Poll: Favorite Blockbusters of 2016

From ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ in January to ‘Rogue One’ at year end, a lot of movies in 2016 made a lot of money at the box office. Not all of them were actually well liked by the audiences that paid for them, but let’s not dwell on the negatives today. What were your favorite blockbusters of the year?

For the purposes of this poll, I’m defining a “blockbuster” as any movie that grossed over $100 million domestically. Some of these films were brutally panned by both critics and viewers, and may have even lost money relative to their inflated budgets, but we need to assign an arbitrary cut-off point and that will have to do. Which of these movies have you seen? More importantly, which did you enjoy?

What Were Your Favorite Blockbusters of 2016?

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I am in desperate need to catch up with most of these movies. I’m embarrassed to say that I even bought a few of them on Blu-ray and have yet to watch them. Of those I have seen, I had a lot of fun with ‘Deadpool’, though I wouldn’t call it one of my favorite movies ever. As a longtime Trekkie, I found ‘Star Trek Beyond’ to be an improvement over its predecessor, 2013’s disappointing ‘Star Trek into Darkness’, but still wish it could have been better.

‘Batman v. Superman’ was one of the most maligned films of the year. I went into it with very low expectations and honestly thought it was fairly OK. However, I’ve only seen the Blu-ray Ultimate Edition, which most people agree is a big improvement over the widely criticized theatrical cut.

I really need to sit down with the latest ‘Captain America’. I’m not sure why I haven’t yet.

25 comments

  1. Thulsadoom

    I’m going to go with Fantastic Beasts, followed closely by Rogue One.

    I have pretty much the same opinion on BvS and ST: Beyond. I enjoyed Independence Day as silly fun, not dissimilar to the original (honestly, what was anyone expecting from it?) Ghostbusters was forgettable, but fun and nowhere near as bad as I expected. Jungle Book was excellent, Deadpool was (mostly) fun and funny though I have no urge to see it again. Zootopia was really good, and I really enjoyed X-Men, even though it was heavily flawed in places. Secret Life of Pets was silly fun.

    Still want to see Sully, Legend of Tarzan and Bourne at some point. Haven’t seen Capt. America:Civil War yet, and though I’m sure I’ll see it sometime, I just can’t summon any enthusiasm or interest. Same with Doctor Strange and Suicide Squad (little more curious to see that, than Civil War or Dr. Strange, but not by much).

    • I’m completely with you on Fantastic Beasts. Although part of franchise, it felt 100% fresh and new. It didn’t lean on characters, plot or formulas from the franchise for its success. It didn’t even have the same tone. It was a entirely new and amazing beast of its own.

  2. Bolo

    Of the movies on that list I only saw two: ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Suicide Squad’. ‘Deadpool’ was fun and I look forward to the sequel. ‘Suicide Squad’ was a real missed opportunity.

    None of the other movies on that list really interest me. I might catch ‘Moana’ next time I babysit, but that’s it.

    Next year seems to have a better crop of big franchise movies as far as my interests go.

  3. Well, that’s amazing: I’ve seen 9 of those, with Sully for this weekend. Looking forward to Star Wars.

    I might see Star Trek again someday, not the others I have watched. Blockbuster land is grim territory these days.

  4. Chris B

    I Voted for Rogue On. Last weekend when I saw it it edged out Civil War as my favorite movie of the year.

    I know people love Deadpool a ton but was anyone else realky annoyed by it? Towards the end of the movie Ryan Reynold’s constant quipping was giving me a headache and I was wanthing him to just shut up tbh.

  5. Clark

    The only movie I haven’t seen in this list is “Trolls”. I guess I should go to the movies less… I’ve seen a lot of crap!
    Anyway, I just wanted to suggest another criteria to consider a movie a blockbuster. 100 million dollars was a big deal in the 90s, but nowadays many movies make this amount in less than a week! The fact that “Angry Birds” and “Independence Day 2” are considered to have busted blocks is absurd! With inflation and 3D, IMAX, Atmos and 4Dx prices, a movie should have to make at least 250 million in North America to be a blockbuster, and at least 400 million worldwide.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      The problem with this suggestion is that it would cut the poll list down to only 10 movies, and I wanted to have a broader selection than that. Also, it would cut out some major titles like Doctor Strange and Moana that I think anyone would classify as hits.

  6. Csm101

    I didn’t see Kung Fu Panda 3 in theaters, but loved it at home and feel the Kung Fu Panda series is one of the most consistently good out of all the movies out there and their sequels, the first one being the best by a very small margin. Deadpool, Captain America, Jungle Book, and Doctor Strange were all great fun at the movies and are high up in my favorites of the year. Ghostbusters is a lot more fun at home and I’ve watched it quite a few times since it was released in blu. Central Intelligence turned out to be much more fun than I thought it would be and is probably my favorite Rock movie. I really liked him in this one. I just Redboxed Sully yesterday and enjoyed it much more than I could imagine.
    I haven’t seen Fantastic Beasts, Moana, or Rogue One as of yet, but they’re on my list. I guess my favorite was probably Captain America: Civil War and Secret life of Pets ( Pops hits very close to home)
    I know Pete’s Dragon didn’t make the cut as a blockbuster but I just rented it and it was surprisingly good.

