The US box office saw its best year ever in 2002 – a record 22 films broke the $100 million dollar mark – aided by the success of highly-anticipated instalments of Star Wars, Men In Black, The Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter.
However, despite this magical competition, which helped bring in a total of $9.37 billion, the summer blockbuster Spider-Man climbed its way to the top of the Hollywood heap, spinning a whopping $406 million in ticket sales.
The popular comic book flick was followed by 2002 releases Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, which made $310 million, and Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, which notched up $240 million.
Mel Gibson's farmland thriller Signs came in at number four, followed by the year's biggest sleeper hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The $5 million romantic comedy raked in an amazing $222 million, drawing enthusiastic audiences with positive word of mouth rather than a huge advertising blitz.
However, the year wasn't all about success. The big money behind Eddie Murphy's $100 million The Adventures Of Pluto Nash wasn't much help when it only made $4.4 million at the box office, making it one of the biggest failures of the year.
As 2003 begins, all eyes are on Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, which has grossed more than $200 million in its first two weeks of release, as well as the Catherine Zeta-Jones musical Chicago and Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
