Films about the end of the world and what happens next are a massive attraction for moviegoers. Take Roland Emmerich's "2012" for example. It opened with an earth-shattering $225 million at the worldwide box office.
Ticket sales in the US and Canada brought in $65 million, with a foreign tally of $160 million from 105 countries.
Sony's Columbia Pictures said the film scored the highest worldwide opening for an original film not based on an established franchise, brand or best-seller.
In global terms, it ranks No. 9 for film openings, behind (from No. 1-8) "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "Spider-Man 3," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "The Da Vinci Code."
Emmerich is a master of the disaster film as he has tried to end the world twice before: once with aliens ("Independence Day") and once with the environment ("The Day After Tomorrow”).
Classic films like “The Omega Man,” “Logan’s Run” and “Soylent Green” depicted the future as being bleak and dangerous.
Newer films have thrown asteroids at us (“Deep Impact” and “Armageddon”) or gave us some sort of plague (“I Am Legend” and “Twelve Monkeys”).
There is also the theory of machines taking over the future as in films like “The Terminator” and “The Matrix.”
My favorite has to be when the entire world has become overrun by zombies like in “Dawn of the Dead,” “28 Days Later” and “Zombieland.”
And then there are always ideas that in the future the planet will be ruled by a bunch of damn, dirty apes (“Planet of the Apes”) or be covered in tons of water (“Waterworld”).
Or the world could be destroyed just to make for an intergalactic freeway, like in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Now that's a crappy way to go.
The world will continue to end when “The Road” hits theaters Nov. 25. It is about a father and son who try to survive the aftermath of an untold event that wiped off most of civilization.
“The Book of Eli” opens Jan. 15 and follows a man named Eli, a keeper of knowledge that can save humanity, as he traverses the wasteland of an apocalyptic planet.
It seems no matter what we do, Hollywood will continue to try and kill us off in theaters.
