The 50 Highest-Grossing Movies of All Time: Your Top Box Office Earners Ever Worldwide
2026 has already given us three all-timers in Toy Story 5, The Odyssey, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with the latter climbing all the way up to No. 12... and still going.
[Box office figures updated on 8/10/2026]
After Avengers: Endgame and Avatar duked it out for bragging rights as the all-time highest-grossing movie in 2019, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which effectively shuttered theaters (some of them never to reopen), and this list seemed safe for the time being. But in late 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home blew everyone away and nostalgia-bombed its way into the top 10.
Just a few months later, the decades-in-the-making sequel Top Gun: Maverick also shocked the world by swooping past the $1 billion mark, and another half year later, Avatar: The Way of Water proved James Cameron is the box office GOAT by shooting all the way up to the No. 3 spot. And with the addition of global hits Inside Out 2 in 2024 and Zootopia 2 in 2024, Disney now lays claim to a whopping eight of the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time (nine, if you count its joint ownership of Titanic with Paramount).
- Recommended: All Billion-Dollar Movies in Order
In 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie surprised everyone by jolting into the top half of this list in just its first six weeks of release, ultimately landing at No. 16, and most were ready to call it a year. Then Barbenheimer fever hit, and before we knew it, we had a new champion that was not only the highest-grossing film ever solo-directed by a woman, but also the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. studio history. 2025 was another big year, with three films — including James Cameron’s third Avatar movie, Fire and Ash — entering the top 20, and in 2026, after Toy Story 5 cracked the top 50, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day joined in quick succession, with the latter becoming the second-fastest film ever to reach the $1 billion milestone — it’s already sitting at No. 12 all time — and both still in theaters and climbing as of the latest update.
For the list below, we’ve included global box office performance, as well as domestic numbers and release dates. We included dollars earned in re-releases, and in each of our descriptions, we look at where the film stood record-wise at the time of its run and dive into things like critical and audience reception. We’ll be here to track the progress of new blockbusters and regularly update this list of top box office performers. So keep your eyes here, and check in with our weekly weekend box office wrap-ups.
1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50
81%
Box Office: $2.924 billion worldwide / $785.2 million domestic (including re-releases)
Release Date: December 18, 2009
The world had to wait some 12 years for James Cameron to follow up the biggest film of all time with what would become the new biggest film of all time. Nobody believed he was going to surpass Titanic’s numbers with this tale of an alien planet and the paraplegic Marine who teams up with its inhabitants in the battle for Unobtanium. But he did. At the peak of a 3-D reemergence, aided by the filmmaker’s usual technological gamesmanship (and higher ticket prices), Avatar‘s seven straight weekends at No. 1 led to over $595 million at the North American box office, ultimately becoming the highest domestic earner ever and the only film ever to earn $2 billion outside of the U.S. and Canada, making it the world’s highest grosser at the time. Nearly 10 years later, Avengers: Endgame snatched the crown, but with an Avatar sequel on the way in 2021, the now Disney-owned-and-rebranded 20th Century Studios decided to re-release the film in China and pushed it back into pole position.
94%
Box Office: $2.799 billion worldwide / $858.4 million domestic (including re-releases)
Release Date: April 26, 2019
As the journey that began in 2008 with Iron Man was coming to an end, audiences who had been holding their breath after perhaps the biggest cliffhanger since The Empire Strikes Back could not wait to buy their tickets — and did they ever buy those tickets when they finally could. Opening weekend for Avengers: Endgame in April 2019 surpassed Infinity War’s year-long record by nearly $100 million. In just eight days, the film had grossed a half billion domestically. One by one, the records fell, leading many to speculate when, not if, Avatar‘s previous record ($2.787 billion) would fall. But in the era of the modern blockbuster, even a record-breaker can be front-loaded and spend only three weeks atop the charts. After just six weeks of release, Endgame was about $73 million away from dethroning Avatar — substantial ground to make up. but Marvel and Disney re-released the film on June 28, 2019 with new goodies over its end credits. Over the weekend of July 19, 2019 — its 13th week of release — Endgame squeaked ahead… at least for a while. With a 2021 re-release in China, Avatar did ultimately take back the crown, but it doesn’t diminish the incredible achievement of Endgame.
