10 biggest movies of 2018

8. Ant-Man and the Wasp

Small heroes made a big splash a the box office, with the Ant-Man sequel taking $216 million domestically this year. Following its predecessor’s fairly low earnings, Ant Man and the Wasp gave us more to love with Evangeline Lilly’s character Hope van Dyne getting an awesome bug-styled suit of her own. And naturally, it’s so much cooler than Scott Lang’s. It has wings. And blasters. Hope brings the swagger all by herself.

Meanwhile, Scott spends a good part of the movie being endearingly clueless while Hope and her father Hank make fun of him. And despite being a big-budget Marvel movie, the central antagonist can hardly be described as a villain at all; she’s traumatized, suffering, and more a victim than a villain in the end.

Ant-Man is an interesting case. It’s so upbeat and low-stakes compared to many of Marvel’s other offerings. It proves that a superhero movie doesn’t have to contain universe-altering events in order to be enjoyable and profitable.

What makes the Ant-Man franchise successful is that it covers a different niche from most other Marvel movies. Its battles are, in all senses of the word, smaller. It focuses more on the relationships of the characters than on weaving an interesting plot. It knows its concept is hard to take seriously, and so it doesn’t. As cliche as it is, these movies might have the most heart out of Marvel’s entire franchise; Ant-Man and the Wasp almost certainly contains the most on-screen hugs. How’s that for a money-making formula, Marvel? Let your characters hug more.