Top Movies of 2016: Superheroes and Critters

It's no surprise that through the first quarter of 2016, the top-grossing films have been purely fantasy movies, with not a single real-world story among the five biggest films of the year in terms of U.S. domestic gross earnings. It's a little more suprising, however, that those top films offer just two specific kinds of fantasy entertainment.

Two of the top five films are superhero films. The year's top film to date is Deadpool, with a domestic gross of $360 million, and not all that far behind in second place is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with $311 million. Superhero stories continue to be the strongest of American films, and one or both of those two films is likely to be displaced at the top next month by the highly anticipated Captain America: Civil War.

The rest of the top five is filled with films with a particular kind of lead characters: talking animals. Second through fifth place in the top five go to computer-animated films in which talking non-human characters are in the spotlight: Zootopia in second place with $307 million Kung Fu Panda 3 in fourth place with $141 million, and The Jungle Book in fifth place with $103 million. The Jungle Book is set to improve its standing, however, since it achieved fifth place with just its opening weekend gross.