OVP, Previously in 2013

2013: A Look Back

Yesterday we tackled the final film OVP movie of 2013, and you know what that means-it's time for our fifth Oscar Viewing Project!  But before we can do that, let's remember back seven months ago, to a simpler time, a calmer time: 2013.

In 2013 we were coming in like a wrecking ball and would not stop talking about 3-D printers.  We were wondering why Chris Christie would close down a bridge and trying to form an intelligent opinion of Edward Snowden.  We were discovering the true identity of Robert Galbraith and wondering what would happen to Walter White.  We were arguing over PS4 and XBox One, but in agreement on the cuteness of a little tyke named George.  And of course, there were the movies...

Box Office

This is what the Top 10 at the (Domestic) Box Office looked like:

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

2. Iron Man 3

3. Frozen

4. Despicable Me 2

5. Man of Steel

6. Gravity

7. Monsters University

8. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

9. Fast and Furious 6

7. Oz: the Great and Powerful

I hit 90% of these movies, with the sole exception being yet another installment in the car-racing franchise.  If you look a bit down the list of top Box Office draws, I also never got around to Thor: The Dark World, We're the Millers, and Identity Thief.  Like most recent years, this is a pretty franchise/remake/reboot heavy list, with only Gravity and Frozen being solo films (I should probably put a "yet" in front of Frozen).  Gravity was the only Oscar Best Picture nominee that was in the Top 10 (I sometimes wonder if Frozen got closer than we realized), but that doesn't mean it wasn't the only Oscar-blessed movie making a bundle.  American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Captain Phillips all cleared both the Best Picture lineup and $100 million at the Box Office.  It's also worth noting that 2013 had more $100 million films than any other year with 35, breaking the record set in 2009.

The Films I Missed

While I've seen all of the Oscar nominees, I haven't seen every film in 2009.  In addition to the Box Office champs I listed above, I missed a couple of films that got cited by precursors.  At the Globes, for example, I missed four nominated films: Labor Day, One Chance, Rush, and The Past.  By-and-large, though, I hit almost every major awards contender out there in 2013, which was a particularly tunnel-vision year when it came to Oscar (I'll get into that later, as we've got a lot of write-ups to get through). So in the meantime, get in your armchair, and start the popcorn-it's 2013 again!