History of Film
FROM 1830 TO TODAY
2000

The U.S. Supreme Court ends the election recount in
Florida, making George W. Bush president.

America Online buys Time Warner.

The film industry is now controlled by 6 major
companies: Disney, NBC Universal, Time Warner,
Sony, Fox and Viacom.
Movies from 2000
2001
Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is the first
fully computer generated feature film that aims for pictorial
realism; it fails at the box office.
 The World Trade Center is destroyed and the Pentagon is
damaged in terrorist attacks.
 OKC bomber Timothy McVeigh is executed.

Movies from 2001
2002

Halle Berry wins Best Actress and Denzel Washington wins
Best Actor at the Academy Awards.
2003

Disney abandons traditional animation in favor
of computer-generated feature cartoons.

Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. troops.
2004

Michael Moore directs the guerilla documentary Fahrenheit 911.

Martha Stewart goes to prison for obstruction of justice.
2005

Paramount buys DreamWorks.

George Clooney directs Good Night, and
Good Luck, about the McCarthy era.
2006

Paul Greengrass directs United 93, the first
Hollywood film centering the events of 9/11.

The Walt Disney Company purchases Pixar.

Ang Lee directs Brokeback Mountain, the first gaythemed mainstream western.

YouTube explodes on the Web.
Movies from 2006
2007

Joss Whedon's debut feature film Serenity, a space western. It
was Universal’s first film to be released on HD-DVD.

Ellen Page become first under-21 American Actress to be
nominated for a Best Actress nomination, for her role in Juno.

Hollywood experienced its first ever $4 billion summer. Spiderman 3, Shrek the Third, Pirated of the Caribbean: At World’s
End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Borne
Ultimatum, and Live Free and Die Hard.
2007 Cont.

Beowulf, used advanced motion-capture technology to
transform live action into digital animation. (First used in Peter
Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

In February of 2007, Netflix (1999) announced the delivery of
its billionth DVD.

In July, J.K. Rowling final Harry Potter novel, was released and
sold 9.3 million copies in the US within 24 hours.

Harry Potter, highest-grossing movie series
of all time, as of this date.
2007 Cont.

The first broadband movie ever distributed by a major studio.

Director Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, both
died on the same day, July 30th.

The American Film Institute held its 10th Anniversary.

The Writer’s Guild of American went on strike in early
November.
2008




Slumdog Millionaire received 8 of the 10 Oscars for which it
was nominated.
Will Smith scored his 8th straight $100 million hit movie. Only
actor in history to achieve this goal.
Jada Pinkett-Smith had the most consecutive $100 million
gross for an actress.
Joss Whedon's independent short film Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along
Blog, a supervillain musical, was released exclusively for
online viewing, in 3 14-minute episodes.
2008 cont.

28 year old, Heath Ledger, was found dead of an accidental
overdose in late January. He was the second performer to
win a posthumous acing Oscar, for his Best Supporting role as
The Joker in The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight was the highest grossing film of 2008, at just
over $1 billion dollars.
2008 cont.

Director Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna was the first
Hollywood feature film about African-American Soldiers in
World War II (92nd Infantry Division of Buffalo Soldiers).

Saw films surpassed Friday the 13th as high grossing horror
series of all times (until next year).

Mamma Mia! Highest grossing film directed by a woman.

Sydney Pollack, who received 2 Oscars, died on May 26, at
the age of 83.

DreamWorks, ended trouble partnership with Viacom’s
Paramount, and signed a long term deal with Disney.
2008 cont.

Tom Cruise appeared in the most $100 million dollar grossing
films (15 blockbusters).

Actor, Director, Entrepreneur, and Humanitarian Paul
Newman died Sept. 28th at the age of 83.

The 22nd Bond film Quantum of Solace reached $100 million in
9 days.
2009

James Cameron’s Avatar, 3-D live action with ground
breaking special effects. Highest grossing film of all times.

Monsters vs. Aliens first computer-animated feature film to
be shot directly in stereoscopic 3-D.

My Bloody Valentine 3-D, was the first rated R 100% live
action movie filmed in Real D technology.

Friday the 13th retakes the number grossing horror film of all
time.

Robert Zemeckis’ 3-D A Christmas Carol, was filmed using
“performance capture” in which Jim Carrey played
multiple roles, included Scrooge and 3 of the Christmas
Ghosts.
2009 cont.

