• The 2000s saw the resurgence of several genres.
Fantasy film franchises dominated the box office with
The Lord of the Rings,
Harry Potter,
Pirates of the Caribbean, the
Star Wars prequel trilogy (beginning in 1999),
The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.
Comic book superhero films became a blockbuster subgenre following the releases of
X-Men,
Unbreakable, and
Spider-Man; culminating in the unprecedented achievements of
The Dark Knight in both revenue and acclaim.
Gladiator sparked the revival of
historical epics set in
ancient times (e.g.,
300), and the
Bollywood-inspired
Moulin Rouge! did the same for
live action musical films in the
Western world (e.g.,
Chicago).
Hong Kong fight choreographers like
Yuen Woo-ping continued their influence in
Hollywood with such
martial arts films as
Kill Bill: Volume 1 and
Kill Bill: Volume 2, even leading to the spread of
wire fu into other subgenres alongside filmmaker
John Woo's
gun fu from the likes of
Mission: Impossible 2. • Certain film categories that were generally not popular in North America became more attractive to western moviegoers.
Subtitled non-English language films such as
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
Amélie,
Hero,
The Passion of the Christ, ''
Pan's Labyrinth, and Apocalypto (plus the majorities of Babel and Inglourious Basterds); as well as feature-length documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, Earth, and Michael Jackson's This Is It''; ended up being very successful. •
Computer animation replaced
traditional animation as the dominant technique for animated pictures in American cinema, especially after the release of
Shrek, which is the first film to win the
Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Further extending to the exploration of
motion capture technology in such films as
Robert Zemeckis'
The Polar Express,
Beowulf, and
A Christmas Carol. However, hand-drawn
anime films also gained more exposure outside of Japan with the releases of
Hayao Miyazaki's
Spirited Away, ''
Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo; while stop-motion films earned significant audience interest thanks to Chicken Run, Corpse Bride, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Coraline''.
DreamWorks Animation was the
top animation studio of the decade, with
Pixar and
20th Century Fox Animation following close behind (the latter after
Fox Animation Studios was shut down on October 31, 2000). •
Major film studios started to focus their budgets on established titles with built-in
fandoms to lower the risk of commercial failures and maximize financial profits. Increasing the productions of
sequels,
prequels,
remakes,
reboots,
adaptations,
spin-offs,
crossovers, and so on; often as attempts to create or revive franchises. Capitalizing especially on
nostalgia induced by the likes of
Shaft, ''
Charlie's Angels, Planet of the Apes, Scooby-Doo, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Freddy vs. Jason, Starsky & Hutch, Alien vs. Predator, Herbie: Fully Loaded, The Dukes of Hazzard, King Kong, Superman Returns, Miami Vice, Rocky Balboa, TMNT, Live Free or Die Hard, Transformers, Rambo, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra'', and many others. Out of the 50 highest-grossing films of the decade worldwide, only nine (of which six are animated) are not based on another property, though one of these became the top-grosser of all time: late 2009's
Avatar. == Highest-grossing films ==