  7. Deaditelord

    2016 was the year I felt like I was at odds with the majority opinion. For example, I enjoyed Batman vs. Superman and Star Trek Beyond (I saw both in theaters twice) and remain somewhat surprised by all the negative reactions. Further going against popular opinion, I also thought Dr. Strange was the best Marvel offering since Winter Soldier. Not to say I disliked Civil War. I just think superhero movies work better when they limit their focus to one or two characters. Really the only movies I seemed to be agreement with the popular opinion on was Deadpool and Rogue One, although I suppose my not having any problems with the CGI characters used in Rogue One could be viewed as going against the grain.

  8. Chapz Kilud

    I saw Deadpool, Captain America: Civil War, Rogue One, Doctor Strange, Zootopia, Star Trek Beyond, Batman v. Superman, The Jungle Book, X-Men: Apocalypse, Finding Dory, Suicide Squad, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Ghostbusters, The Secret Life of Pets, Sully, Kung Fu Panda 3, Jason Bourne, The Legend of Tarzan, Independence Day: Resurgence, and Angry Birds out of the list. The ones I enjoyed the least were X-Men, Suicide Squad, Jason Bourne, and Independence Day because I was suckered into watching them but got disappointed later. The one I really liked were Rogue One, Civil War, Zootopia, Pets, and Dr Strange. The only movie I watched more than once was Rogue One. There are only 4 movies in the past 5 years that I watched more than once in theater so that’s how high I rate Rogue One.

  9. Ryan

    BvS for me. But it’s a bit of a cheat, because I am only talking about the director’s cut. Which I honestly thought was fantastic.

  10. EM

    Just Zootopia, which I saw theatrically more than once and added to my video library. Really fun, engaging movie.

    Most of the rest donโ€™t interest me. I might yet see Fantastic Beasts theatrically. I would have gone to see Finding Dory if some plans with other people had worked out; I expect to catch it on video sometime.

    I did see Rogue One but disliked it.

  11. Most of the ones I saw on the list I watched as in-flight movies. Loathed Ghostbusters. The MCU continues to be less interesting. Star Trek: Beyond was somehow even worse than Into Darkness.
    That said, I liked Zootopia a lot. Finding Dory had a tough act to follow and did a good job. Jason Bourne was as Bourne as Bourne gets. Rogue One was great. Biggest surprise was Central Intelligence. Never been a fan of Kevin Hart, but that movie worked for me.

  12. I saw ‘Deadpool’ (on Blu), ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ (on the silver screen), ‘Finding Dory’ (on the silver screen), and ‘Ghostbusters’ (on Blu). ‘Deadpool’ was a lot of fun (I saw it again on 25 December, heard Wham! on the soundtrack and heard about George Michael’s passing two hours later. Weird.), ‘Finding Dory’ was good but not great, and ‘Ghostbusters’ was far better than I expected. ‘Fantastic Beasts’ is the best movie of 2016, by a significant margin. I have yet to see ‘Rogue One’, though, so my opinion may change.

  13. cardpetree

    Rogue One and CACW were my favorites for the year. I used to like Zootopia until my 2 year old son decided to watch it every day, over and over again multiple times a day. The Breaking Bad reference in it never gets old though.

  14. Thomas James

    Rogue One, Star Trek: Beyond, Captain America: Civil War and Jason Bourne were my favorites big films this year. I’m in the minority here but I thought Jason Bourne is as good as the previous three Bourne films, I don’t get all the hate it received.

  15. Kram

    The only films on this list I saw were:

    Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Ghostbusters, Rogue One, Star Trek Beyond and Zootopia.

    Fantastic Beasts was fun.

    Ghostbusters was surprisingly enjoyable, but far from great. I’ll never watch it again.

    Rogue One…ugh. Hated it. So much.

    Star Trek Beyond was dumb. Really dumb.

    Zootopia was fun.

    I guess FB was my favorite? I guess? Cafe Society was pretty much the only film I saw all year that I’d say I loved. I’m a big Woody Allen fan, though. Then again, I’m a big Star Wars fan, so who knows.

    • Chaz

      Not a Star Wars fan? I havent run into hardly anyone that HATED it….thats a shame, definitely one of the best movies this year. Shame that Arrival isnt on this list, its my favorite movie of 2016, lots of other fun ones but nothing beats this when it comes to ever aspect of film making. I enjoyed Deadpool, Finding Dory, Zootopia was great, plenty of others, BvS was another favorite of mine as was Civil War. Lots of OKAY movies, like someone said, 2016 the year of OKAY.

      Star Trek Beyond wasnt what I was hoping, not sure why so many loved it, felt the first two films were way better, the beginning was pretty great, then it dips down into mediocre with a pretty generic villain. I actually enjoyed the new Ghostbusters more, yeah I know, doesnt make sense to me either ๐Ÿ˜‰

      Xmen Apocalypse was another okay movie, more spectacle than substance and as much as I like spectacle and dumb blockbuster movies, I guess I expect more out of these movies now, First Class and Days of Future Past are way better for sure, but I guess there is only one that I can enjoy now and not really care it seems and those are the Transformers movies ๐Ÿ™‚

      Suicide Squad was kind of bad, not terrible by any stretch but just pointless, Guardians of the Galaxy this was not, not even close and it could have been great if it was, it had some decent moments but overall another bad CGI ending from a story that really served no purpose, especially in the greater DCU and DC cant really afford to do that

      • Kram

        I’m actually a huge Star Wars fan, but Rogue One didn’t work for me AT ALL. Honestly, I just don’t get why people liked it. It was just so boring and the characters were so weak. I’m really missing something with that one…

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