People in the media like to look back at the year before so, although I have never claimed to be an expert, I watch my fair share of movies and thus decided to take a look back at the year that was in Hollywood and a brief look ahead at next year.

This year had its share of blockbusters, as Hollywood racked up a record $11 billion in domestic business. All in all, 10 movies recorded better than $200 million in ticket sales in the United States alone, led by "Star Wars" and "Jurassic World," both of which raked in more than $640 million. All of this data comes courtesy of Box Office Mojo, a website dedicated to tracking ticket sales for movies, both domestically and internationally.

While analyzing ticket sales is one way of gauging the success of Hollywood, it is just as important to take a look at the movies themselves. As is often the case, these conversations often turn to ranking the movies in some fashion. Rather than bucking this trend, I will instead rank the top 6 movies, starting at six and working my way to number one. For the benefit of those that have not seen these movies, I will try to keep this as spoiler free as possible.

6. "Kingsman: The Secret Service"

Ranking these movies was a tough exercise. When I watched this movie back in February, I expected it to be a decent movie that would be fun to watch. What I got instead was quite simply the “funnest” movie of the year. This was full of enough action to satisfy the biggest fan of action movies, smart dialog for an action filled comic book movie, and a chance to see Samuel L. Jackson play a villainous geek turned supervillain. If you have not seen this movie, make plans to catch it and enjoy yourself for a couple hours.

5. "No Escape"

This movie was one of the most intense movies I have watched in years. The tension is ratcheted up early on in this thriller and the tension never really dissipates over the course of the rest of the movie. From the moment that Owen Wilson throws his daughter off of one building to his wife a couple floors down on the next building, my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest from the excitement. The inclusion of Pierce Brosnan, a personal favorite of mine, was just icing on the cake.

4. "Avenger: Age of Ultron and Antman"

I fully accept the critique that putting both of these movies at #4 is cheating a little, but it is my opinion that the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are all so intertwined that they feel less like individual movies and more like extensions of one another. Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron was a great movie, pure and simple. The addition of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (I really do not care that they did not call them that, I read comics and know who they were) were wonderful additions to Whedon’s Marvel universe. I have to be honest and say that I had serious reservations about Paul Rudd being in "Ant-Man." Simply put, Paul Rudd came through marvelously and hit this performance out of the park. Ant Man was more fun to watch than Age of Ultron was and a worthy addition to the excellence that viewers have come to expect from Marvel’s movies.

3. Creed

Speaking of movies that had me worried going in, "Creed" was the latest entry into the Rocky franchise. Being the first film set in the Rocky franchise that was not written by Sylvester Stallone, this movie had all of the earmarks of a movie that was little more than a cash grab. A funny thing happened along the way, though, as "Creed" proved to be a fantastic story that reminds us that while action and adventure are all well and good, a strong plot is so much more important to a great movie. Add in an Oscar worthy supporting actor performance from highly underrated actor Sylvester Stallone, and this became one of the very best movies in the Rocky franchise. If you like sports movies, and you like Rocky, watch this movie as soon as you can, it was great!

2. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

J.J. Abrams was on thin ice with me, due largely to the treatment that Star Trek had received from the director. I was genuinely afraid that this movie was not going to be very good. So, it was all of this in mind that I sat down to watch this film. Abrams shattered all of my wildest expectations and put together a film that undeniably had Abrams fingerprints on it and yet was a fitting tribute to the storytelling of George Lucas’ original trilogy. The damage that had been done to the franchise by the prequels was swept under the rug by a movie that promises a bright future for "Star Wars." There are issues, to be certain, that I will not go into here for the purpose of those that have not seen it yet. Those issues aside, this movie was still one heck of a good film and a cultural phenomenon. Seeing hundreds of kids show up excited to watch this movie at the theater I work at goes to show that the future of Disney’s "Star Wars" is extremely bright.

1. "The Martian"

When I evaluate a movie, I tend to fall back on one tried and true criteria. Did it move me emotionally? In that regard, Matt Damon’s "The Martian" was a huge success. This movie moved me to all of the emotions during the two hours that I watched it. Be it sadness, excitement, happiness, hope, or despair, this movie had it all. This movie was an emotional roller coaster that had my undivided attention in its grasp for well over two hours. There was not a single minute that I felt my mind wandering, and to me that is the mark of a great film.

So, there it is, a top six list of movies in 2015 to close out the year. After looking back at 2015, it becomes only natural to look ahead to what is to come in 2016. Simply put, 2015’s record of 11 billion dollars that was mentioned before is in serious jeopardy. 2016 is going to be a huge year for movies, as there are a bunch of blockbusters on the horizon. Starting this week with Quentin Tarantino’s "The Hateful Eight," there are a plethora of great movies coming out in the next 12 months. Comic Book movie fans will have their fill as "Deadpool," "Batman Vs. Superman," "X-Men Apocalypse," "Captain America Civil War," "Suicide Squad," and "Dr. Strange" will be released this year. One of the greatest actors to not win an Oscar, Leonardo DiCaprio, stars in what looks to be a very interesting film, "The Revenant." "Star Trek Beyond" and "Rogue One" will be the next additions to the Star trek and Star Wars franchises, respectively. "Independence Day" redefined the industry back in 1996 and will finally see a sequel this coming June. "Kung Fu Panda 3" and "Finding Dory" will both compete for highest grossing children’s movies this year, while "Assassin’s Creed" and "Warcraft" both represent attempts to recreate success of video game franchises on the big screen. By this time next year, there could be half a dozen or more additions to the highest grossing films of all-time list. Enjoy yourselves at the movies everyone, it’s going to be a great year!