling to the moon had long invigorated the dreams of storytellers.
On July 16th 1969 (50 year ago), Apollo 11 carrying three astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins began its flight to the moon. The historic journey to the moon – which made fantasy real, opened a new frontier for Hollywood films. It was a giant leap not just for mankind, but for filmmakers alike.
With the landing on the moon invigorating the dreams of storytellers, many of the foremost filmmakers (then coming of age) turned to space. George Lucas debuted Star Wars in 1977, the same year Steven Spielberg released Close Encounters of the Third Kind, followed by Ridley Scott’s Alien two years later.
Since then there have been numerous space themed Hollywood movies that has done relatively well at worldwide box office:
Star Wars franchise – US$9,307,186,202
Star Trek franchise – US$2,267,036,257
Avatar (2009) – US$2,789,705,275
Gravity (2013) – US$693,698,673
Interstellar (2014) – US$666,379,375
The Martian (2015) – US$655,271,443
First Man (2018) – US$105,212,037
Fun Fact – After The Martian, NASA had one of the largest recruiting application pools that they’ve ever had for the astronaut programme.
Upcoming Hollywood space movies in 2019 include:
Ad Astra
Release Date – 19th September 2019
Director – James Gray
Starring – Brad Pitt, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Release Date – 19th December 2019
Director – J.J. Abrams
Starring – Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver and Lupita Nyong’o
Bollywood joins this epic journey with the release of its first space movie this year – coinciding with the 73rd Independence Day of India:
Mission Mangal (Hindi)
Release Date – 15th August 2019
Director – Jagan Shakti
Starring – Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu and Vidya Balan
For us audiences, we go to the movies to escape our personal disappointments, dramas and emotional dissonances suddenly seem far more distant and diffused, and you can’t get any farther away than deep in space. It’s that dreamlike, otherworldly, heavenly, uncanny feeling that makes us gravitate toward space-themed screens, again and again.
For advertisers, here’s your chance to target Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and space-loving audiences over Q3 and Q4 2019. Contact us for cinema advertising opportunities alongside these movies.
Sources: Gulf News, Space.com, The Numbers, IMDB and YouTube
Avengers: Endgame marks the culmination of what is arguably Hollywood’s greatest ever storyline, one which began with the release of Iron Man more than a decade ago and has captured the imagination of a generation ever since. This blockbuster has broken several records in the past few months which include – the highest-grossing worldwide opening weekend, highest admissions in the UAE, highest trailer views within 24 hours and the longest runtime in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
The unprecedented anticipation surrounding this film has led to exceptional box office numbers.
Highest-Grossing Worldwide Opening Weekend
As announced by Disney, Avengers: Endgame pulled in an estimated $1.2 billion in worldwide box office in its opening weekend – effortlessly smashing the record of $640.5 million done by Avengers: Infinity War which released last year. The figure makes this star-studded movie the first film in history to surpass $1 billion in ticket sales in its debut weekend – creating a new benchmark in the world of cinema.
Highest UAE Admissions
With over 485k admissions, Avengers: Endgame broke records in the UAE for having the highest admissions in the first four days since its release (Wednesday 24th April – Saturday 27th April 2019), beating the record held by The Fate of the Furious (2017) by 39%.
Last year, Avengers: Infinity War ran for a total of 23 weeks in the UAE and did over 730,00 admissions, making it the No. 1 movie in UAE’s ‘Top 10 Movies of 2017’. Avengers: Endgame is most likely to garner a larger lifetime admission figure of close to 750k admissions in the UAE.
As per Gulf News, a Disney source confirmed that Avengers: Endgame released across 300 screens and has collected Dh26.4 million since its opening day. A well-placed UAE cinema source also stated that the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe recorded well over 500k admissions across the first five days of its screening, becoming the biggest film to ever release in the country.
As of May 7th 2019, the movie has done over Dh40 million at UAE box office.
VOX Cinemas has also confirmed Endgame’s record run since its opening. As per a spokesperson from VOX, “Avengers: Endgame broke our record for advance ticket sales, more than doubling the number of tickets sold in our previous record for the film Baahubali 2. The movie contributed [towards] 80 per cent of the three-day weekend box office and the highest recorded admissions across VOX Cinemas on 26th April 2019.”
Reel Cinemas reported a ‘record-shattering’ opening weekend with the release of Avengers: Endgame, adding that it had doubled its box-office results over its prequal – which took six days to reach the same collection.
VOX Cinemas and Reel Cinemas, together with other cinema exhibitors across the Middle East – such as AMC Cinemas (KSA), screened the movie throughout the day (on a 24-hour basis) during the opening weekend to match the demand of ticket sales.
