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
If characters are the new movie stars, then the franchise is the new coin of the Hollywood realm. This is the POWER of a film franchise!
Movie studios live or die by how many franchises – connected universes, sequel factories and spin-off machines they have in their stable.
Research proves films that are part of a franchise continue to perform at the box office.
Two examples from this year:
1.Captain America: Civil War
The follow up to Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Worldwide box office grossing of $1,151,684,349.
Ranks 3rd in UAE’s Top Movie performances in 2016.
Captain America: Civil War (May 2016)
2.Finding Dory
The follow up to Finding Nemo.
Worldwide box office grossing of $1,017,531,402.
Ranks 4th in UAE’s Top Movie performances in 2016.
Finding Dory (June 2016)
J.K. Rowling recently announced at a Warner Bros. event that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (originally set as a trilogy) would now expand across five movies.
The first film is scheduled for release later this year, and the second film is already in the works (slated for release in November 2018). David Yates will be returning as director, with the script written by Rowling herself. Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne has signed on to play Newt Scamander in all of the five films.
Fantastic Beasts is a spin-off to the Harry Potter Universe which is one of the highest grossing franchises of all time with $7.7bn in global box office earnings.
With two of the year’s biggest titles still to come, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Nov 17) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Dec 15), expect even more box office records to be broken – both locally and internationally.
Advertise your brand alongside two of the most anticipated movies and well-known movie franchises. Contact a member of our Sales Team for more information on cinema advertising opportunities.
Sources: The Numbers, Box Office Mojo, Los Angeles Times and MVM Research
