Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 2022 in films

12/29/2022

2022 in films - according to Film Excess

The Top 6 of the Year

1. Top Gun: Maverick - Joseph Kosinski + Best Action-Drama of the Year + Best American Movie of the Year + Best $ Return of the Year: 8.75 times the cost + Best Mega-hit Movie of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: +425.48 mil. $ range

2. Holy Spider - Ali Abbasi + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Best Political Movie of the Year + Best Poster of the Year + Best Serial Killer Movie of the Year + Best Societal Critique of the Year + Best Thriller of the Year + Best True-Crime of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

3. Avatar: The Way of Water - James Cameron + Best 3D Movie of the Year + Best Action-Adventure of the Year + Best Science Fiction of the Year

4. Elvis - Baz Luhrmann + Best Biopic of the Year + Breakthrough of the Year: Austin Butler + Best Music Movie of the Year

5. Bamse - Henrik Ruben Genz + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Period Movie of the Year

6. Speak No Evil - Christian Tafdrup + Best Horror of the Year

The Bottom of the Year

1. Le Temps des Secrets - Christophe Barratier + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 8.3 mil. $ + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.31 times the cost

[7 titles in total]

Notes:

2022 was an abysmal year on several fronts: The China Virus pandemic finally came to an end, only to be taken over by a worse crisis (especially for Europe), as evil dictator Putin's Russia invaded neighboring country Ukraine, with millions of refugees, thousands of deaths, destruction on a massive scale, an inflation and energy crisis and world instability as a direct consequence. Cinemas have felt the downturn in economic tides harshly, although the hardest blow may be the one continually suffered due to the uptick in streaming and social media absorption, all taking away from shared social experiences in theaters. Many cinematic and exciting releases are shoveled off to streamers with cinemas hungering for prestige products week after week, month after month, with a theatrical plate in 2022 that looked decidedly less interesting than in each year in several decades leading up to it.

All this means less trips to the cinemas, and Film Excess only reflects that in only having 7 reviewed theatrical titles ready for the first annual list of the year here. - A number that will hopefully be considerably higher in 2023, preferably nearer to the average 20-30 titles theatrically experiences new titles reviewed in most years.

In spite of the small number, the Top 10 is topped with 2 masterpieces: Joseph Kosinski's genre-dream, a full throttle entertainment bonanza and a career milestone for Tom Cruise and Kosinski, Top Gun: Maverick is the year's best; Ali Abbasi's grueling, angry and important spotlight on Iran's patriarchal Islamist evils Holy Spider takes silver; with James Cameron's sensational return to his Pandora universe with Avatar: The Way of Water grabs bronze. The list goes on with Baz Luhrmann's best picture to date, the opulent music biopic Elvis; Henrik Ruben Genz's funny and stirring music biopic Bamse; and finally Christian Tafdrup's pitch-black horror satire Speak No Evil.

The Bottom list of the year only packs one title, Christophe Barratier's glossy, so-so Le Temps des Secrets, a film destined to leave the list in future editions of the lists, as it really isn't too shabby after all.

The year's many problems are also reflected in a wealth of flops, as much fewer than usual of the year's films reached success theatrically. This will be reflected also on future editions of the lists, as more films are reviewed.

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Le Temps des Secrets - 8.3 mil. $ range

2. Speak No Evil - 2.52 mil. $ range

3. Holy Spider - 1.95 mil. $ range

4. Bamse - 1.83 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 14.6 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Top Gun: Maverick - 425.48 mil. $ range

2. Elvis - 29.4 mil. $ range

3. Avatar: The Way of Water - 7.08 mil. $ range (and counting)

= Combined profits: 461.96 mil. $ range

2022 titles currently on the watch-list:

Dark Glasses, X, When You Finish Saving the World, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, The Batman, De Forbandede År 2, The Northman, Close, Triangle of Sadness, One Fine Morning, Crimes of the Future, Will-o'-the-Wisp, Jurassic World: Dominion, The Whale, Peter von Kant, Funny Pages, Pearl, Fire of Love, I Love My Dad, The Banshees of Inisherin, Emily the Criminal, Barbarian, The Fabelmans, Moonage Daydream, Freedom on Fire: Ukrain'es Fight for Freedom, Armageddon Time, Tár, Beautiful Beings, Retrograde, Terrifier 2, Blonde, Bones and All, Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

Previous annual lists:

2021 in films - according to Film Excess

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2019 in films - according to Film Excess
2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

1995 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of Film Excess' 2013 lists?

What films would comprise your personal lists?
Anything essential missing on the watch-list in your opinion?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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12/29/2022

2022 in films - according to Film Excess

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