The Best and Worst of Everything In 2017: Books, Movies, Songs, Content & More

Ryan
2266 days ago.

The Best (and Worst) Movies, Books, Shows, Podcasts, Stories & More of 2017

As 2017 draws to a close its a time to look back on the best and worst of the year that was. Rather than spend the time compiling these lists myself, I’ve gathered the best lists from around the internet for your entertainment and enlightenment.

Scroll down for the best and and worst of 2017. The best movies, songs, books and podcasts. The top stories, products and teams as well as the worst of all of the above and more.

We collected the best and worst of everything in 2017. The best movies, books, shows, podcasts, stories, songs, people and more of the year as well as the worst of 2017.
We collected the best and worst of everything in 2017. The best movies, books, shows, podcasts, stories, songs, people and more of the year as well as the worst of 2017.

Will Beauty And The Beast End The Year On Top?

Disney’s live action remake of its animated hit Beauty and the Beast  gracefully entered movie theaters back in March and made just shy of $175 million over its debut weekend. Starring Luke Evans, Emma Watson and Josh Gad — among others — the film currently holds the title of the highest-grossing movie of 2017 with receipts of $504 million domestically.

Even with a hefty budget reported to be in the $160 million range, its worldwide receipts of $1.26 billion have to please the studio.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi sits in the second spot for the year with $445 million in ticket sales as of this writing. Many are expecting it to take the top spot by the time the ball drops in Times Square.

Was Wormwood The Best Movie Of 2017? Was It Even A Movie?

There’s a vast difference between lists of the highest-grossing movies of the year and lists of movies deemed to be the best by critics.

There’s even a difference on what projects can even be classified as movies.

Esquire has Wormwood from Erroll Morris as its best movie of the year.  Netflix, where it is available to stream, lists it as a six-part docuseries. Morris intended the project to be viewed in six parts, but recut the film into a 241-minute long movie to submit to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for award consideration. Even they didn’t really know how to classify it.

Dunkirk, which made $188 million in U.S. theaters, checked in at #3 on Esquire‘s list. Adam Sandler just missed the top ten. Seriously.

Thrillist picked Call Me By Your Name as the best film of the year. Scott Mendelson, writing for Forbes, picked Get Out. Jordan Peele’s film horror flick also was on top over on Rotten Tomatoes. Brian Truitt of USA TODAY picked A Ghost Story as the best movie of the year. A.O. Scott of The New York Times picked A Florida Project as his top film.

On the other end of the spectrum, Transformers: The Last Knight was named the worst movie of the year by Rolling Stone. Other films to make their top ten were The Dark Tower, Fifty Shades Darker, Song To Song, The Mummy, The Mountain Between Us, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Daddy’s Home 2, Suburbicon and The Emoji Movie.

The Internet Movie Database has Underworld: Blood Wars as the worst movie of the year followed by Fifty Shades Darker. 

Wonder Was Best-Selling Book Of 2017 On Amazon

Just like with movies, you will find also find a vast difference between the top books according to critics and the top books by sales.

Wonder, which was published in 2012 by R.J. Palacio and became an excellent movie in 2017, was the top-selling book of 2017 according to Amazon. Amazon editors picked Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murder and the Birth of the FBI as the top book of the year.

Publishers Weekly picked Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India as  one of its top books of 2017.

A Handmaid’s Tale, powered by the Hulu series based on it, was the top-selling Kindle e-book of 2017.

Moana & Hamilton Soundtracks Move Big Numbers In 2017, Kendrick Lamar Has Top Album

Amazon’s list of the top-selling albums (cd & vinyl) of 2017 is topped by two soundtracks. The sound track to Disney’s Moana topped the list with the soundtrack for the Broadway hit musical Hamilton coming in second.

Taylor Swift came in third with her latest album, Reputation.  In terms of individual songs, Ed Sheeran was the king at Amazon with ” Shape Of You.” Big Thief took the top spot on NPR‘s 100 Best Songs of 2017 list with “Mary” beating out “Humble” by Kendrick Lamar.

Lamar did get love from Pitchfork, which is his Damn album as the top album of 2017.

Not much on other genres of music? Neither am I.

The critics over at Billboard picked “The Ones That Like Me” by Brantley Gilbert as the top country song of 2017. The track beat out “Every Little Thing” by Carly Pearce for the top spot. Personally, I was pleased to see LANCO in at #9 with “Greatest Love Story.”

Taste of Country chose “Body Like A Back Road” by Sam Hunt as its top song while Rolling Stone went with “If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell.

If you’re a country fan like me, check out this mashup of the top country songs of the year by Temecula Road, a band comprised of three teenage siblings.

Pressed For Time? Best Podcasts of 2017

Do you find yourself too pressed for time to enjoy many movies or books?  If one of your new year’s resolutions for 2018 is to get into more podcasts, check out the Top 25 Podcast Episodes of 2017 list from The Guardian. Included on the lists are episodes of Dirty John, S-Town, Pod Save America, Ear Hustle, My Dad Wrote a Porno, Heavyweight, The Joe Rogan Experience and more.

No episodes of The Tim McKernan Show are included, but they should be.

President Donald Trump Dominates News Cycle In 2017

President Donald Trump, who was sworn in on January 20 of the this, of course dominated featured greatly in the top news stories of 2017. The NBC News roundup of the top stories of 2017 featured President Trump, mass shootings in Las Vegas and Texas, opioids, hurricanes, terrorism, the #metoo movement and more.

Pew Does Its Research

The 2017 news cycle was also dominated by “fake news”, at least according to President Trump. The Pew Research Center found an interesting nugget in all the bluster. Not only did the first 60 days of President Trump’s time in office feature more negative coverage than his predecessors, it also featured much fewer positive stories.

The Pew Research Center put out a list of 16 other “striking findings” in 2017.  They included the fact that more adults in the U.S. are living alone, many people may be in denial about their jobs becoming automated, men and women differ in their opinions about the differences between the genders and more.

The Best Content of The Year

The Pew Research Center folks weren’t the only ones to put together a list of their best content of the year.

Thrillist put out a list of its top stories that no one read.  Included are stories about how people risk their lives to make Iceberg Vodka, the Big Buck Hunter championships, Instagram, paying bribes abroad and more.

While ESPN let a whole lot of people go in 2017 (and put Katie Nolan in the witness protection program somewhere), the outlet also featured some amazing photojournalism. 

Deadspin is probably best-known for its shorter works, but the outlet also featured some great longer piece, or “long reads”, and featured the best in a list.  Featured are stories on SB Nation exploiting unpaid and barely-paid contributors, abuse at USA Gymnastics, someone not being killed at a baseball stadium and more.

The New Yorker put together a list of its best visual and interactive stories of 2017. Jalopnik put together a list of its best stories about automobiles.  WIRED also put together a list of its best photo stories from 2017.

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Ryan

Ryan is a weird dude. He doesn't cook, yet owns a plethora of kitchen gadgets. He rationalized buying a SodaStream while unemployed. He counts Step Up 2: The Streets as one of his favorite movies along with Footloose, Rent, Grease and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. He loves Mizzou but only wants them in the SEC so he can tailgate in Nashville. He owns a ShakeWeight and AbLounger, but still loves him some John Donut and Billie's Fine Foods. You can get more of Ryan at iLoveSoulard.com or just check the stool on the far end of the bar at iTap in Soulard.

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