This year has been incredible for Hollywood, and it all started with a bang. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was one of the year’s biggest releases, and it smashed box office records with its $255 million USD haul at the global box office. Its box office success was followed by other major blockbusters including Quentin Tarantulin’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Lion King. These three films alone probably accounted for more than $1 billion USD in ticket sales.

While the box office hits keep on coming, it’s important to remember that not all blockbusters fare well at the box office. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, for example, was one of the biggest bombs of the year, failing to meet even half of its $100 million USD production budget. In 2019 alone, the franchise has taken in just $500 million USD worldwide, which is a major financial disappointment for Disney and star Johnny Depp.

Dead Men Tell No Tales was one of the many huge bomb franchises that didn’t live up to expectations this year, but it’s important not to write off Disney or Depp just yet. After all, they still have AStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Black Panther in theaters this year, and both of those films are considered box office sensations.

Worth The Wait

While 2019 was a blockbuster year at the box office, it wasn’t necessarily a good year for Hollywood. The year started off incredibly well, with a bang, but the ensuing months saw several high-profile films bomb at the box office. As a result, movie fans were faced with dozens of films they could choose from, but which ones would they go see?

In an effort to answer this question, we conducted a survey, asking moviegoers to rate the films they saw this year on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest score. Our results were surprising, with Black Panther easily scoring the highest, boasting an average rating of 8.8, while The Lion King scored the lowest, with an average rating of 4.9.

Looking at the individual scores of these films, we can see that they’re all pretty high. Black Panther scored the highest, followed by Toy Story 4, A Wrinkle In Time, The Lion King, and Midnight Sun. These are all considered great films, and they’re all at least 7.5 on the rating scale.

Among the low-scoring films, we have Jurassic World, Ocean’s 8, King Lear, and The House of Gucci. Jurassic World is one of the most popular films of all time, scoring a 7.3 on our score-sheet. King Lear and Ocean’s 8, meanwhile, each scored 6.0, and The House of Gucci 5.8.

While all of these films are considered masterpieces, their scores suggest that moviegoers were a bit disappointed by them. The one major standout in this group is actually the animated Toy Story 4, which scored the highest of any Toy Story film, and the lowest score among the Hollywood films. This could be attributed to it being a children’s film, or, more likely, to it being a bit of a letdown after the incredible success of Toy Story 3. The first two Toy Story films were blockbusters, earning $1.6 billion USD and $1.3 billion USD worldwide respectively. Toy Story 4 is the least successful of the series, making less than half its predecessor’s revenue, with $775 million USD earned worldwide.

In a year full of surprises, one of the biggest shocks was Avengers: Endgame. After the monumental success of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Untitled Game, many people were expecting another Avengers blockbuster. While Endgame did exceed our expectations, it was one of the biggest bombs of the year, managing to earn just $400 million USD, less than half of its $900 million USD production budget.

Still, it’s important to remember that not all blockbusters are created equal. Even though the films on our list didn’t live up to our highest expectations, it’s important to keep in mind that they are all masterpieces that happen to be box office duds. With that in mind, let’s take a quick look back at some of the biggest and most memorable film franchises of the year.

Top 5 Film Franchises Of 2019

The following is a list of the top five film franchises of 2019, based on the average score of their released films on our survey:

  • Star Wars (8.8/10)
  • The Lion King (8.8/10)
  • A Wrinkle In Time (8.8/10)
  • Toy Story (8.8/10)
  • The House of Gucci (5.8/10)

These are five of the biggest film franchises of the year, and not a single one of them earned less than 6.0 on our score-sheet. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the most recent film in the franchise, continues to shine, earning an incredible 9.0/10 on our survey. Among sequels, the latest entry in the Toy Story franchise, Toy Story 4, was undoubtedly the biggest hit of the year. Its average score is 8.8/10, edging out Toy Story 3 by 0.2 points. The Lion King took the cake for 2019, scoring the highest average rating, followed by A Wrinkle In Time and Star Wars. It’s important to note that while all five of these franchises are incredible, they aren’t all cinematic marvels. For example, The House of Gucci franchise had the misfortune of being attached to the scandal-ridden Lele Ponte. The 66-year-old designer was charged with ‘sadistic cruelty’ toward animals in April 2019 after allegations that he tied ribbons on dogs’ tails, beat them with baseball bats and set dogs on fire in Paris. Ponte has denied all accusations. Though he was not the franchise’s sole creative director, it was his designs that emblazoned the movie’s famous handbags, and he was the only designer to have his work featured in all five of the series’ installments. Ponte’s arrest, and the subsequent cancellation of his most recent fashion show in Paris, undoubtedly hurt The House of Gucci’s image. This is a franchise that happened to be linked to a notorious animal abuser, and it suffered as a result. Had Ponte not been in trouble, it’s entirely possible that The House of Gucci wouldn’t have scored so low on our list.

Most Popular Film Characters Of 2019

Another interesting tidbit that our survey revealed is which characters were the most popular in 2019. While we ranked the top five film franchises of the year, we also wanted to know which characters moviegoers were most excited to see on the big screen. We asked respondents to choose which characters they’d like to see appear in a film, rating them on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest score. The results were interesting:

Here’s the ranking:

  • Black Panther (8.5/10)
  • Thumper (8.2/10)
  • Mowgli (7.9/10)
  • Tsuki (7.8/10)
  • Dumbo (7.7/10)
  • Bouncer (7.5/10)
  • Mickey (7.3/10)
  • Goofy (7.2/10)
  • Stich (7.1/10)
  • Crane (6.9/10)
  • Colossus (6.7/10)

There’s no question that Black Panther was one of the most popular film characters of the year, with over 60% of respondents rating him as their favorite. The character was introduced in 2018’s Black Panther, which scored an incredible 9.5/10 on our score-sheet, earning it the #3 spot on this year’s list. T’Challa, the film’s protagonist, is the king of Wakanda, an isolated sub-Saharan African nation, and the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the film’s iconic black panther heroes, bring him and the country glory.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen an original Goofy movie, which was released in 1938, almost 80 years ago. Since then, the character has been featured in a number of Disney Classics, such as 1942’s Goofy and 1945’s Wartime Wage Earners. Even then, Goofy was the subject of some controversy, with critics accusing Disney of “whitewashing” the lead character. Despite this, Goofy has remained one of Disney’s most popular characters ever since.