2017: Facts, figures and funnies...

​What a year 2017 was. We had Brexit talk, we had Trump crap and we had La La Land win the Oscar’s Best Picture… oh wait. FYI – that still hurts.
 
But this feature is about facts, no fake news here. Below, we sieve through all the records that happened in 2017… so basically… you don’t have to!

Beauty and the Beast, The Fate of the Furious, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Despicable Me 3 have each grossed over $1 billion, and are ranked as the 10th, 11th, 13th, and 25th highest-grossing films of all time, with the latter being the 4th-highest-grossing animated film.

In China, the country recorded a new single-day record as well as an all-time admission high on Saturday, January 28, with over $110 million registering an admission of over 21 million moviegoers. Both records were set on the first day of the Chinese New Year.
 
The Marvel Cinematic Universe became the first film franchise to gross more than $11 billion with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. With the subsequent release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, it became the first film franchise to gross more than $12 billion, and with the release of Thor: Ragnarok, the MCU became the first film franchise to gross more than $13 billion. It also became the first film franchise to release three movies in one year that all made over $800 million worldwide.
 
The Despicable Me franchise became the highest-grossing animated franchise ever ($3.6 billion), surpassing the Shrek franchise and also the first non-Disney franchise to have two films hit over 1 billion dollars.
 
2017's box office record (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, Wonder Woman) supplanted 1958's box office record (South Pacific, Auntie Mame, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) as the highest grossing year domestically for female-led films.

​Walt Disney Studios became the first studio ever to reach $6 billion at the global box office in consecutive years (following a $7.6-billion gross in 2016), and the first studio to reach $5 billion globally in three consecutive years.
 
Dangal became the highest-grossing Indian film, crossing ₹2,000 crore (US$320 million) worldwide, making it the first Indian film to gross $300 million worldwide.
 
Beauty and the Beast broke Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's record ($166 million) for the weekend debut in March ($174.8 million).
 
Wonder Woman grossed $103.3 million in its opening weekend, breaking the record for a female-directed film previously held by Sam Taylor-Johnson's Fifty Shades of Grey ($85.2 million on 13–15 February 2015).
 
And finally…
 
2017 breaks 2016's record with most films that crossed over $500 million. 18 films have grossed over $500 million.