76%
Box Office: $2.33 billion worldwide / $688.5 million domestic
Release Date: December 16, 2022
For 13 years, the arguments about whether or not James Cameron’s Avatar maintained a cultural footprint strong enough to draw in the crowds again only increased. The counter-argument of “Don’t bet against the king” turned out to be the right one. Despite having just the 38th-highest opening weekend at the time, Avatar: The Way of Water benefited around the world from word of mouth that another theatrical event was upon us. Spending seven weeks atop the box office (the same as its predecessor) and 15 in the top 10 (one more than the original), the sequel to the biggest film of all time erased all doubts. Once again, Cameron made the most expensive film ever and came out profitable on the other side, securing his place to have three of the four biggest spectacles ever made.
91%
Box Office: $2.27 billion worldwide / $23.3 million domestic (including re-releases)
Release Date: Jan. 29, 2025 (China), Feb. 14, 2025 (US)
The biggest international release of all-time is not Avatar or The Avengers or even Star Wars. It belongs to an animated film about a young boy and his demon-fighting powers. The original 2019 film Ne Zha was barely a blip in the states ($3.69 million) but amassed over $719 million in China (or over 99% of its global gross). Ne Zha II then broke all of China’s box office records besting The Force Awakens ($936.7 million) in just 11 days. It passed Inside Out 2 to become the highest-grossing animated film ever in only three weeks and became the first animated and non-American film to gross $2 billion.
88%
Box Office: $2.265 billion worldwide / $674.4 million domestic (including re-releases)
Release Date: December 19, 1997
James Cameron makes expensive movies. The Abyss, Terminator 2, and True Lies were all the most expensive movies of their time upon release. In 1997, Cameron blew out the budget again, and this time there was worry he may have gone too far. Though delayed from July until December, Titanic nevertheless became a global phenomenon the likes of which the box office had never seen at the time. After 15 straight weeks at No. 1, 14 Oscar nominations, and ultimately 11 statuettes, Titanic, its stars, and its signature song were ingrained in the hearts and tear ducts of the world, and the movie would hold the all-time box office record for 12 years — until Cameron would eclipse himself once again with Avatar.
93%
Box Office: $2.071 billion worldwide / $936.7 million domestic
Release Date: December 18, 2015
Twelve years after the completion of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, J.J. Abrams was tasked with making Episode VII — a monumental undertaking, and a risky one. Were people still interested after the prequels? Were they burnt out? The approach was to mix the old and the new, and it worked. Abrams gave a brand new cast of characters the chance to interact with the original trio of Luke, Han, and Leia, and generations of fans were so ready for the adventure that they gave the film the highest opening weekend in history ($247.9 million). In just under three weeks, The Force Awakens became the all-time domestic champion, passing Avatar and joining the $2 billion club within 54 days. It still remains the highest-grossing domestic release of all time.
85%
Box Office: $2.052 billion worldwide / $678.8 million domestic
Release Date: April 27, 2018
Just shy of 10 years since it began, the Marvel Cinematic Universe gathered nearly every one of its characters for a galaxy-wide showdown with the series’ Big Bad, Thanos. Avengers: Infinity War featured one of the gutsiest cliffhangers in any franchise’s history, leaving audiences to wait in shock for an entire year to discover how Phase 3 of the epic series would end. The film bested The Force Awakens’ three-day opening weekend record with $257.6 million and hit the $2 billion mark in 48 days. Domestically, it would ultimately come up just short of Black Panther, which was released two months prior.
93%
Box Office: $1.921 billion worldwide / $814.9 million domestic
Release Date: December 15, 2021
Speaking of gathering Marvel characters for an epic showdown, 2021 provided an unexpected box office champion that would swing triumphantly into the top 10. That is to say, the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home wasn’t unexpected because of the film itself, which was an ambitious, multiverse-expanding entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that brought together some of the most beloved characters in the web-slinger’s big-screen history in a funny, heartbreaking, thrilling spectacle. No, it was unexpected because it managed this herculean feat even as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to keep audiences largely at home. If there was one movie in all of 2021 — or, hell, even going back as far as 2020 — that moviegoers were willing to risk going to the theater for, it was absolutely No Way Home. The film became not only the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie ever made, but also the most successful movie ever released by Sony Pictures en route to dominating 2021 and settling into the top 10 here.