In addition to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, VOX Cinemas also confirmed that the film broke records in Muscat (Oman) and Kuwait.
Highest Trailer Views
According to Disney, the first official trailer of Avengers: Endgame – released on December 7th 2018, is the most viewed trailer across 24 hours in movie history with over 289 million views (tabulated across multiple platforms – YouTube, Facebook and Twitter). This anticipated trailer surpassed previous records set by Avengers: Infinity War of 230 million views and The Lion King teaser which racked up 224.6 million views.
Longest Runtime in the MCU
While most MCU movies are over two hours long, Avengers: Endgame is the first installment to cross the three-hours threshold with a runtime of 3 hours and 2 minutes – 22 minutes longer than Avengers: Infinity War.
In 2018, not only did Avengers: Infinity War top the worldwide box office, but it was also the only movie to hit more than the $2 Billion mark in worldwide box office revenue of 2018 – making it the fourth highest grossing movie of all time after Avatar (2009), Titanic (1997) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Avengers: Endgame is forecasted to be an even bigger hit than its prequel, and moreover, it has a chance of becoming the highest-grossing film of all time – on pace to dethrone Avatar.
Avengers: Endgame is expected to gather momentum as one of the most successful movies in history with fans already booking to watch the movie for the second time round.
Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films:
Spider-Man: Far from Home – 4th July 2019
Black Widow – 1st May 2020
The Eternals – 6th November 2020
Black Panther 2 – 12th February 2021
Shang-Chi – 7th May 2021
Doctor Strange 2 – 5th November 2021
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – 6th May 2022
Sources: Screenrant, Hollywood Reporter, Gulf News, , The National, Arabian Business and CNBC
From joining the quest of destroying that ‘One Ring’ – Lord of the Rings, drifting into the realm of ‘Narnia’- home to mythical beasts and talking animals – The Chronicles of Narnia, to learning the art of witchcraft and wizardry at ‘Hogwarts’ – Harry Potter and coexisting with the local tribe on the lush alien world of Pandora – Avatar, we can all agree that fantasy is fundamentally ridiculous. But, once in a while, the real world gets a tad boring, and good old fantasy is our best and cheapest bet!
Fantasy has the power to transport audiences from the bounds of reality into the world of escapism and incredulity – and what better medium than cinema to escape reality (larger than life image and surround sound with booming bass).
Over the years, the genre has gone from strength to strength, and today, we’re in the middle of an unprecedented fantasy boom.
2017 witnessed a myriad of fantasy movies, with three of them making it to the list of Top 10 Highest Grossing Hollywood Movies (worldwide) – Star Wars: The Last Jedi (over US$1.32B and the 9th highest grossing movie of all time), Beauty and the Beast (Over US$1.26B and the 11th highest grossing movie of all time) and Wonder Woman (over US$817M). Another notable fantasy movie of 2017 is The Shape of Water which won 4 Oscars, 2 Golden Globes and 2 BAFTA Awards.
UAE fantasy movie admissions stats:
2018
Avengers: Infinity War – Ranks 1st in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2018, ran for 23 weeks and did approximately 733K admissions
2017
Beauty and the Beast – Ranks 3rd in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2017, ran for 14 weeks and did approximately 499K admissions
Wonder Woman – Ranks 10th in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2017, ran for 13 weeks and did approximately 330K admissions
Justice League – Ran for 8 weeks and did approximately 322K admissions
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Ran for 9 weeks and did approximately 178K admissions
2016
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Ranks 2nd in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2016, ran for 13 weeks and did approximately 541K admissions
Suicide Squad – Ranks 5th in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2016, ran for 10 weeks and did approximately 339K admissions
Doctor Strange – Ran for 10 weeks and did approximately 245K admissions
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Ran for 11 weeks and did approximately 234K admissions
Warcraft: The Beginning – Ran for 9 weeks and did approximately 182K admissions
2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron – Ranks 3rd in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2015, ran for 12 weeks and did approximately 530K admissions
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Ranks 8th in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2015, ran for 15 weeks and did approximately 398K admissions
Cinderella – Ran for 12 weeks and did approximately 303K admissions
Upcoming fantasy movie releases in November – December 2018:
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Release Date: 15th November 2018
Starring: Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Eddie Redmayne
Mortal Engines
Release Date: 13th December 2018
Starring: Hugo Weaving, Stephen Lang and Robert Sheehan
Aquaman
Release Date: 20th December 2018
Starring: Jason Mamoa, Amber Heard and Nicole Kidman
*Fantasy movies mentioned above are as per genre listings on IMDb.
Contact a member of our sales team for more information on advertising opportunities alongside upcoming fantasy movie releases.
Sources: IMDb, Writing Cooperative, The Telegraph and YouTube
