The world is always on the lookout for more cool movies, for more adventures to live while safely sitting in front of their TVs or in a seat in the theater, helping add to the top 10 most googled movies in 2015.
This year has been quite full of awesome movies that hit theaters worldwide, although movies launched at the end of 2014 were also quite popular given the small number of days spent on the big screens in the previous year. Similarly, the movies launched this December will be a hit into 2016 as more and more people find the time and money to go check them out at the nearest theater.
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Some movies have been so popular this year that they’ve not only made it onto the most googled movies list, but also on the list of the top 10 Google Searches in 2015. That’s because these were movies with a lot of hype around them, some of it due to the marketing surrounding the production, some of it due to the names attached to the project, some of it due to the franchise they’re part of and most of all due to the fan base that’s already formed for this type of movies. Furious 7, Jurassic World and American Sniper, for instance, took up the sixth, fourth and tenth place respectively on the overall chart of this year’s most searched for terms on Google.
And if looking at Google’s top searches isn’t the most telling for how important some things were during a year, I don’t know what is. After all, the search engine has billions of users and some 40,000 search queries are handled by Google’s servers every second. That adds up to over 3.5 billion per day and 1.2 trillion per year.
So, we’re going to take a look at the top 10 most googled movies in 2015, hoping that our favorites will be on the list, which might as well mean that we contributed to them being there.
10. Birdman
The movie at number 10 on the list is Birdman, which was released back in November 2014 in the US, although it hit many countries in the rest of the world at the start of 2015. The film features Michael Keaton in the main role, but also Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, and many others, and tells the story of a former popular actor who struggles to cope with life after his career dies out.
Despite its popularity among Google users, the film wasn’t that much of a hit at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo, the film scored $42 million in the US and an extra $60 million worldwide, putting it at a total of $103 million. For a film with an estimated production budget of $18 million, that’s quite acceptable, but compared to others it’s pocket change. It also won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
9. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo
This is proof that not just Hollywood can make movies that are popular at a huge scale. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, translated to “Receive a treasure called love,” is an Indian romantic drama that features the popular Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor in the main roles.
What’s more, the film was released in India and Pakistan in the middle of November 2015, which means that it already managed to gather enough searches on Google to make it onto a list, higher than a Hollywood movie released a year prior.
Although it received mixed reviews from critics and fans, this is one of the highest grossing Bollywood films of all times, scoring about $60 million worldwide, with only about $4 million coming from the United States.
8. Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the top 10 most googled movies in 2015 thanks to the awesome visuals offered in the production, the cast, but also the franchise it is a part of. Featuring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Lenny Kravitz’s daughter, Zoe, among a full list of great actors, Mad Max: Fury Road brought back the post apocalyptic world that once featured Mel Gibson.
This time, a woman, played by Charlize Theron, rebels against a tyrannical ruler, helps some of the women he keeps prisoners escape and goes searching for the land where she was born. It’s an action-packed movie with some great scenes and even better music.
The movie cost about $150 million to make and it made just about that much in US box office, and an extra $222 million in foreign theaters.
7. Straight Outta Compton
Telling the story of several young men who armed themselves with their lyrics and courage to stand up to the authorities to tell the truth about life “in the hood.” Actors play the roles of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Dj Yella and MC Ren, to name a few, and try to portray life in Compton, South Central LA, California in 1986. The film hit quite a few chords and managed to bring in $161 million in the US box office and an extra $40 million in foreign markets. Considering it only cost about $28 million to make, this August movie did quite well for itself.
6. Spectre
On the sixth place we have a movie that made it onto the list of the best grossing titles of the year, making it to, coincidentally, the sixth place. Spectre is another 007 film featuring the latest James Bond (well, for the past four movies), Daniel Craig. The cast includes Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Monica Bellucci, Dave Bautista, Andrew Scott and more. This time, Bond uncovers a shadowy secret organization that gives the movie its name. As always, the movie is filled with action, but you already know what to expect of a Bond movie.
The film brought in some $192 million in the United States box office and an extra $630 million in the rest of the world. It was also quite expensive to make, all the effects and action scenes putting the production price at about $245 million.
5. Minions
Ah, the sweet, little, yellow, banana-yelling Minions have made it onto the list at number 5. For the first time in a movie that doesn’t involve the evil master Gru from Despicable Me, the Minions managed quite well on their own.
Of course, not only is this an animated movie that addresses to both children and the young at heart, but there was also quite a marketing campaign attached to the title, going back a year before it was even launched, full with amusing clips hitting the Internet. It also didn’t hurt the fact that in the both Despicable Me films the cute yellow fellows made quite an impression that had everyone eagerly awaiting to see them on their own.
Featuring Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton and many others as the voices of popular characters, Minions brought in over $336 million in the United States and another $821 million in foreign theaters. The over $1.15 billion it grossed worldwide puts it at number 4 in this year’s most successful movies.
4. Fifty Shades of Grey
Following the kids movie with an R-rated one seems to be quite appropriate given how diverse movie audiences are. Telling the story of the naïve Anastasia Steele, played by Dakota Johnson, and the handsome billionaire Christian Grey, played by Jamie Dornan, the movie features a few sex scenes and a few bondage ones that give people a wrong idea about BDSM, but that’s all on the author of the same-name book. The fact that it all started as a Twilight fanfiction makes things a bit weirder, especially since many viewers seemed to keep imagining Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson playing out the whole thing.
Either way, Fifty Shades of Grey grossed $166 million in the United States and an extra $404 million in foreign theaters, while the $570 million total put it at number 10 among this year’s top grossing movies. The movie also received attention because of the seeming hostility between its two stars, adding to the schadenfreude attention.
3. American Sniper
Released at the end of 2014, American Sniper tells the story of Navy S.E.A.L. Chris Kyle, mixing his time on the battlefield with that spent at home with family. The film features Bradley Cooper, who even won an Oscar for his performance and brought another award for the entire film, winning the golden statue for best movie.
American Sniper brought in $350 million in US theaters and close to $200 million in foreign countries, doing quite well for a movie that had a production budget of around $59 million.
2. Furious 7
The second most searched for movie on Google this year was Furious 7, from the Fast and Furious franchise. The movie is full of action scenes that defy the laws of physics, which is pretty much the norm for this franchise. While the films in this series are always a hit, it seems like this year there was even more hype, even though I’m sure they would have preferred it came from other sources rather than the tragic death of one of the main actors — Paul Walker — whose absence was addressed in the movie.
Featuring Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Michele Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris and The Rock, to name a few, Furious 7 brought in $353 million in the US box office and an extra $1.1 billion in foreign countries. This also put it on the list of the highest grossing movies of 2015, ranking second on that list.
1. Jurassic World
This long anticipated movie made it to the top of the list of the best grossing movies of the year, but also on the top of the searches on Google. The film telling the story of the new theme park built on the original site of the Jurassic Park that features genetically modified killing machines, pardon me, dinosaurs, stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and many others.
The film attracted many viewers worldwide, so many in fact that the US box office puts Jurassic World at $652 million and an extra $1 billion in foreign markets. The total of $1.6 billion makes it the top grossing movie in the world in 2015. This, however, puts it at number one in the top 10 most googled movies in 2015.