92%
Box Office: $1.867 billion worldwide / $428.1 million domestic
Release Date: November 26, 2025
Disney’s Zootopia remains the highest-grossing original animated film of all time. Nine years later its sequel Zootopia 2 became the top-grossing animated film from America period. Despite being just the ninth-highest domestic animated film at the end of its initial run, a massive international haul of $1.438 billion eclipsed the likes of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Frozen II to make it just the third animated title ever (after Ne Zha II and Inside Out 2) to gross over a billion outside of North America.
91%
Box Office: $1.699 billion worldwide / $652.98 million domestic
Release Date: June 14, 2024
By the end of 2015, Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out was the fifth-highest grossing animated film of all time. When the sequel arrived nine years later it had dropped to 13th, but Inside Out 2 did even better. It had the second-highest animated opening ever ($154.2 million) behind only Incredibles 2, only to ultimately surpass it both domestically and globally, becoming the first animated film ever to gross a billion outside of North America. By the end of its run, it had the ninth-highest domestic gross ever and eighth best worldwide. After Ne Zha II and Zootopia 2 surpassed it globally, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be the film to push it out of the top 10 all time.
1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50
72%
Box Office: $1.672 billion worldwide / $653.4 million domestic
Release Date: June 12, 2015
Twenty-two years after Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park became the Jaws for a new generation, it was time for that generation’s kids to have their own version of dinosaur mayhem. The second-best-reviewed film in the Jurassic series (72% on the Tomatometer vs. the original’s 91%), Jurassic World trampled a competitive summer full of Avengers, Minions, and inner feelings, and became just the third film since Titanic in 1998 to pass $600 million in domestic box office.
90%
Box Office: $1.664 billion worldwide / $654.3 million domestic (through Aug. 10, 2026)
Release Date: July 31, 2026
Before Top Gun: Maverick, Spider-Man: No Way Home was a key catalyst in bringing audiences back to the movies. After living through 21 months of a pandemic, moviegoers returned in droves, giving it the second-highest opening of all time behind the MCU’s previous all-timer of a team-up, Avengers: Endgame. No one anticipated that Spider-Man: Brand New Day, minus multiple Spider-Men and his villains, could challenge those numbers. Then it swung in and took the all-time record with a $360 million opening weekend, just under $3 million more than Endgame’s pre-pandemic haul in the summer of 2019. It took only seven days (the shortest ever) to reach half a billion domestic (Endgame took eight and No Way Home took 12). By the end of its second weekend, it was already in the top 10 of domestic releases ever, and the watch is on to see if it can challenge The Force Awakens’ $935.6 million or even become the first film to gross over a billion in North America.
52%
Box Office: $1.662 billion worldwide / $543.6 million domestic
Release Date: July 19, 2019
Having found success with its live-action re-imaginings of The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast, Disney tripled down in 2019 with three “new” remakes. Dumbo was a bit of a bust, and Aladdin was a success, but The Lion King truly roared. That made sense, given that the 1994 original, at the time, was one of the studio’s most successful films in the middle of its rebirth, and director Jon Favreau’s new, CGI-fueled version traced it for a new generation. The result is the highest-grossing domestic release to receive a Rotten score on the Tomatometer, at 52%. But its $191 million opening was the eighth highest of all time, and it became the 14th film to pass a half billion domestically and just the ninth film to rack up $1 billion overseas.
91%
Box Office: $1.52 billion worldwide / $623.4 million domestic
Release Date: May 4, 2012
Want proof that Avengers work best together? Consider that the first combined outing for Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America bested the $1.4 billion that their origin stories had made combined. Five films into the MCU (including Edward Norton’s The Incredible Hulk), the team was finally assembled for a singular battle against Loki and his inherited army. Joss Whedon’s The Avengers became the first movie ever to make over $200 million in a single weekend and was Marvel’s first entry into the Billion Dollar Club, which had just 12 members at the time.
