“The LEGO Movie,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.” With the beginning of 2024, these movies are celebrating their tenth anniversary of release.

Cinematic Universes hit a milestone in 2014 with both installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe [MCU] grossing above 700 million dollars each, well above any previous year Marvel Studios released a pair of films. 

Fan favorite films from the studio including “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and the aforementioned “Guardians of the Galaxy” released alongside “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” from competing studios 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures respectively.

The Monsterverse from Warner Brothers [WB] also released the first film in its titular franchise in the form of the “Godzilla” remake by Gareth Edwards. Though the film received mixed reviews upon release, the studio has garnered multiple follow-up films related to the radioactive lizard, with the fifth film, “Godzilla x Kong: the New Empire” coming to theaters this March.

“I think [the Monsterverse] is doing a good job revisiting Godzilla,” junior Jacob Harms said. “[‘New Empire’] looks pretty good. I don’t imagine pink with Godzilla; I always imagined Godzilla blue.”

Warner Brothers also saw the debut of the final film in the “The Hobbit” trilogy. “The Battle of the Five Armies” saw its band of dwarves, elves, and goblins go up against each other in an epic battle to save Middle Earth to staggering results. Much like its two predecessors, the third installment in the trilogy faced backlash on its long-winded storytelling and the need from WB to make a trilogy out of a single book.

Alongside the beginning of the Monsterverse, many firsts came out in 2014. Not only did “Guardians of the Galaxy” launch a highly successful trilogy of films, “The LEGO Movie” [also starring Chris Pratt] would also introduce moviegoers to the colorful world of LEGO.

“John Wick,” “Big Hero Six,” and “Edge of Tomorrow” would see high praise from fans and critics alike all while having to balance good storytelling and worldbuilding into their narratives.

“[Standalone films have] to introduce everyone,” Harms said. “In a series, you can just say [a] name and everybody just knows what they need to keep building on that [story].”

Movies like “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” “Robocop,” and “How to Train Your Dragon 2” in comparison, would build off of prior films, either as a direct sequel or a reboot to entice fans into a new franchise.

It’s not just films from 2014 that are celebrating this year, notable films released in 2004 being “Incredibles” and “Spider-Man 2.”

1994 would see the release of “Speed” and “The Lion King,” both grossing in the top ten films worldwide for the year. “Ghostbusters” and “The Karate Kid” would see similar results a decade prior, in 1984.

“I watched both a lot as a kid,” junior Alan Crawford said. “They’re classics. I probably watched Ghostbusters more as a kid, the VFX at the time make the ghosts look really iconic.”

The age and popularity of the aforementioned films shows the right doings and direction of films over the years with “Spider-Man” and “Lion King” both getting remade to high praise and box  office returns.

The “Ghostbusters” and “Karate Kid” franchises have also garnered praise with both having new installments being added to their forty-year-old franchises in the form of the Netflix original series “Cobra Kai” and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” releasing alongside “Godzilla x Kong” in March of this year.

“I don’t think they should bring [classic movies] back because usually most times with the exception of Top Gun, the second movie, I think my opinion is worse than the original,” junior Ava Stearns said. “I think it’s kind of like the nostalgia of the movies and [new ones don’t] really bring it back.”