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In 2008, superheroes, spies, and animated animals dominated the box office, with moviegoers flocking to theaters to see a little bit of everything, from new heroes to old favorites. Here are the top ten highest grossing films at the domestic box office this year. ~ by Philio Yu
| 1. THE DARK KNIGHT Total Gross: $530,750,228 Christian Bale faced off against Heath Ledger for the highly-anticipated, action-packed follow-up to 2005’s “Batman Begins,” conquering the box office with not only the biggest movie of the year, but also the second highest-grossing movie of all time — behind “Titanic” — sending the Joker laughing all the way to the bank. |
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| 2. IRON MAN Total Gross: $318,313,199 Director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. brought Marvel Comics’ popular armored superhero to the big screen, kicking off the summer blockbuster season, defying expectations and blasting off all the way to the number two spot. |
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| 3. INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL Total Gross: $317,023,851 Nearly twenty years after his last Crusade, Harrison Ford returned as everyone’s favorite whip-cracking archaeologist to don the famed fedora once more, raiding a large trove of box office treasure but falling short of record-breaking expectations. |
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| 4. HANCOCK Total Gross: $227,946,274 Once again, Will Smith proved to be king of Independence Day, starring as a high-flying superhero with some really bad public relation problems, and smashing his way to his biggest summer opening weekend ever. |
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| 5. WALL-E Total Gross: $223,749,872 The animation wizards at Pixar rocketed to critical and box office success again with the biggest family movie of the year, an out-of-this-world tale of a lonely little robot with a really big heart. |
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| 6. KUNG FU PANDA Total Gross: $215,434,591 Armed with all the right moves and an all-star voice cast, DreamWorks’ unlikely kung fu hero battled his way to box office greatness, nabbing the animation studio one of its biggest, fattest, fuzziest hits yet. |
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| 7. MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA Total Gross: $172,332,000 In the sequel to 2005’s animated animal hit, Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra and the rest of the zoo crew crash landed in uncharted territory, and “moved it, moved it” at the box office, kicking off the holiday movie season. |
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| 8. QUANTUM OF SOLACE Total Gross: $161,300,000 Picking up where 2006’s “Casino Royale” left off, Daniel Craig returned to action as 007 and raked in a cool sum in ticket sales, making James Bond the second most successful movie franchise behind “Star Wars.” |
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| 9. TWILIGHT Total Gross: $158,461,000 Fueled by an enthusiastic fanbase, Stephanie Meyer’s hit literary phenomenon jumped from the page to the big screen to take a bite out of the annual box office, grabbing the number 9 spot during the last weeks of the year. |
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| 10. HORTON HEARS A WHO Total Gross: $154,529,439 Featuring the voice talents of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, and based on Dr. Seuss’ storybook classic, the computer-animated Horton hit it big in March with one of the top spring opening weekends ever. |
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