Our big fat surprise
Who would have guessed that a $5 million independent film by unknown writer/actor Nia Vardalos would break all of Hollywood's rules? "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" arrived out of nowhere and attracted big word-of-mouth audiences with its story of a Greek woman who falls in love with a non-Greek guy and then tries to get her family's acceptance. Since debuting in April, the film has earned more than $210 million (so far) at the box office, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy and independent film in history. ("The Blair Witch Project" made $140.5 million in 1999). CBS even wants to launch a sitcom inspired by the film.

Source: IMDB/AP

Hip-hop on top
A number of films starring hip-hop artists topped the box-office charts this year. Eminem became the second artist (after Jennifer Lopez) to have a No.1 film and No.1 album the same week with his film debut, "8 Mile." Queen Latifah stole the show in "Brown Sugar," and Ice Cube extended his mini-empire by starring in three movies and writing two screenplays. "Barbershop," starring Ice Cube, proved so successful, a sequel is already in the works.

Box-office bonanza
Sony Pictures set the global box-office record for a single studio this year, raking in $2.75 billion in movie ticket sales. The studio got big boosts from films like "Spider-Man," which alone made $800 million globally, "Men in Black II" ($439 million), and "XXX" ($242 million). Sony had seen several big-budget films go bust during the '90s and went so far as to invent a film critic, "David Manning," to give raves to movies like "A Knight's Tale" (2001) and "Hollow Man" (2000). The new record beats 20th Century Fox's 1998 season ($2.68 billion), when "Titanic" was steaming strong.

Source: Reuters

Odd couples
When films are cast, good chemistry between the stars is key. Some of this year's surprise pairings worked just fine, but others were decidedly more Felix and Oscar than Hepburn and Tracy.

Hepburn and Tracy

Felix and Oscar