Hollywood realized that they could leverage the popularity
of social networking sites to market films.

Independent film Paranormal Activity, budgeted at only
$15,000 would earn $193 million world wide.

Zak Synder’s The Watchman, an adaptation of Alan
Moore’s graphic novel, featured the all CGI character of
Dr. Manhattan.

According to Guinness, The highest grossing actress of 2000s
decade was Emma Watson, for her six Harry Potter Films, 5.4
billion dollars world wide ($900 million a film).

Decade of the 2000s saw explosion of 3-D and IMAX films.
2009 cont.

After Michael Jackson’s Death, film released This is It.

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science expanded
best picture category to 10 films.

Blind Side, the highest grossing football film of all time.

The Princess and the Frog, first 2-D animation in 5 years,
featured the first ever black female protagonist.

Disney/Pixar’s animated film UP, nominated for best picture
only second one ever, Beauty and the Beast was first.

Director John Hughes, died on Aug 6th, at the age of 50.
2009 cont.

Although women remained in the minority in terms of film-making
(as directors, writers, and producers), 2009 was a watershed year.
In addition to Kathryn Bigelow's Best Director win for The Hurt Locker
(2009), and Betty Thomas' milestone as the most successful woman
director ever at the box office (domestic) for Alvin and the
Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), there were these other
developments: (1) director Anne Fletcher's The Proposal
(2009) (starring Sandra Bullock) was a tremendous hit, (2) It's
Complicated (2009), directed and written by Nancy Meyers and
starring Meryl Streep, made $112 million (domestic) at the boxoffice, (3) Best Actress Oscar-winning Sandra Bullock in The Blind
Side (2009) and veteran actress Meryl Streep outperformed their
male counterparts fairly consistently. Streep competed against
Bullock and was Oscar-nominated for her lead role in
writer/director Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia (2009), which made $94
million (domestic) at the box-office.
2010

US cinema made more than $11 billion, making it number 1
this year.

Tim Burton’s 3-D Alice in Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp,
surpassed previous open weekends for 1st and 2nd weeks.

Johnny Depp highest paid actor of the year.

Lowest movie attendance in over a decade.

Saw regains most successful horror franchise of all time.

Warner Brothers was highest grossing studio of 2010.

Producer/director Arthur Penn dies at the age of 88.

The most expensive year in Hollywood. 50 blockbusters
released at a cost of $5.2 billion.
2010 cont.

Actor Tony Curtis dies at the age of 85. His marriage to
fellow Actress Janet Leigh led to birth of daughter Jamie
Leigh Curtis.

The Coen Brothers’ PG-13 adventure remake of True Grit
staring Jeff Bridges, highest grossing western since Wild Wild
West.

Natalie Portman came into her own with Oscar winning role
in Black Swan.
2011

Rango, an animated western, staring Johnny Depp, was the
first full-scale animated feature film generated by George
Lucas’ special-effects house. Industrial Light and Magic.

Four Hollywood studios made arrangements with DirecTV to
release films only two months after theatrical release.

The most successful feature-film spin-off was Hasbro’s toy line:
Transformer films.

R-rated low budget comedies were popular this summer.

Meryl Streep received her 17th career Oscar nomination. She is
the most nominated or honored performer in Oscar history,
five more than both 2nd place nominees Katharine Hepburn
and Jack Nicholson.
2011 cont.

The final Harry Potter film broke major box office records.

Elizabeth Taylor, screen legend, died at age of 79.

Thor and Captain America: The first Avenger, performed well
at the box office.

In a controversial move that angered their costumers base,
DVE rental company Netflix increased price for combined
services.
2011 cont.

Crowds still shrinking as this year hits a 16 year low. Factors in
low: economy, ticket prices, too many remakes, over
crowding, and new gadgets to view on.

The Artist was the first near-silent film in 83 year to be
nominated and win best picture.

The first win for screen legend Christopher Plumber, 82.

The death of Tarzan’s chimp Cheetah at the age of 80.

Research in US supported then notion that women are underrepresented on the screen and that little had changed in the
past 60 years.
2011 cont.

According to Guinness, 2011 set the record for the most sequels (27 or 29)
released in a calendar year. Here we go:
MoJo, said
they forgot
2!! 
2012

Pixar’s 13th animated feature, the medieval fantasy epic Brave
was the first in the studio’s 25 years history to have a female lead
character.

