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On November 13 , 2023,Screen Rantcelebrated its 20th day of remembrance , and to commemorate this momentous occasion , we ’re seem back at the fix movie and TV news account of our lifespan . It ’s a cliché hardly deserving mentioning that the news bicycle hurtles frontwards fantastically quickly , and over two X , Screen Rant has been at the keen edge , covering the evolution of the diligence . What started as a love project web log unify a fistful of picture show fan has become one of the world ’s leading moving picture news platform of all . It is with immense pridefulness that we get to be that for 1000000 of movie and television receiver fans across the world .
Just as Screen Rant has grown massively over those 20 year , the movie and TV industry have shifted dramatically . The eld of accessible net change everything ; supposedly unfilmable picture show becoming filmable ; remakes and sequels became rife ; TV enjoyed an incredible Golden Age ; shared universes and billion - dollar corner office hauls became the average ; and cyclosis was endure , introducing the theme ofbinge - worthy television set . And through it all , Screen Rant was there with you . Here ’s to 20 more age .
We face back on the past 25 years and select the best movies that have unloose ( include in 2023 ) to keep Screen Rant ’s 20th anniversary .
30Harry Potter And The Birth Of The YA Movie
2001-2011
WhenJK Rowling ’s Harry Potter booksbecame a world-wide book merchandising phenomenon , it was only a thing of time before they became a motion picture franchise . But the Boy Who Lived form the motion picture industriousness in broader ways than the $ 7.7bn box office take they ’d eventually garner over the span of 10 years . Harry Potter kicked off a creative arms subspecies to find the next Harry Potter that Warner Bros. is still chasing with the April 2023 announcement of a new telly serial ground on Rowling ’s Holy Scripture .
Pottermania inspire unsuccessful attempt to accommodate the Alex Rider series ( in 2006 ’s Stormbreaker ) , Percy Jackson ’s series , Philip Pullman ’s His Dark Materials , The Books of Ember , Darren Shan ’s The Vampire ’s Assistant … All focused not only on aboveboard adaptation , but on seniority and brand - edifice . Literary reality as copious as Narnia , the Divergent universe , and the fantabulous cosmos of Maze Runner all failed by Harry Potter ’s standard .
And for proportional successes likeThe Spiderwick Chronicles , there were multiple disappointments , untilTwilight , andThe Hunger Gamesboth recapture some of the magic . Even a final judgement of theFantastic Beastsseries , which pivoted too hard into the Harry Potter lore to squawk up the brand appeal did n’t quite work . And still , YA Word will inevitably be snatch up in expensive rights auction sale to adjudicate and get there again .
From nostalgic moments to the most inspiring scene , these Harry Potter instant are always fun to rewatch .
29YouTube Created
December 15, 2005
While it has not become the direct - to - audience picture platform the YouTube Red aspirations may have propose at one time , YouTube essentially transfer the entire landscape of the manufacture . Movie trailers came out of the cinema , with YouTube first day viewing figures regularly held up as a tangible metric of ballyhoo . Arguably more significantly , YouTube also activate a generation of creator critics , able to offer increasingly mellow production immediate reactions that quickly replaced in - mortal post - screen vox pop . As the platform matured , so did the story of criticism with television essays , lover - first round - mesa and podcasts , and a level of inscrutable dive depth psychology that was antecedently inconceivable .
From sci - fi to drama , here are the best free moving picture on YouTube , offering everything from School of Rock to The Hunger Games . All for nothing !
28The 2007-2008 Writers Strike
November 5, 2007 – February 12, 2008
For 99 days at the end of 2007 , The Writers Guild of America ( WGA ) took to the street to push for increase residual rate for DVD sales , legal power over animation and realness writer , and control of residue from new medium . Like the strikes that would come almost 2 X later , a work shift in how money flow in the industriousness ( at this peak determined by the supremacy of DVD gross sales ) , and emerging threats to the position quo prompted action . While the videodisk residuals proposals ultimately lead to no change , the new medium military issue protect the Guild from the rise of streaming , years out front of its onset .
Inevitably , the ten-strike action came with huge ramifications across the industry . world shows likeThe awful RaceandBig Brotheractually do good , thanks to their deficiency of writers . On the other side of the coin , unnumerable top tier show , likeThe Big Bang Theory , Breaking Bad , theCSIcatalog , Grey ’s Anatomy , Lost , andThe Officeall received forgetful time of year , while others like24were delay , and more still were set off instantly .
With another Writers Guild work stoppage going on , now is a good clock time to look back on all of the TV evince that were severely changed by the 2007 strike .
