10. Chinese Doctors ($197,143,218/£142,009,160)

Despite only seeing a major release in China, Australia, and New Zealand this tale of a group of doctors working together in Wuhan to combat Covid-19 has become an unlikely hit at the box office.

9. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It ($201,965,074/£145,472,413)

The latest instalment in the popular Conjuring franchise, based on the real-life trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, was the first main series entry not directed by James Wan. Instead, it was directed by The Curse of La Llorona’s Michael Chaves. And although not as highly regarded as the other main Conjuring movies it definitely encouraged horror fans to return to the cinema.

8. Cruella ($222,184,131/£160,035,897)

Released simultaneously on Disney+ and in theatres this origin story for everyone’s favourite dog skinning maniac managed to outperform Disney’s previous live-action reinterpretation of an animated classic, Mulan (2020). But it remains one of Disney’s lowest-performing live-action adaptations of an animated movie.

7. Free Guy ($242,943,984/£175,030,208)

Free Guy follows a videogame NPC (Non-Playable Character) called Guy as he slowly becomes self-aware and breaks out of his predetermined path. Currently, Free Guy is one of the highest-grossing original IPs of the year.

6. A Quiet Place Part II ($297,372,261/£214,243,332)

While not quite as successful as the original, A Quiet Place 2, which takes the Abbot’s into the wider world outside their home, still performed admirably after a long release delay. And is currently the year’s highest-grossing horror film.

5. Black Widow ($372,376,568/£268,328,969)

Marvel’s highest-grossing film this year follows Black Widow as she goes off-grid and confronts her dark past. But its release has been mired in controversy. The film’s star Scarlett Johansson announced she would be suing Disney (Marvel’s owners) over Black Widow’s simultaneous streaming release. This is because it allegedly breached Johansson’s contract, which said the film would be released theatrically with her salary being tied to its box office earnings.

4. Godzilla vs. Kong ($467,863,133/£337,135,156)

The fourth entry in Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse managed a higher income than its prior entry, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. And it also marked the second time the classic movie monsters have fought. The first being in 1963’s King Kong Vs Godzilla.

3. Detective Chinatown 3 ($686,257,563/£494,506,906)

Chinese cinema continues its presence in the top 10 with the Detective Chinatown series’ highest-grossing entry so far. This time detectives Tang and Qin are involved in a battle with the strongest detectives across all of Asia to solve a case in Tokyo.

2. F9: The Fast Saga ($710,873,160/£512,244,536)

F9 follows Dom and his crew as they battle against a new threat. Dom’s estranged brother. F9 is the highest-grossing Hollywood movie so far this year and the highest-grossing Hollywood film since the Pandemic started.

1. Hi, Mom ($822,009,764/£592,327,906)

So far the highest-grossing movie of 2021 is not a huge blockbuster, instead, it’s a small movie about a young woman travelling through time, who befriends her own mother and tries to give her a better life. It’s exceptional taking also makes Hi, Mom the highest-grossing film ever made by a solo female director.

This concludes our look at the highest-grossing films at the 2021 box office so far. And while the receipts for the high scorers are not as high as those of 2019 they are still higher than those of 2020 and the films are an interesting mix. With 3 foreign language films (all produced in China), 3 films not based on pre-existing material, 2 horror films and only 3 Disney/Disney affiliated movies being included. It shows that cinemagoers are looking for different film experiences to sit alongside big blockbuster releases. Let’s hope for even more diversity when the year-end list comes.

Also Read: Did High-End TV Replace The Mid-Bidget Indie Film?

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Magneto

In film Magneto is introduced in 2000’s X-Men, convinced that humanity will never accept mutants and will turn against them and as such he advocates violent resistance. In X-Men he kidnaps a child to use her powers – which will cause the child’s death, in X-Men 2 he tries to kill every non-mutant on Earth. An unappealing character but as we learn throughout the films his past helps us see why he see’s things this way. He suffered through the Holocaust, his family killed and experimented upon because he was a mutant. Then in X-Men: First Class despite saving the world the humans decide to kill the mutants. It is understandable therefore that Magneto does think that governments will turn against those they see as different, that they will kill mutants because they are afraid of them.

The Joker

In The Dark Knight, the Joker relates stories of how he came by his scars (and by extension how he became the Joker), the first being when as a child he tried to defend his mother from his father, the second that he did it to himself to try and please his wife who had been scarred by gangsters. He is also about to tell a third story, presumably different again when Batman interrupts him. We never learn the truth and it’s entirely possible there is no tragic and sympathetic story but it plays with the idea that we expect villains to have these origins.

Vito and Michael Corleone

A film that is regularly mentioned as one of the best of all time contains a villain origins story – The Godfather Part II. The film is split in two – half detailing Michael’s continuing battles with other gangsters and the other half is the story of Vito Corleone going from an orphaned Sicilian immigrant to a Mafia boss. Vito suffered and lost just about everything, even his name, and almost accidentally gets involved in the world of crime. We see all the incremental steps that seem reasonable and understandable that lead to Vito discussing how he will have people attacked on the day of his daughter’s wedding and decapitating horses. That said, much of The Godfather is Michael’s story of how he turned from a nice guy war hero to a Mafia boss – the attempted murder of his father, the knowledge that the police were complicit, the murder of his wife, the murder of Sonny.

Caligula

The classic British tv drama I, Claudius tells the story of Rome’s first imperial family. The third emperor is the infamous Caligula, known to this day for cruelty, incompetence and insanity. As the show takes places over decades we see the child become the mad emperor. Caligula’s father dies in suspicious circumstances, possibly on the orders of his great uncle, Emperor Tiberius. Seeing Caligula’s family as a threat Tiberius has Caligula’s two brothers killed, exiles and then murders his mother. Caligula, still a child at this point, is then taken into the household of the Emperor and witness to the depraved lifestyle of Tiberius and worried that he could be murdered at any time. With Tiberius’s death, Caligula becomes emperor soon reveals his cruel and insane side. Given that his life has been one of constant tragedy, trauma, grief and fear is it any surprise that when given absolute power things do not go well? I should point out that in I, Claudius Caligula does get involved in the plot to murder his father but as he was around seven he surely is only a pawn in the schemes of others.

So, we have Magneto, who suffered through the worst humankind had to offer and learned that he would always be seen as the other, the Joker who may or may not have an awful tragic past,Vito Corleone who lost everything and wanted to help his people and Caligula who grew up in palaces while everyone close to him was murdered by the emperor who he was forced to live with. To understand the origins of fictional villains can help us understand the origins of real-life villains and that is not to excuse their crimes but to see how we could stop these crimes happening in the first place.

Now not all of the point of giving villains backstories is to better understand the human condition. It’s also because villains are often more fun and more interesting than heroes. 101 Dalmatians was released in 1961 and Cruella de Vil is the only name most people remember from that film. Darth Vader, Alan Rickman’s the Sheriff of Nottingham and Hannibal Lecter are arguably more interesting and memorable than the heroes of these films. And none of this is to say Cruella is good, I have not seen it, it could be an awful film that is guilty of excusing wickedness but the origin of a villain can be a brilliant and insightful story.

Also Read: The Greatest Horror Villain of Each Decade

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