Guardians of the Galaxy

Trailers are a huge part of the fabric of movies. They play before every film shown in theaters, and on every movie website around the world. They’re commercials, obviously, but they’re also more than that; miniature works of art that utilize the core elements of cinema—image, sound, music, action, editing—at their most pure and refined. And today at ScreenCrush we’re celebrating movie trailers by saluting the best sneak previews of 2014.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is the biggest movie of 2014. It’s made over $750 million worldwide. Kids love it. Adults love it. Grandparents even love it. Lots of people (us included!) have seen the movie multiple times, but do you know everything there is to know about Marvel’s latest superhero phenomenon? They're the frickin Guardians of the Galaxy!

Marvel's ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ was one of the most surprising blockbusters of 2014 for a variety of reasons, but one of the most interesting side effects of its success is that it got people all over the world listening to a bunch of catchy songs from the '60s and ‘70s. Yes, Star-Lord's “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” mix tape took the world by storm, even reaching number one on the billboard charts. Considering how much the soundtrack informed the tone of the film, it's not surprising that the movie ended with the reveal of an “Awesome Mix Vol. 2,” which we‘ll surely get to hear in the sequel. Now, director James Gunn has revealed the existence of and “Awesome Mix Vol. 0” playlist.

We'd previously heard that the 'Bond 24' filmmakers wanted the villain for the upcoming sequel to be unlike the modern day villains and instead a throwback to the big hulking henchmen like Jaws or Oddjob. The casting call was looking for "an imposing, extremely physically fit actor" over 6'2" tall. Not a ton of guys like that around, but the director Sam Mendes didn't have to look further than the biggest movie of the year.

As we quickly learned after watching Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' the world has much more love to give to this intergalactic band of superhero misfits. Aside from the upcoming 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2' in 2017, an announcement at New York Comic Con confirms a new animated TV series is coming to Disney XD, and the first poster and test footage for the affair have landed.

Eight weeks after its release, Marvel Music and Hollywood Records' Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Vol. 1" soundtrack has been certified gold, selling more than 500,000 copies. The album is the second chart-topping soundtrack of this year and was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in its second and third weeks of release in August. Meanwhile, Marvel's "Guardians of the Gala

There actually was a new film released this week. It's called 'The Identical' and it's a Christian-themed fable about what would have happened if Elvis Presley's stillborn twin brother had survived. Well, for reasons that should be obvious after reading that sentence, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' held onto the number one spot this weekend while 'The Identical' opened outside of the top 10, never to be heard from again.

While 'Guardians of the Galaxy' was able to pleasantly surprise people with how good it is, now all eyes are on 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2' and whether it can live up to the original. One thing we've all wondered about the sequel is whether the Guardians would be introduced to any Earth-bound heroes, or vice versa. Could there be any new members of the Guardians of the Galaxy?

A few weeks ago, this column was skeptical that Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy' could reach $300 million. Now, it seems impossible that it won't. Thanks to ecstatic word of mouth, killer marketing and only one genuinely successful box office challenger (that would be 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'), Marvel's oddball space opera has managed to spend three of the past four weekends at the number one spot at the box office, giving it enough momentum to officially become the highest grossing film of 2014.