27Hollywood Rallies After Heath Ledger’s Death
January 22, 2008
Heath Ledger ’s death in 2008 was a seismic event that had comparatively inconsequent effects like the impingement onThe Dark Knight ’s merchandising hunting expedition . at last , Ledger would become only the 2d doer to ever win a posthumous Oscar ( after Peter Finch in 1977 forNetwork ) for his performance as the Joker . His last also sparked a morbid captivation in news wheel , as a deep personal cataclysm became the source of cabal theory around his method acting plan of attack to capturing the iconic Batman villain . But putting apart the tower inches created , Ledger also inspired an outpouring of heartache that was captured in art in an unprecedented way .
When he pop off , Ledger was midway through filming Terry Gilliam’sThe Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus . Instead of remodel the headliner , the yield pause for a month after Gilliam ab initio consider the production was over ( partially because Ledger was a key marketing pointedness in finance it ) . Then Johnny Depp , Jude Law , and Colin Farrell - all close friends of Ledger - replaced him in different conniption , explicate his character Tony appearing differently in the film ’s different worlds . While Tom Cruise also verbalise interestingness in appear , Gilliam decide to keep it as a " family " affair , preserving a almost - unprecedented aesthetic court to Ledger made in the immediate aftermath of his end .
26Avatar Becomes The Biggest Movie Of All Time (Twice)
December 17, 2009
When Screen Rant start , it had been 6 years since the last James Cameron moving picture , and would be another 6 before his next released . The film director had thrown his secondment behind McG’sTerminator 3 : The Rise of the Machinesand releasedTitanicsub documentaryGhosts of the Abyss , but it would n’t be until 2009’sAvatarthat he once again testify himself as King of the World .
In the years since , it became pop to bashAvatarfor its simplisticPocahontas - ape plot and a perceive lack of ethnic wallop ( ignoring the technical institution discuss later in this article that became the average ) . What should never be bury is how Cameron is capable of creating global appeal striking . Avataropened to glowing reviews , and , after a interracial opening weekend , had box situation peg well into 2010 , coast pastTitanicto become the highest - grossing motion picture of all time . It held the title until 2019 , whenAvengers : Endgameinched past , but rectify it with a smartly timed China re - release ahead of belated sequelAvatar : The Way of Water .
TheAvatarfranchise is poise to be an crucial part of Screen Rant ’s reporting well into the next decade . After Cameron proved his critics incorrect withThe Way of Water , currently the third - gamey grossing movie of all time , there ’s three more sequel on the way through to 2031 .
253D Returns (Temporarily)
One of the most immediate impacts ofAvatar ’s $ 2.7 billion success was the return of the movie doodad that refuses to truly die : 3D. It may have had a similar red - and - blue heyday in the 1950s and 1980s , but this prison term it was an overhauled tech ( card meth were out , polarize lens were in ) and applied to the glitziest blockbusters rather than third entry in repulsion franchises .
Although three-D had been on the up for a couple of years before , it wasAvatarthat made it a must - have . A undulation of hastily retrofit release in 2010 ( most notoriously withClash of the Titans ) muted some of the awe , but still helped motion-picture show like Tim Burton’sAlice in Wonderlandbecome billion dollar hits . For several years , three-D - with a requisite upcharge - was the default for tentpole releases , irrespective of audience pursuit .
Eventually , around the mid-2010s , this had pass out , although not before a smattering of big name film director making completely unique movies : Ang Lee’sLife of Pi , Martin Scorsese’sHugoand , emollient of the crop , Alfonso Cuaron’sGravity . The tendency and increase access to digital jutting also saw a rise in gamy - frame - rate productions , with Peter Jackson’sThe Hobbitand Lee’sGemini Man . Cameron again proved the master when he finally releasedAvatar : The direction of Waterin motion - smoothing HFR to minimal repercussion .
With embodiment : The Way of Water hitting theater , rooter can look back on some of the other great movies that used 3D to vivid effect .
24The Second Disney Animation Renaissance
2006
In 2003 , the Disney Renaissance was well and truly over . Pixar had make itself as the new animation king and the House of Mouse ’s competing efforts had begun to show signs of wearable ( 2003 wasBrother Bear , a year by and by came the critically savagedHome on the Range ) . A shift into 3D did nothing to improve Leslie Townes Hope .
modification began with Disney buy Pixar from Steve Jobs in 2006 and John Lasseter stepping up to lead the total vitality yield . Cell animation was left in the debris , but the originative cleverness ( and melodic focus ) return . Today , Tangled , Frozen , ZootopiaandMoanastand comfortably in the Disney pantheon alongsideThe Little Mermaid , Beauty and the Beast , Aladdin , andThe Lion King .
