This one is a short, straightforward listicle I wanted to share. 2014 was the greatest year in movie history – I have been telling myself this for a long time. I’m a big movie fan, and I prefer watching movies on the big screen. The notion of Netflix and Chill, which essentially attributes to being a couch potato and binge-watching films and TV series hasn’t appealed to my taste. Not yet.
Not even during the peak post-pandemic era, I could find enough appreciation for OTT platform. Not in the sense of being a replacement for cinemas. It isn’t. It is at best, an evolution of cable TV.
The absolute joy for me has always been to experience movies in cinemas (preferably IMAX). The feeling of being unmoored with strangers in a space that opens doors to wide-ranging stories has remained precious for me, which cannot be reproduced at home. Even having one’s own private theatre will be scarce of strange faces, which contribute to the powerful emotion of assemblage, an unlikely gathering for an experience that may, or may not change their lives.
Every year, we witness hundreds of new releases. But we get excited for just some of them and end up loving merely a few of them. The repetitious framework for movies has been to drop the big-budget entertainers during late Spring and Summer season, whereas the artistically beautiful films (or Oscar material) during Fall and Winter season.
This framework has remained consistent, and hence, the assortment of films that excites you is more often than not of a similar figure. Take this year (2021), for example – there are six superhero films, fourteen major franchise sequels, four original mainstream films, and three major book adaptations. And that’s about it. Half of them are delayed releases, which didn’t come out last year, and god knows if they will release this year as well?!
That said, looking back at the year 2014, 50 top-tier films came out in the same year. These weren’t sub-standard films meant for TV viewing but experienced in a movie theatre with the crowd.
Not necessarily each of these films was critic friendly, or popular (not instantly!) but warranted to be seen in a movie theatre. If you do the math, one good film came out every Friday, and that’s a rarity.
A superhero movie (or a mainstream film of that scale) is never released close to another big-budget flick which may eat up its business. 2014 saw tough competition throughout the year, and it’s unbelievable how despite the competition, most of these popular releases performed good-to-great at the box-office.
Before you ponder too much, here’s the list of the 50 films that are equivalent to 50 reasons stamping why 2014 was the greatest year in movie history. There has never been one like it before and going by the current dismal market trends, its not likely to happen anytime sooner. Take a look.
- 22 Jump Street
- 300: Rise of an Empire
- Annabelle
- Beyond the Lights
- Big Hero 6
- Birdman
- Blended
- Boyhood
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
- Divergent
- Dracula Untold
- Dumb and Dumber 2
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Exodus: Gods and Kings
- Foxcatcher
- Fury
- Godzilla
- Gone Girl
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Hercules
- Horrible Bosses 2
- How To Train Your Dragon 2
- Inherent Vice
- Interstellar
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
- Maleficent
- Million Dollar Arm
- Neighbors
- Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
- Nightcrawler
- Noah
- Oculus
- Penguins of Madagascar
- Predestination
- Rio 2
- Robocop
- Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
- Snowpiercer
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2
- The Expendables 3
- The Fault In Our Stars
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
- The Interview
- The Judge
- The Maze Runner
- Transformers: Age of Extinction
- Unbroken
- Whiplash
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
Note: I saw the films written in bold in cinemas. 2014 was the maximum number of times I had been to the movies in a year (totaled to 77). And some of these films became my all-time-favorites too.