81%
Box Office: $1.515 billion worldwide / $353 million domestic
Release Date: April 3, 2015
What started out as a Point Break derivative — with cars! — became one of the unlikeliest mega franchises ever. Vin Diesel’s return in the series’ fourth film is what really got the Fast and Furious franchise engines revving, and Dwayne Johnson’s addition in the fifth film added some humor and helped get the critics on board. But it was the full embrace of the series’ now-signature bombast, as well as the untimely death of Paul Walker, that brought the combo of curiosity and tribute that helped make James Wan’s Furious 7 the franchise’s most successful entry. It hit with audiences — the opening weekend haul of $147 million was almost $50 million more than any previous entry — as well as with critics (it’s the highest-rated movie in the series at 81% on the Tomatometer).
96%
Box Office: $1.503 billion worldwide / $722 million domestic
Release Date: May 27, 2022
Tony Scott’s fighter pilot movie Top Gun topped the box office in 1986 with a domestic gross of $176.8 million (it tallied $357.3 million worldwide), so it was no slouch by any means, and it went on to become a celebrated cult classic. But no one could have reasonably predicted that, more than three and a half decades later, its sequel Top Gun: Maverick would earn more than that in the U.S. alone, moving it all the way up to No. 7 on the domestic charts, and enter the top 20 earners worldwide at No. 12 with over $1.4 billion in receipts. Part of that was likely thanks to Tom Cruise reprising his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, but director Joseph Kosinski also utilized some strategically deployed fan service and specially developed, state-of-the-art IMAX cameras for stunning action sequences to deliver the biggest crowd-pleaser of Summer 2022.
66%
Box Office: $1.486 billion worldwide / $404.3 million domestic
Release Date: December 19, 2025
Only in the worlds of Avatar and James Cameron could numbers as big as this ever seem like even the smallest of disappointments. But after the first two films made a combined $1.43 billion domestic and $5.09 billion worldwide, Avatar: Fire and Ash’s numbers may have felt like chump change. It was still just the 15th film ever at the time to cross a billion outside the US and Canada (in the same year that Ne Zha II and Zootopia 2 did it), even if it grossed nearly a full billion less than the champion original.
77%
Box Office: $1.454 billion worldwide / $477.4 million domestic
Release Date: November 22, 2019
When a film becomes not just a global phenomenon but the highest-grossing film in your canon of animated entertainment, a sequel is inevitable. While not quite as well-received as the first film critically (77% vs. 90% on the Tomatometer), Frozen II virtually demanded that parents bring their children for a second adventure. It began with the third-highest opening weekend for an animated film (after Pixar sequels Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory) — $130.26 million — and then became the highest-grossing film over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday, which was all the more impressive given it had opened the prior weekend. In its fourth weekend of release, it became Disney’s sixth billion-dollar film of 2019, pushing Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle out of the Top 50 on the same weekend that its sequel The Next Level opened, ultimately overtaking its predecessor.
88%
Box Office: $1.447 billion worldwide / $636.2 million domestic
Release Date: June 21, 2023
Barbie may not be the first toy to get its own movie, but it is certainly the one that united audiences and critics alike around the globe. Movie fans even embraced the grassroots campaign known as “Barbenheimer” as Barbie shared a release date with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Greta Gerwig’s film was the clear victor of 2023, though, with its leading opening weekend of $162 million, four straight weekends at No. 1, and the highest total ever for a female director, not to mention the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros.’ vast catalog. The 14th film to gross over $600 million at the domestic box office, resulting in the 11th-highest gross ever at the time, Barbie was also nominated for eight Oscars — including Best Picture — and took one home for Best Original Song.
75%
Box Office: $1.405 billion worldwide / $459 million domestic
Release Date: May 1, 2015
If any film in the top 10 could be considered both a success and a disappointment it would be Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Coming up shy of the first film’s record-breaking opening weekend — note that it was still the second-best opening of all time when it was released — the movie never matched its predecessor in dollars or affection. With a 75% Tomatometer score, it doesn’t even rank among the top 10 Tomatometers of the MCU — though we think there’s a case to be made for reassessing its virtues — and it lost the summer of 2015 to the dinosaurs of Jurassic World. Still, it was just the 16th film ever to cross the $400 million line domestically in its initial run.
