The 15 Most Successful Original Films Of 2013

Christian Bale in Out of the Furnace

Total domestic gross: $251,515,000

Total global gross: $617,115,000

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 6

This isn't just an original film — it's wildly, epically, historically original, featuring just two on camera speaking roles and literally reinventing what it even means to set a modern feature film in space. A serious Oscar contender, Gravity may still rank lower than Iron Man 3, Despicable Me 2, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Man of Steel, and Monsters University at the box office, but it is the only one of those films to be No. 1 at the box office for three weekends in a row.

Total domestic gross: $187,168,425

Total global gross: $587,204,668

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 12

Released way back in March, this film about a family of cave people was just a mid-range performer for DreamWorks Animation, but it was good enough to be the second highest-grossing original film of the year.

Total domestic gross: $159,572,717

Total global gross: $229,711,871

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 13

Comedy is the last refuge for the original film, and no comedy was bigger this year in the U.S. than this one. And it starred two women. Hollywood, are you paying attention?

Total domestic gross: $150,394,119

Total global gross: $269,194,119

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 14

It only opened with $26.4 million in August, but this film just kept playing strongly for the next eight weeks, ultimately becoming Jennifer Aniston’s best-grossing film since 2003’s Bruce Almighty. We're the Millers even did better than The Heat overseas.

Total domestic gross: $134,506,920

Total global gross: $173,965,010

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 17

Yet another comedy! And it should be no surprise that both Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock have two films on this list. In fact, these two stars helped to bring in over $500 million in the domestic box office.

Total domestic gross: $117,723,989

Total global gross: $351,723,989

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 22

One of the biggest surprises of the year, this mega-twisty magician thriller will be known for all time as the film that bested Will and Jaden Smith.

Total domestic gross: $101,802,906

Total global gross: $407,602,906

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 28

Co-writer-director Guillermo Del Toro's big-budget homage to the low-budget giant, rampaging monster movies of his childhood was a box office disappointment in the U.S., but it pulled in three times its domestic take overseas — including a whopping $111 million in China. That's right: This film made more at the box office in China than it did in the U.S. And that's only going to happen more often in the years ahead.

Total domestic gross: $101,470,202

Total global gross: $124,888,161

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 29

With a reported budget of $32 million, this apocalyptic meta-comedy is one of the most profitable studio releases of the year.

Total domestic gross: $98,925,640

Total global gross: $161,025,640

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 31

This is when things begin to get a little…sad. Yes, this derivative Die-Hard-at-the-White-House thriller is one of the top 10 grossing original movies of the year.

Total domestic gross: $93,050,117

Total global gross: $286,140,700

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 33

In 2009, writer-director Neill Blomkamp released District 9, a thrillingly original sci-fi movie with zero movie stars, a reported $30 million budget, and set in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was a major hit (raking in $210 million globally), and even earned an Oscar nod for Best Picture. Four years later, Blomkamp released Elysium, also an original sci-fi film, but this time with two major movie stars, a reported $110 million budget, and set in Los Angeles. Globally, it brought in $286 million, a financial disappointment given the film’s much bigger budget and profile — and its U.S. box office actually came in under District 9’s domestic take.

Let that be a lesson, Hollywood: Movie stars and American settings are box office poison! (I'm joking.) (Mostly.)

Total domestic gross: $83,012,885

Total global gross: $281,866,271

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 38

DreamWorks Animation's second film of the year was one of its lowest-grossing films in the U.S. ever, and the story is only marginally better overseas. And yet it's still enough to rank as one of the best-grossing original films of the year.

Total domestic gross: $73,103,784

Total global gross: $205,366,737

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 40

Oh dear. There is perhaps no more damning an indictment of Hollywood's inability to embrace truly original filmmaking than the fact that the other derivative Die-Hard-at-the-White-House thriller from this year was also one of the top-grossing original films of the year.

Total domestic gross: $71,628,180

Total global gross: $146,428,180

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 41

When an original horror film is a hit, Hollywood usually churns out sequels to that film over and over and over again. But although Mama is the most successful original horror film of the year (not including The Conjuring, of course), director Andrés Muschietti told ScreenCrush in January that he's not keen on making a sequel. And there hasn't been much talk of a Mama sequel since.

(Technically, this horror film is based on a 2008 short written by Muschietti. But since Muschietti also co-wrote and directed the feature-length version, it still counts as an original work from the filmmakers' imagination.)

Total domestic gross: $64,473,115

Total global gross: $89,328,627

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 49

No such hand-wringing over a sequel to this ultra-low-budget horror film: A sequel is already set to open June 20, 2014.

Total domestic gross: $61,002,302

Total global gross: $118,433,958

Rank for all 2013 domestic box office: 50

Of the top 50 movies at the box office released this year, only 15 were completely original films — and only the last one on the list is a straightforward drama. There is a great deal to celebrate about the crop of truly fabulous films in 2013, but the fact that so precious few of them aren't derived from some other source is a sad commentary on the state of filmmaking today.