2008 was a year unlike any other. That is not hyperbole, that is not me being dramatic. The year 2008 was wholly unique in terms of its importance and consequence.
2008 had a lot of bad. We all remember the great financial crisis that exploded in the fall of that year. It felt like terrifying news was coming out every day. Business after business closing, jobs being lost by the millions. The entire world felt like it was spinning off of its axis. Our parents hadn’t seen anything like that Our grandparents hadn’t seen anything like it either. It had been a long, long time since America suffered like it did that fall.
2008 had some inspiration too. After an intense campaign, many were electrified by the election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the land. Obama’s rise to the presidency was obviously historic but it was also a true victory for young and progressive Americans. Not since Kennedy had a president so perfectly captured the hope of our country. It felt like some things were really changing for the better when Obama was voted in.
Then there were the movies. As it was with so many other things, the movies of 2008 were important. Big. Consequential. The top ten domestic hits of 2008 contained some major sequels and one movie that truly changed Hollywood forever. It was a massive year and perhaps one of the most vital of our lifetimes.
The country was changing, our politics were changing, our movies were changing. 2008 was really something.
Top Ten Movies of 2008 (Domestic)
The Dark Knight was the biggest film of 2008. You already know this. One of the largest, most memorable and best blockbusters of all time, The Dark Knight was the talk of the country long before it debuted in July. People were hyped for the Batman Begins sequel and curious to see what Christopher Nolan had up his sleeves. He was promising us a crime epic in the vein of Heat and that piqued a lot of interest. His casting choices (Heath Ledger as the Joker, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent) also got people intrigued. Buzz was building and it was building in a major way.
The buzz shifted tragically in January 2008 when Heath Ledger suddenly passed away, turning The Dark Knight into more than just a movie, it was also a memorial. People were already talking about Ledger’s performance before his passing. Many were saying it was transcendent and so totally different than anything we had seen before. Quite a few had already said that Ledger was on his way to an Oscar nomination. But when he died, everything about The Dark Knight was ratcheted up. Interest in the movie sky-rocketed months before any audiences saw it. It felt like the nation was captivated months before July.
When The Dark Knight did hit theaters, it was a runaway success. Critics adored the film, especially Ledger’s incredible turn as the Joker. They praised Nolan’s terrific direction and tight-as-a-drum script. Christian Bale was hailed for his take as both Batman and Bruce Wayne, as he perfectly balanced both. The entire movie was called a masterpiece from day one.
And audience devoured the movie. The Dark Knight scored the biggest opening weekend ever and stayed at the number one position for four weeks, a difficult and jaw-dropping feat. Showing after showing were sold out and people returned to theaters multiple times to soak in every second of the epic on the big screen. The Dark Knight became one of the rare things that all Americans could agree on.
But it wasn’t the only comic book movie that took the country by storm. 2008 was the year America met Iron Man. The character was known before but not well by the mass public. He was a lesser-known Marvel hero, far below X-Men and Spider-Man in terms of popularity. But 2008 brought us Jon Favreau’s Iron Man and the world was introduced to this new star. The film was destined to be a success, it felt like a ready-made smash, but its final gross ($318 million domestically) was still super impressive. It shot onto the scene with a $98 million opening and ended up being the second-biggest film of the year.
It was the first step in Marvel’s plan for global domination. Their grand intentions were becoming apparent during Iron Man. They were building a cinematic universe, starting with Tony Stark and expanding outward. Nick Fury started assembling his Avengers in 2008 and it was a move that truly altered the way movies worked. It would lead to multiple sequels, billions upon billions of dollars and a complete shift in the importance and weight of superhero films. Marvel Studios changed things forever. They changed how superheroes were portrayed. They changed how sequels interacted with each other. They changed the entire idea of tying films together. And they obviously changed the notion of just how much money a movie could make. It all started with Iron Man. It all started back in 2008.
Other shout-outs must be made because 2008 had more than just The Dark Knight and Iron Man. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came this close to stealing the number two position from Iron Man and that’s saying a lot. Sure, Skull’s success was a foregone conclusion but some didn’t expect it to be as serious a contender as it would have been ten years prior. It had been years since Americans saw Dr. Jones on the big screen, could he possibly compete with modern blockbusters? Well, yes. The answer was a definitive yes. While Skull ended up being the least-loved Indy film, it still brought in a massive amount of money. It’s no surprise that they’re still trying to make Indiana Jones 5 happen. Don’t forget that this series is still very profitable.
And then there was adorable little WALL-E, the Disney-Pixar movie that won the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere. The movie clocked in at number five but had an impact that you can’t put a number on. Universally loved, the film made even the stodgy, old Academy take note. Not enough, of course, because WALL-E was robbed of its deserved Best Picture nomination — as was The Dark Knight. The snub of those two films made the Academy shake things up and expand its Best Picture race to ten nominations in the next year, a concession that surprised and frustrated many. It was just another example of 2008 changing things.
Like I said, 2008 was a year of consequence and serious change, both in theaters and the world at large. It was a year that history books will write about for ages and it sometimes feels nuts to think it all happened within one 12-month span. While the following year, 2009, would calm down a little bit, it only got bigger in terms of Hollywood success. Records were about to be broken in a major way. That always seems to happen when James Cameron comes around.