The Top Five War Films of All Time

Intelligent scripting brings the emotional tension to life and the rich magical references (Chung Ling Soo, The Bullet Catch, The Water Torture) make this film a must for magicians. Ricky Jay appears as an established stage performer and Michael Caine is great as the illusion builder - although I would never ask him to build me a vanishing bird cage!

I really can't separate these two films in terms of quality of acting, direction and story so they share first place billing with the less serious....

Magicians (2007) actually deserves a Gold Star in this list. Directed by Andrew O Connor and with script written in collaboration with David Britland, Andy Nyman and Anthony Owen and others this is a magical tour de force. Opting for a comic look at the world of the conjuror, Magicians, sees Mitchell and Webb rattle through some great one-liners; pay homage to some key magicians and have a real knock at some of the oddness that is part and parcel of the magic scene. The great Pat Page makes an appearance, and most of the magic 'stalls' at the magic convention hosting the competition at the centre of the films plot were provided by well known magic dealers.

Have you ever wondered what were the top grossing films in the world? When a film reaches the heights of popularity, it can easily earn more than a billion dollars. The following is a list of the top earning films.

1. Avatar (2009) Directed by James Cameron, the hugely successful film continues to break box office records, approaching $700 million domestically and showing little signs of slowing. The film has yet to be released on DVD, which will add considerably to its grosses. The storyline was on one Cameron spent many years writing and reworking, and it also introduced a new technology to the cinema, being released in 3-D and incorporating heavy use of animation.

2. Titanic (1997) This, of course, is another film directed by James Cameron that did extremely well internationally, and made enormous profit, in spite of the fact that it was the most expensive film ever made at the time. Worldwide box office grosses reached $1.8 billion.

3. The Dark Knight (2008) Directed by Chris Nolan, this film from the Batman franchise rose above expectations, becoming a hit with both critics and audiences. Box office receipts reached over a billion dollars. Mr. Nolan has now become the go-to man for action adventure films and is currently consulting the studios for other films in this genre, including the new "Superman" reboot.

4. Star Wars (1977) Long considered the most successful and influential film of all time, it took twenty years for George Lucas's famous space opera to get knocked out of the top position as the most widely seen film of all time.

5. Shrek 2 (2004) The only animated film to be in the top five, this entry featured the voices of big names like Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy. Much more successful than its predecessor, this sequel made close to one billion dollars in worldwide box office receipts.

Since the top spot in this list happened very recently, we can see that the list of the most popular films in the world will continue to shift over time.