As 2007 draws to a close it is time to reflect upon the movie year.The box office itself has done well this year with the six major studios: Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, Sony and Walt Disney recording a total gross of $8.6 billion, surpassing the 2006 gross off $8.5 billion.The blockbusters which included Pirates of the Caribbean: At World End, Spiderman 3 and Shrek the Third have all performed well this summer along with Hairspray, which has been the unexpected hit of the year.However comedy still remains king of the box office with movies like Knocked Up and Superbad all topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.However where there is success there is inevitable failure with The Good Shepherd, The Illusionist, Shooter, Babel and Grindhouse performing poorly all struggling to make $50 million.However all these movies have gone on to be successful on DVD.
Westerns
2007 has seen the re-birth of the Western, a genre that used to dominate cinema screens between the 1930s and the 1960s.
In 2006 movies such as Brokeback Mountain and The Proposition paved the way for this year's success taking the idea of a Western but placing the tale in modern surroundings.
3:10 to Yuma, released in October, has enjoyed both critical and commercial success topping the U.S. box office, and has perhaps been the most successful of the Western releases.
Unlike more recent western 3:10 to Yuma has reverted back to tradition and is set in 19th Century America just after the civil war.
The movie, which was directed by James Mangold, attracted attention due to the fact that it had enlisted the help of current cinema’s biggest names in the form of Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.
Brad Pitt surprisingly scooped the Best Actor prize for his role as Jesse James at this year's Venice Film Festival.
Director Andrew Dominik has produced an artistic view of the lead up to the Assassination of the American legend that has earned critical adulation.
So, like the musical, Westerns are enjoying some success at the box office whether in the more modern formats like Brokeback Mountain or a more traditional depiction like 3:10 to Yuma Hollywood studios are beginning to see that there is still an audience out there for this genre of movie.
Geek Clique
The Geek Clique movies really have made this the genre of the year with Knocked Up and Superbad doing well critically and commercially.
And there really is just one man to thank for this and that is Judd Apatow.
With his regular band of buddies, which include Jonah Hill and Seth Rogan Apatow, who was writer and director for Knocked Up and producer for Superbad, has produced two of the funniest movies this year.
Unlike Evan Almighty, which is the most expensive comedy ever made, Apatow and co have proved that a big budget is not always the best ways to get a laugh.
Apatow's key to success is it's everyday story lines, unexpected pregnancy and wanting to get laid before leaving high school, accompanied by some witty dialogue that you will be quoting from the second the credits roll make these movies a hit.
Coming up next is Drillbit Taylor starring Owen Wilson and Pineapple Express starring Seth Rogan, who also penned the script.
Blockbuster Summer
But the best was saved til last as only Bourne Ultimatum broke this trend easily taking the prize for the best action movie of the year and the picture of the summer. Michael Bay also managed to produce a good movie this summer as Transformers came to the big screen for the very first time. The CGI laden film of the machine invaders mixed enough top speed action with geekisms to keep hard core fans, and fans of blockbuster cinema happy.
I sense a sequel not far away.
And if the blockbuster summer was right up your street then 2008 promises to be even better with The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and Ironman all fighting it out for box office glory.
The Middle East
It's usually common practice for Hollywood to wait until a war is over before starting big screen projects. However tradition was broken this year when, for the very first time, movies were made on the war in the middle east before the conflicts came to an end.
First up was A Mighty Heart starring Angelina Jolie as the wife of kidnapped, and subsequently murdered journalist, Daniel Pearl.
Despite being widely recognised as a fine piece of acting from Jolie, which has resulted in a Golden Globe nomination, the film did poorly at the box office with this being blamed on Jolie's bizarre behaviour, particularly towards the press, during promotion.
Then came The Kingdom with an all star cast including Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner as FBI agents who are tackling a suicide bomber in the Middle East.
Rendition looked at the way the U.S. dealt with dealing with possible terrorism suspects.
This was closely followed by Robert Redford's Lion's For Lambs which tackled the war in Afghanistan. Despite it's A List cast of Redford, Streep and Cruise the film did poorly at the international box office.
And this subject seems unlikely to go away with Redacted, In The Valley of Elah and Stop Loss all coming our way in the new year.
FemaleFirst Helen Earshaw.