1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50
59%
Box Office: $1.361 billion worldwide / $574.9 million domestic
Release Date: April 5, 2023
At the height of Nintendo’s hold on the gaming community, a live-action Super Mario Bros. film was produced in 1993 and became a massive disappointment creatively and financially. Flash-forward 30 years and a new attempt by the company that brought audiences Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets dominated the box office. With over $574 million, The Super Mario Bros. Movie became the second-highest grossing animated film ever released domestically and internationally. It was poised to become the top-grossing film of 2023 until Barbie passed it on August 23.
96%
Box Office: $1.35 billion worldwide / $700.4 million domestic
Release Date: February 16, 2018
After an introduction in Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa got his own film in February of 2019. Audiences were hungry for representation on screen and looking for a thrilling re-introduction to the character, and in Ryan Coogler’s action-packed, beautiful-looking epic, they got both. Black Panther became the fifth film in history to have a $200 million opening weekend and just the third film ever to gross over $700 million in North America, outlasting even Avengers: Infinity War that summer. Why isn’t it even higher in the list? Because it remains the only post-Avengers film in the MCU to make less money internationally than domestically.
96%
Box Office: $1.343 billion worldwide / $381.9 million domestic
Release Date: July 15, 2011
Fans of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series got to see its characters (and the actors who played them) grow up in front of their eyes. The culmination of the journey that began in 2001 also ushered in a new trend of splitting final chapters in half. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 set the new record for an opening weekend at the time with $169.1 million, and its $960 million international haul ranked only behind Avatar and Titanic. By the end of its run, the eight Harry Potter had films grossed a combined $7.72 billion.
77%
Box Office: $1.338 billion worldwide / $636.8 million domestic
Release Date: July 6, 2024
Seven years after seemingly ending his run as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman suited up again as the Marvel worlds began to collide (thanks in part to Disney’s merger with Fox, which granted them access to the X-Men). The team-up with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool amounted to the sixth-best opening weekend ever at the time ($211.4 million) and 11th-best domestic gross. It was the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Spider-Man: No Way Home to gross a billion globally at a time when the calls of “comic book fatigue” were growing louder. Jackman’s highest-grossing stints as the character (Logan and X-Men: Days of Future Past) grossed a combined $1.365 billion worldwide, only about $27 million more than Deadpool & Wolverine.
91%
Box Office: $1.334 billion worldwide / $620.2 million domestic
Release Date: December 15, 2017
One of the more controversial entries in the Star Wars series — don’t get anyone started on the casino planet sequence! — Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi took the standard dip that had afflicted other middle films in the franchise. The Empire Strikes Back made 31.9% less than A New Hope, Attack of the Clones made 34.6% less than The Phantom Menace, and The Last Jedi fell 33.8% off The Force Awakens. Still, Johnson’s film joined Episodes IV, V, and VII in the 90%+ realm on the Tomatometer and may end up being the ultimate bridge to the next generation of Star Wars fans.
47%
Box Office: $1.309 billion worldwide / $417.7 million domestic
Release Date: June 22, 2018
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, J.A. Bayona’s follow-up to Colin Trevorrow’s continuation of Steven Spielberg’s series, received the weakest Tomatometer score of the franchise to date (46%) and, following the path of many “second” entries in franchises (even if it’s technically the fifth), dropped 36% from Jurassic World in overall domestic box office. But it was still good enough for 23rd all-time in North America and 13th in overseas dollars. It was also the second highest-grossing domestic film of the 2018 summer season, behind the No. 23 film on this list.
89%
Box Office: $1.285 billion worldwide / $400.7 million domestic
Release Date: November 22, 2013
The Oscar-winning song that has tortured parents for nearly a decade was just part of what made Frozen the highest-grossing animated film in history at the time. The story of two sisters searching for happily-ever-after with each other rather than the standard gentleman suitors also won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and bested 2012’s Ice Age: Continental Drift for the highest international haul for an animated film ever, a record it eventually lost to its sequel.
