Rhode Island Movie Corner's Annual End of Summer Fan Poll HALL OF FAME!

Welcome, folks, to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Annual End of Summer Fan Poll Hall of Fame! In case you are new to this site, I hold an event every year where I encourage you all to vote for your favorite film from that summer’s film slate. After the voting process is complete, I proceed to write a ‘Results Post’ that covers every film that got a vote all the way up to that year’s champion. Beginning in 2018 (the fifth-year anniversary of the event), I started to incorporate a ‘Hall of Fame’ section into the ‘Introductory Post’ that I do for each year’s poll that recaps all the past winners. Since it’s gotten to the point where it now takes more time to recap all the winners than for me to simply explain the timing and rules of the event, I decided to spin this off into its own thing thanks to Blogger’s ‘Page’ feature. And yes, folks, I intend to update this every year with each new winner. So, without further ado, here are the past winners of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Annual End of Summer Fan Poll!

2014

The inaugural edition of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Annual End of Summer Fan Poll ended up having quite a decent turnout, especially when you consider the fact that I basically started this whole event on a whim as a way of trying to produce more content for this site. This first year saw 43 votes go out to 19 different films and notably ended in a three-way tie at five votes apiece that highlighted one of my personal favorite aspects of this event in how it honors films of all genres and scopes regardless of their overall reception.

First, there was The Fault in Our Stars, an adaptation of author John Green’s best-selling novel from 2012. Starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as a pair of cancer patients who meet and fall in love at a cancer support group, the film clearly satisfied fans of its source material, earning over $300 million worldwide on a $12 million budget and garnering highly respectable reviews from critics.

Then, there was 22 Jump Street, the sequel to 2012’s surprise hit 21 Jump Street about a pair of police officers who go undercover as high school students to investigate a drug outbreak. With the latter, the dynamic duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller managed to take a somewhat forgotten television series from the 80’s that was mainly known for being one of the early career-defining roles for Johnny Depp and turned it into one of the most popular comedies of the decade. But against all odds, Lord and Miller then managed to pull off the impossible again (which, given their filmography, is a common occurrence of theirs) with the sequel, in which the main protagonists ‘graduate’ to the position of posing as college students, and deliver the rare comedy sequel that is not only just as well-regarded as its predecessor but, on an even rarer level, was arguably better. That’s not something you can usually say about a comedy film franchise.

Finally, we have Guardians of the Galaxy which, upon its release, was easily one of the biggest gambles that Marvel Studios had ever taken at the time with their Marvel Cinematic Universe. Going into it, the titular Guardians were easily some of the most obscure characters to come out of the world of Marvel Comics. Nowadays, of course, they’re easily some of Marvel’s most beloved characters as writer/director James Gunn brought his trademark sense of humor and heart to craft what is still seen as one of the MCU’s most popular films more than a decade after its release, along with the two equally acclaimed sequels that followed.

2015

With one successful poll in the bag, we continued this event in 2015 and garnered an even better turnout with 47 votes going to 20 different films. This time around, though, there was practically no competition when it came to that year’s winner, whose ten-vote performance doubled that of either of the two second-place films from that year.

After spending several years stuck in development hell thanks to all sorts of delays, visionary filmmaker George Miller was finally able to revitalize his most famous franchise, the post-apocalyptic action-thrillers known as the Mad Max series, with Mad Max: Fury Road. And for many a film fan in an era dominated by CGI-heavy blockbusters, Fury Road was the much-needed source of cinematic serotonin that they’d been craving for years thanks to Fury Road’s top-of-the-line practical-based action sequences and distinct visual style.

2016

The internet’s largely negative stance towards 2016’s summer film slate did not deter us from holding this event that year, and as a result, we got to see another improved turnout: 58 votes for 20 different films. For the second time in event history, we had a tie for first place as two films that couldn’t be any more different to each other earned nine votes each.

First up is what I’d call the obvious front-runner, AKA the one that was practically guaranteed to do well. The film in question? Captain America: Civil War, the MCU’s Phase 3 kick-starter and the second outing for the franchise’s directorial mainstays Joe and Anthony Russo after 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Civil War managed to take the premise of the incredibly controversial Marvel Comics storyline from 2006-2007 that it’s loosely based on and make it work by reframing it through the MCU’s ongoing storylines, thus crafting one of the franchise’s most thrilling and emotionally brutal outings as our heroes find themselves split down the middle by an impending legislative act that seeks to oversee their operations.

