David Gordon Green's Halloween was a breath of fresh air for both the stagnant franchise and the slasher genre as a whole; discarding 40 years of poor sequels and subpar remakes, the filmmaker crafted a direct follow up to John Carpenter's classic 1978 original that was part sequel, part reboot, part remake and all fun.
One of Hollywood's more unlikely billion-dollar franchises is Mamma Mia!, the feature-length adaptation of the ABBA musical. While the stage production was incredibly popular, it was still a shock when the instant cult favorite rocketed to $603 million at the box office.
Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman 1984 turned out to be a very polarizing movie, with the internet intensely debating the pros and cons of Gal Gadot's second solo adventure. One thing most people can agree on is that the 151-minute epic could have trimmed an awful lot of narrative fat, but that was just the tip of the argumentative iceberg.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge may have recently dropped out of Amazon's episodic Mr. & Mrs. Smith reboot opposite Donald Glover, but the actress and filmmaker is still having a pretty great 2021.
Denzel Washington is unquestionably one of the greatest actors in history, scooping two Academy Award wins from nine nominations and consistently proving himself as one of the industry's most reliable box office draws, one that's just as comfortable and capable in prestige drama as they are in action thrillers.