Although that era seems now to have also ended , with a string of misses and Illumination and Sony Animation providing more popular alternatives , Disney still shows it can capture stake uniquely after the mega streaming release ofEncantoin 2022 .
23The Hobbit Becomes A Trilogy, Peter Jackson Has A Breakdown
Jul 30, 2012
The earliest article onThe Hobbiton Screen Rant was published on May 25 , 2009 . earlier stand for to be directed by Guilermo del Toro , the pitch was a stylistically - distinct Middle - earth escapade that , over two motion-picture show , would tell the level of Bilbo Baggins and acquire into the original pic .
That ’s not what we get . Eventually , del Toro left and , with the pressure of budget and release appointment birth down , Jackson took over as director . Then , months before the first moving-picture show -An Unexpected Journey- released , it was announced thatThe Hobbitwould become a trilogy . take up to be a answer of corporate avarice , the motion-picture show ’s own behind - the - scenes docudrama The Appendicies revealed a output push to breakage period , with Jackson write the good afternoon ’s book on his luncheon break . While the five studios behind the project would n’t balk at more release dates , the choice seems to come as much from Jackson as anybody else .
Although reactions toAn Unexpected Journeyhewed positive in 2012 , opinion easy soured as the bloated , unrealThe Desolation of SmaugandThe Battle of the Five Armiesreleased . Now , with multiple fantabulous analyses of the pic from the likes of Just Write and Lindsay Ellis , their attitude as a miss is set .
Peter Jackson , for his part , has transfer his vocation , focusing on repair old footage for uniquely compelling docudrama on the First World War and The Beatles ’ Get Back sessions .
22The Avengers Starts A Shared Universe Arms Race
April 26, 2012
It ’s almost unthinkable now , but beforeIron Man(2008 ) kick - started the MCU , the idea of share creation across multiple picture or goggle box appearance were a whatchamacallit for the most part . rarefied examples like Dan Aykroyd ’s cameo inCasper , or Kevin Smith ’s Askewniverse baffle over withScream 3were off - hand rarities . TheUniversal Monsters dealership , and Godzilla ’s apportion Earth were the trend - setters , but it was n’t until the MCU that shared universes became a brand conclusion .
Even the MCU struggled with self-confidence to begin with : while Samuel L Jackson ’s Nick Fury appeared in theIron Manpost - credits scene , an Avengers motion-picture show was not firmly planned , and everything was dependent on Jon Favreau ’s gamble paying off . When it did , everything modify , lurching ahead and establishing a vogue for everything , everywhere , all at once being linked . Since then , the DCEU and DCU , Sony ’s Spider - Verse , the Wizarding World , the MonsterVerse , Sonic ’s Cinematic Universe , and the Hanna - Barbera shared macrocosm have all follow .
21Disney Buys Lucasfilm, Reboots Star Wars
Oct 30, 2012
“ Yes , you read that headline aright ( and no , this is not some sort of detailed put-on … we conceive ) . ” began Screen Rant ’s coverage of Disney ’s leverage of Lucasfilm and annunciation of a sequel trilogy . So unexpected was the tidings after George Lucas enfold up the prequel trilogy and pivoted into animation . think dead , release to TV and video recording games , Star Wars was well and unfeignedly back .
The ensue narrative is one of light and dark . Suspicious at first , Star Wars fandom was won around with the appointment of JJ Abrams as director ofStar Wars 7 , whichbrought back the original cast of Mark Hamill , Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher alongside newcomers Daisy Ridley , Adam Driver and John Boyega . The Force Awakensopened to a media ballyhoo rarely seen , gross over $ 2 billion worldwide and actuate a galaxy of theories . The trilogy ’s subsequent pic both grossed over $ 1 billion each .
yield return marred the effort from the start , with a revolving door of writer and directors on almost every project ( the only movie to have a reportedly smooth production was Rian Johnson ’s perennially divisiveStar warfare : The Last Jedi ) . Things reached a peak whenPhil Lord and Chris Miller were fired80 % of the way through creatingSolo : A Star Wars Story , replaced for extensive reshoots with Ron Howard . Although the pic marked Star Wars ’ first flop , it wasThe Rise of Skywalkerthat left audiences most perplexed .
Star Wars has since pivoted to streaming video with an US Army of prequel , subsequence and spinoff shows expand the creation , ahead of a income tax return to theaters with three upcoming movies announced . Screen Rant now has a dedicated Star Wars team led by Tom Bacon , extend the releases and diving deeply into the world .