71%
Box Office: $1.266 billion worldwide / $504.5 million domestic
Release Date: March 17, 2017
Speaking of Disney soundtracks, it was the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast — not the Best Picture-nominated animated version from 1991 — that really broke the bank and remains in the record books. Bill Condon’s version of the tale as old as 1991, starring Emma Watson, was not the first of Disney’s splashy re-imaginings, but it certainly was the most successful at the time, becoming the seventh film to cross a half billion in North America and the 16th to pass three quarters of a billion overseas.
93%
Box Office: $1.243 billion worldwide / $608.6 million domestic
Release Date: June 15, 2018
Brad Bird’s The Incredibles debuted a full four years before the MCU began, a time when the Pixar brand was as close to a guarantee of success (and quality) as the industry had. Fourteen years later and deep into the superhero cinematic explosion, Bird’s sequel Incredibles 2 more than doubled the original’s box office and became the highest-grossing animated film ever at the domestic box office. It was the ninth film to cross the $600 million mark in North America and was knocked out of the top 10 domestic grossers of all time in the summer of 2022 by Top Gun: Maverick.
67%
Box Office: $1.236 billion worldwide / $226 million domestic
Release Date: April 14, 2017
A half billion dollars was put into the production of the seventh and eighth chapters of this franchise, and they made a combined $2.75 billion globally. F. Gary Gray’s The Fate of the Furious was a bit of a comedown from the highs of James Wan’s Furious 7. It even fell behind the sixth Furious film domestically, but did incredibly well abroad: It was the sixth film ever to make a cool billion outside the U.S. and Canada alone. Though still Fresh at 67% on the Tomatometer, it was the lowest-rated Fast and Furious movie among critics since the fourth film.
1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50
79%
Box Office: $1.216 billion worldwide / $481.9 million domestic
Release Date: May 3, 2013
The first Marvel film released following the massive success of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers was also the most successful of the individual Iron Man films. Robert Downey Jr.’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director, Shane Black, took over for Jon Favreau and put a twist on some comic-book lore for Iron Man 3 in ways that still inspire disappointment from some fans. The general moviegoing public ate it up, though. Iron Man 3 was just the 13th film to reach $400 million domestic in its initial run and is the highest-grossing non-Avengers film in the MCU overseas with over $805 million.
55%
Box Office: $1.159 billion worldwide / $336 million domestic
Release Date: July 10, 2015
After two successful Despicable Me films it was time to give Gru’s kooky supporting yellow folk their own story. Smart move. Minions had the largest opening for Illumination Entertainment ever, earning $115.7 million on its first weekend. Though it came up shy domestically of Despicable Me 2 ($336 million vs. $368 million) it can still boast the sixth-best overseas return for any animated film ($823.4 million), and it stands as Illumination’s biggest international earner to date, even higher than The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
90%
Box Office: $1.155 billion worldwide / $408.1 million domestic
Release Date: May 6, 2016
It was not officially an Avengers film, but Captain America: Civil War may as well have been. Thor and Hulk were AWOL, sure, but Spider-Man received his welcomed introduction into the MCU, as did Black Panther. The movie’s run kicked off with the fifth-highest opening in history, earning $179.1 million on opening weekend. Another $745 million internationally made this the fourth MCU film to reach $1 billion. Another fun fact: Anthony and Joe Russo are one of only two filmmakers/filmmaking pairs on this list to have at least three films in the top 50 (James Cameron has four).
66%
Box Office: $1.152 billion worldwide / $335.1 million domestic
Release Date: December 21, 2018
How could the DCEU get to $1 billion? Adding Batman into their Superman storyline couldn’t do it. Wonder Woman’s solid domestic numbers were nearly matched internationally, but even those figures came up short of Suicide Squad – and the goal. No, it would take Aquaman to crack the $1 billion mark for the DC Extended Universe. James Wan’s second billion-dollar film on the list may have had the second-smallest opening weekend of the Universe, but its prolonged success through the holiday season and beyond – the movie made nearly five times its opening – was greater than any DC property since Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989.
94%
Box Office: $1.149 billion worldwide / $387 million domestic
Release Date: December 17, 2003
Peter Jackson’s (first) epic trilogy unfolded over three straight holiday seasons, and its finale was rewarded in every fashion: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King historically won all 11 Oscars that it was nominated for, including Best Picture and Best Director; it was one of the best-reviewed films of the year (Certified Fresh at 93%); and it became the fourth-highest domestic grosser of all time behind just Titanic, The Phantom Menace, and Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film. It was no slacker overseas, either: When Return finished its run, only Titanic had a greater number outside of the U.S. and Canada.
