12. The Fault in Our Stars
Love Story for the Instagram generation. John Green’s heartbreaking novel about love between teenager cancer patients was a publishing sensation. Nevertheless, it was a ballsy move by Fox to release it in the height of the summer. Their strategy paid off: it eclipsed Edge of Tomorrow on its opening weekend, finally earning $124m.
That fact that another low-budget film has performed so well this summer, while so many mega-budget giants have fallen (Fault only cost $12m to make) should hopefully lead to a sea-change in Hollywood thinking at accountancy-level.
11. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Hands up all of us who thought that this was the stupidest idea of the year! How could there still be any appetite left for one of the least-fondly remembered phenomena of the late 1980s (discuss). I didn’t give it a cat in hell’s chance but TMNT’s $65m opening weekend was one of the biggest August openings in history. The sequel was green-lit the following Monday. Turtle power indeed.
