Worldwide box office: 'Transformers 4' triumphs in 2014

Superheroes, sequels, prequels and adaptations dominated the worldwide box office this year, led by "Transformers 4: Age of Extinction," the only movie to earn over $1 billion in theaters during 2014.

With $1.087 billion in cumulative revenues, the fourth installment in Michael Bay's "Transformers" franchise was the undisputed box office champion of 2014. "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Maleficent," two of the rare non-sequel movies in the ranking, claimed second and third place with $772.5 million and $757.8 million respectively.

Superheroes continued to lure crowds of moviegoers this year, as evidenced by the success of "X-Men: Days of Future Past" ($746 million), "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" ($714.1 million) and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" ($709 million).

The rest of the ranking is full of sequels and adaptations, starting with "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" ($708.3), "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" ($669.7 million) and "How to Train Your Dragon 2" ($618.9 million).

Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" is the exception to the rule. With $641.4 million in cumulative revenues this year, the sci-fi film with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway claimed ninth place.

"Transformers 4" is the only movie to have crossed the $1 billion mark in 2014. This marks the first time that only one film topped this symbolic threshhold since 2009, when "Avatar" captivated moviegoers to the tune of $2.7 billion. In 2013, "Frozen" and "Iron Man 3" both achieved the same feat, grossing $1.2 billion each.