The 2010s

The 2010s shattered genre boundaries: Parasite won Best Picture with a budget under $12 million, Mad Max: Fury Road earned six Oscars on a $150-million budget, and Moonlight and Get Out turned intimate indies into cultural flashpoints. Streaming giants like Netflix spent $15 billion on original content, transforming distribution and forcing theaters to adapt. This decade outperforms #8 (the 1940s) in global box-office diversity, with non-English films like Roma and Shoplifters reaching mainstream audiences. Meanwhile, #6’s (the 1980s) VHS-era independents look quaint next to the 2010s’ democratized digital cinema—more than 50% of Sundance 2019 selections were first-time directors. The decade’s 1,300+ films by women directors doubled the 2000s’ count, proving that inclusion drove both critical acclaim and commercial success.