And then on the other side of the coin was the unexpected sleeper hit of that year’s poll, Bad Moms. Directed by the duo of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who co-wrote 2009’s smash hit The Hangover (but NOT its infamously polarizing sequels), the film starred Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn as a trio of overworked mothers who decide that they’ve had enough with their stressful matriarchal duties and that they deserve some time away from it all. While not a complete runaway hit with critics, the film was hugely successful financially, making over $183 million worldwide. Thus, it earned a holiday-themed sequel the following year, A Bad Moms Christmas, which brought in Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, and Susan Sarandon as the main characters’ mothers. The latter trio were then reportedly slated to headline their own film, Bad Moms’ Moms, but both it and a potential father-based spin-off Bad Dads were, by many accounts, canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2017

The 2017 event matched its predecessor’s 58-vote turnout while achieving a record for films represented in the poll with 22 overall. And as for this year’s winner, it would set the stage for what would become one of this event’s most prominent precedents: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE CHRISTOPHER NOLAN!!

In a year where I personally figured that the big front-runner was going to be Wonder Woman, the first genuinely great installment of the DC Extended Universe, it was ultimately overshadowed by the revered filmmaker’s latest endeavor, Dunkirk, by just a single vote (8 votes for the win). Based on the real-life military operation known as Operation Dynamo in which more than 338,000 Allied soldiers were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk, France in the middle of World War II, the film did attract some controversy initially when it was revealed that Nolan had managed to secure a PG-13 rating for it that was usually uncommon for the war film genre. And yet, upon its release, the film would go on to be one of the most acclaimed outings of Nolan’s career and was touted for all the usual merits of a Nolan production, from its spectacular cinematography that demanded it to be seen in IMAX 70mm (now a definitive feature of Nolan’s filmography) to Nolan’s trademark penchant for practical effects work.

2018

2018, the fifth-year anniversary of the event… that, for some reason, garnered the event’s lowest turnout since 2014 with only 44 votes. Honestly, I have no idea what happened here (in fact, I think I even extended the event a week just to try and see if I could wrangle up a few more votes) but, nevertheless, 16 films were honored that year. And in a year where I imagine that a lot of people were expecting the MCU’s big ensemble picture Avengers: Infinity War to steal the show, it wound up in second place with only half of the 12 votes that were ultimately taken… by a Spike Lee joint!

Yes, the revered filmmaker behind such classics as Do the Right Thing and his biopic on civil rights activist Malcolm X delivered one of the biggest hits of his career with BlackKkKlansman. Telling the true story of police officer Ron Stallworth, a Colorado Springs police officer who initiates an infiltration operation on his town’s local Ku Klux Klan chapter that goes as far as him having direct conversations with the KKK’s Grand Wizard David Duke, the film was a major critical and commercial hit that ended up earning Lee that year’s Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay as it was widely praised for its timely commentary on the still-prevalent threat of organized hate groups.

2019

The 2019 event achieved TWO major records with the overall voter turnout (89 votes for 17 different films) and the number of votes for that year’s winner at 19. And after two years of having to share the #1 spot with other films, the MCU finally had its first undisputed champion thanks to what was clearly going to be that year’s event’s biggest frontrunner.

Yes, it was only fitting that Avengers: Endgame, the legendary finale to the MCU’s Infinity Saga, would be the one to sweep that year’s event. We’re talking about a film that was such a big deal when it came out that it briefly overtook James Cameron’s Avatar as the highest-grossing film of all time before a few re-releases of Cameron’s sci-fi epic let it regain the top spot.

2020

Well, I’ve used the following meme for the past several years to describe this next turn of events and I’m not about to change up my process now so…

Yes, due to a certain pandemic, we did not hold the Annual End of Summer Fan Poll in 2020. At one point, I did consider an alternative poll for that year (something along the lines of “What’s the most unique ‘new’ thing that you watched during this necessary worldwide lockdown of ours?”) but I ultimately decided not to do that as I feared that the range of potential answers would be too much to handle for a single post.

