2000s in film
The decade of the 2000s in film involved many significant developments in the filmmaking industries around the world, especially in the technologies used. Building on advancements from the 1990s, computers were widely utilized to create effects that would have previously been more expensive and time-consuming, from the subtle erasing of surrounding islands in Cast Away to the vast battle scenes in The Matrix sequels.
Trends
- The 2000s saw the resurgence of several genres. Fantasy film franchises dominated the box office with The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Star Wars prequel trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc. Comic book superhero films became a blockbuster subgenre following the releases of X-Men, Unbreakable, and Spider-Man; culminating in the unprecedented achievements of The Dark Knight in both revenue and acclaim. Gladiator sparked the revival of historical epics set in ancient times, and the Bollywood-inspired Moulin Rouge! did the same for live action musical films in the Western world. Hong Kong fight choreographers like Yuen Woo-ping continued their influence in Hollywood with such martial arts films as Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2, even leading to the spread of wire fu into other subgenres alongside filmmaker John Woo's gun fu from the likes of Mission: Impossible 2.
- Certain film categories that were generally not popular in North America became more attractive to western moviegoers. Subtitled non-English language films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Amélie, Hero, The Passion of the Christ, Pan's Labyrinth, and Apocalypto ; as well as feature-length documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, Earth, and Michael Jackson's This Is It; ended up being very successful.
- Computer animation replaced traditional animation as the dominant technique for animated pictures in American cinema, especially after the release of Shrek, which is the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Further extending to the exploration of motion capture technology in such films as Robert Zemeckis' The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol. However, hand-drawn anime films also gained more exposure outside of Japan with the releases of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo; while stop-motion films earned significant audience interest thanks to Chicken Run, Corpse Bride, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Coraline. DreamWorks Animation was the top animation studio of the decade, with Pixar and 20th Century Fox Animation following close behind.
- Major film studios started to focus their budgets on established titles with built-in fandoms to lower the risk of commercial failures and maximize financial profits. Increasing the productions of sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, adaptations, spin-offs, crossovers, and so on; often as attempts to create or revive franchises. Capitalizing especially on nostalgia induced by the likes of Shaft, Charlie's Angels, Planet of the Apes, Scooby-Doo, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Freddy vs. Jason, Starsky & Hutch, Alien vs. Predator, Herbie: Fully Loaded, The Dukes of Hazzard, King Kong, Superman Returns, Miami Vice, Rocky Balboa, TMNT, Live Free or Die Hard, Transformers, Rambo, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and many others. Out of the 50 highest-grossing films of the decade worldwide, only nine are not based on another property, though one of these became the top-grosser of all time: late 2009's Avatar.
Highest-grossing films
The list has more 2008 and 2007 films in the top 50 than any other year, each with eight. They are followed by 2009, 2005 and 2004, each with six. Figures are given in United States dollars.Highest-grossing film per year
The fantasy genre became the annual top-grosser seven times in a row from four different franchises.| Year | Title | Studio | Worldwide Gross | Ref. |
| 2000 | Mission: Impossible 2 | Paramount | $546,288,105 | |
| 2001 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Warner Bros. | $974,733,550 | |
| 2002 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | New Line Cinema | $925,282,504 | |
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | New Line Cinema | $1,119,110,941 | |
| 2004 | Shrek 2 | DreamWorks SKG | $919,838,758 | |
| 2005 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Warner Bros. | $895,921,036 | |
| 2006 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | Disney | $1,066,179,725 | |
| 2007 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | Disney | $960,996,492 | |
| 2008 | The Dark Knight | Warner Bros. | $1,001,842,429 | |
| 2009 | Avatar | 20th Century Fox | $2,713,395,000 |
Most acclaimed films of the decade
According to Metacritic, which analysed many of the notable 'best films of the decade' lists to compile the results, the top twenty films most often and most notably included in these lists are:- There Will Be Blood
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Mulholland Drive
- No Country for Old Men
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- Spirited Away
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- The Dark Knight
- Amélie
- Children of Men
- Memento
- Pan's Labyrinth
- United 93
- WALL-E
- Almost Famous
- Brokeback Mountain
- Far from Heaven
- Lost in Translation
- Pan's Labyrinth
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
- Ratatouille
- Spirited Away
- The Hurt Locker
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Sideways
- WALL-E
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- 35 Shots of Rum
- Mulholland Drive
- In the Mood for Love
- There Will Be Blood
- Spirited Away
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Yi Yi
- No Country for Old Men
- Zodiac
- Children of Men
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Moviefone's list of "50 Best Movies of the Decade" included the following films in the top five:
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino selected the following as the best and most influential films of the decade:
- Battle Royale
- Anything Else
- Dogville
- The Host
- Joint Security Area
- Lost in Translation
- Memories of Murder
- Shaun of the Dead
- Team America: World Police
- ''Unbreakable''