Guinness say: most portrayed characters in movies – The Devil
(544), Santa (303), Grim Reaper (290), Jesus (239), and God (231).
The most portrayed literary characters – Dracula (155) and
Sherlock Holmes (147).

Two of the oldest film studios celebrated their 100 year
anniversary.

Found footage films became extremely popular.
Blair Witch
Project 1999
2012 cont.

The tremendous success of PG-13 rated The Hunger
Games portended that it would become on of the more
successful films of all-time and would blossom into a new
series or franchise.

Board game-based movies made comeback, Battleship.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic tale is brought to life by Peter
Jackson and begins its epic three part adventure in,
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

The Avengers take world by storm. Disney/ Marvel.

The 30th Anniversary of E.T.

As of the end of 2012 Stan Lee’s comics had been
adapted into movies 16 times.
2012 cont.

The comic character of Batman starred in 8 full length
films from 1966 to 2012. It was record for most
adaptations.

As a result of move theater shooting massacre in Aurora,
Colorado during the might showing of the final
installment of Batman saga The Dark Knight Rises,
Hollywood studios decided that they would not report
the film’s weekend ticket sales out of respect for the
victims, a studio first.

Tarzan’s 100th anniversary

Disney purchased Lucasfilm for 4.5 billion (half in cash,
rest in Disney stocks)
2012 cont.

One of the major box office trends was that Hollywood films were
beginning to earn more internationally than domestically, with China
poised at the fastest growing world wide.

The Summer’s top three none animated blockbusters.

The summer’s animated blockbusters.
2013

Hollywood celebrates record-breaking year at the box
office, $11 billion!

Paramount Pictures has become their first major studio to
stop releasing on 35film. Anchorman 2, their last film
picture.

Most Successful film of the year, Oz: The Great and
Powerful

Django Unchained became highest-grossing film in
Quentin Tarnation's career.

Woody Allen broke his Oscar record this year with 16th
screen play nomination.
2013 cont.



Films with Anniversary's: The Birds (50th), The Great
Escape (50th), Risky Business (30th), Christmas Story (30th),
Die Hard (25th), Scrooged (25th), Chucky (25th) Sleepless
in Seattle (20th), Schlinder's List (20th), Jurassic Park
(20th)and Groundhog Day (20th).
Ironman trilogy passes $1 billion for each movie.
Monsters University, opens at #1, Pixar’s 14th consecutive
film to open at #1.
Ender’s Game, the most expensive digital object ever
created.
 Movie Critic Roger Ebert Dies at age of 70.
 Meryl Streep broke her own record, AGAIN.

2013 Memorandum

Joan Fontaine : 96 year old

Peter O’Toole : 81 year old

Annette Funicello: 70 year old

Paul Walker : 40 years old

James Gandolfini: 51 Year old
2013 Blockbuster
2014

MGM announces year long global campaign to
celebrate 90th Anniversary. 175 Oscars, 14 Best pictures

Meryl Streep broke her Oscar record AGAIN! 19
nominations.

The box office was down 25% this year.

Tax credit drives movie making out of California.

With new Godzilla release, longest running movie
franchise of all time. 60 years.
2014 cont.

Because of the success of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the
Christ, numerous branch studios created faith based
divisions.

2014 was dubbed by some as the year of Christiancentric films.
2014 Memorandum

Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Lauren Bacall

Shirley Temple

Mickey Rooney

Robin Williams

Mike Nichols
2014 Blockbuster
2015

American film director Randall Miller became the first
filmmaker to go to prison on the charge of involuntary
manslaughter for a film-related death, Feb. of 2014 on
set of Midnight Rider.

Director Kenneth Branagh’s live-action Cinderella, 65
years after it’s predecessor. Disney’s 3rd venture into liveaction.

According to Variety, experts predicted that the
People’s Republic of China would overtake the US as the
pre-eminent market for film by 2020.

The Reboot of Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, Jurassic World,
set major box off records.
Sarah Jones
2015 Memorandum (so far)

Maureen O’Hara

Wes Craven

James Horner

Omar Sharif

Christopher Lee

Leonard Nimoy
2015 Blockbuster (So Far)
2015 coming soon .. 
Until Next Year!! 