2021

It was quite a suspenseful process relaunching the End of Summer Fan Poll after a year’s absence, but I’m happy to report that y’all came through for us and allowed us to keep this event going with a 69-vote turnout (isn’t that nice? 😉) for 20 films even with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic still in play for some people.

Taking the top spot with an impressive 16-vote turnout, 2021’s champion was most likely one of the first films that a lot of folks might have gone to see in theaters after more than a year away due to the pandemic (it was certainly the case for me). Following in the footsteps of Disney’s 2014 live-action re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent, Cruella dared to re-invent the iconic titular antagonist of 101 Dalmatians into a rebellious anti-hero. It was a controversial idea, for sure, but one that ultimately fared well enough with critics and audiences that a potential sequel is currently in the works.

2022

A special request to extend the 2022 event’s voting period an extra day proved to be a monumental decision that allowed us to achieve an event record 119-vote turnout (our first-ever year with 100+ votes tallied) for 14 films. And while this year’s champion was already in the lead before the extra day of voting, it would ultimately benefit the most from that extra day securing a record-SHATTERING 56 (!!!) votes. I think it’s safe to say that this is a record that will most likely not get broken anytime soon.

And really, what better film is there to represent that historic feat than the unexpected juggernaut that was Top Gun: Maverick? The hotly anticipated legacy sequel to 1986’s era-defining classic Top Gun defied all expectations to be a billion-dollar hit at the box office and has been widely touted as the film that practically saved the theatergoing experience in the wake of the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2023

Another year with a one-day extension ended up garnering an even better turnout than the year before as the 2023 event garnered 122 votes. Unlike 2022, however, this wasn’t a year where the #1 champ ended up taking most of the votes as they were instead spread out much more evenly amongst the 22 films that were represented. In fact, this year’s Top 3 films each managed to net at least twenty votes each, with this year’s winner at 24 votes once again reminding us of one important fact: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE CHRISTOPHER NOLAN!

While Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar-making take on Barbie may have been the talk of the town during the summer of 2023, it ended up being this year’s runner-up to the other half of the viral double feature sensation that it became a part of online: Barbenheimer. Yes, Christopher Nolan ended up taking the top spot for the second time in event history after his win with Dunkirk in 2017 with his epic World War II-era biopic on the renowned theoretical physicist who spearheaded the creation of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Not only that, but Oppenheimer would also end up being the film that finally earned Nolan an Oscar for Best Director while also taking home the top prize of Best Picture.

2024

We may not have achieved another 100-vote turnout in 2024, only making it to 85 votes this year, but we did end up having our first tie for first place since 2016 with two films earning 12 votes apiece.

First up, we had our first animated film to take the top spot, Inside Out 2, the sequel to Pixar’s highly acclaimed 2015 outing Inside Out that managed to match its predecessor’s critical acclaim while also becoming the studio’s highest-grossing film of all-time with a near $1.7 billion run at the box office. Said total also made it the highest-grossing animated film of all-time up to that point before that spot was overtaken the following year by Ne Zha 2.

On a more unexpected note, Inside Out 2 ended up sharing the #1 spot with Twisters, a legacy sequel to 1996’s tornado-based action-thriller Twister. And if you ask me, this was quite indicative of the film’s broad appeal as an old-fashioned summer blockbuster that, even with its major connection to one of the most popular blockbusters of the 90’s, wasn’t your standard ‘legacy sequel’ and instead managed to thoroughly stand on its own merit right alongside its beloved predecessor.

2025

2025… AKA the year where a bunch of delays resulted in me not posting the Results Post (which, even then, had to be condensed down to avoid even FURTHER delays) until May of the following year. Anyway, we had 74 votes cast in 2025 with a 20-vote winner at #1.

Despite it being saddled with the anticipated backlash that all of Disney’s live-action remakes have faced, the live-action remake of Disney Animation’s 2002 smash hit Lilo & Stitch would end up being one of the most successful of the bunch financially speaking as it managed to break the $1 billion mark at the box office. As a result, a sequel that is set to be directed by the original film’s co-director (and voice of Stitch) Chris Sanders is in the works for a May 2028 release.

2026

TBA