91%
Box Office: $1.133 billion worldwide / $391.3 million domestic
Release Date: July 2, 2019
No wonder Disney and Sony made up: 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, which might have been the end of their association had they not moved past their impasse, is Sony’s second-highest grossing film of all time. Six of the studio’s eight highest-grossing films ever have involved Spider-Man (or Venom), but this was the first Sony flick to cross the $1 billion line, and the ninth film in the MCU to do it. (Spider-Man appeared in four of the MCU’s other members of the $1 Billion Club). It was also the fifth stand-alone Spider-Man film (live-action or animated) to register at 90% or higher on the Tomatometer – critics love their web-slinger.
79%
Box Office: $1.131 billion worldwide / $426.8 million domestic
Release Date: March 8, 2019
After getting tag-teased at the end of Infinity War, Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers made her debut in the MCU as the universe’s first headlining female superhero in 2019’s Captain Marvel. Outgrossing DC’s Wonder Woman around the world and at home, the breakthrough film was embraced by critics (though its Certified Fresh score of 79% ranks 24th out of the MCU’s 38 films). The space epic was only one of two films in 2018-19 to spend 10 straight weeks in the top 10 (the other being Black Panther), and was the seventh MCU film to reach $1 billion at the box office globally.
35%
Box Office: $1.124 billion worldwide / $352.4 million domestic
Release Date: June 29, 2011
The only Transformers sequel under the direction of Michael Bay to rank higher than 20% on the Tomatometer (a whopping 35%!) is not the series’ biggest domestic or international earner. But combined, Transformers: Dark of the Moon remains the champion overall in worldwide gross (and bonus for the studio: it had one of the series’ lowest budgets). Only the final Harry Potter chapter could beat it in the summer of 2011, when they were the only films to pass $300 million domestic.
94%
Box Office: $1.111 billion worldwide / $461.4 million domestic (through Aug. 10, 2026)
Release Date: July 17, 2026
Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s classic poem was always going to be a hit, and sure enough, The Odyssey charged out of the gate with a massive $264.1 million opening weekend worldwide to give Nolan his biggest non-Batman debut ever. And even though Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived only two weeks later, Nolan’s epic sailed on, eventually crossing the $1 billion milestone in its fourth weekend of release — an incredible feat made no less impressive by the fact that Brand New Day got there just a little bit faster. The film has already overtaken The Dark Knight Rises to become Nolan’s highest-grossing movie ever and one of the biggest hits of 2026, and the question is simply how much higher it will climb.
92%
Box Office: $1.109 billion worldwide / $304.4 million domestic
Release Date: November 9, 2012
The James Bond franchise got a boost with Pierce Brosnan and an even larger one with Daniel Craig. But there was no bigger boost to the long-running franchise than Craig’s Skyfall, the first film to cross $300 million domestically and $1 billion globally. A series that has existed for 50-plus years is going to get a little help from inflation — Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice would have been $300 million grossers today — but we’re not doing inflation here. Skyfall was also a gold standard for Bond beyond the box office: It stands amongst the series’ top five scores on the Tomatometer, Certified Fresh at 92%.
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18%
Box Office: $1.105 billion worldwide / $245.4 million domestic
Release Date: June 27, 2014
The Transformers series was beginning to show its age in North America in 2014, but around the world it was more popular than ever. Shia LaBeouf was replaced with Mark Wahlberg as the franchise’s central human hero in Transformers: Age of Extinction, and the fourth film from Michael Bay approached a near three-hour running time at 165 minutes. But even as it dipped below $300 million for the first time at home, its $858 million international haul was still the sixth-highest total for any movie outside the U.S. and Canada at the time. Bay’s fifth film of the franchise, The Last Knight, fell 47% in overall domestic and nearly 45% internationally. At 18% on the Tomatometer, Age of Extinction has the lowest Tomatometer score of the top 50 biggest films at the worldwide box office.
91%
Box Office: $1.103 billion worldwide / $407.2 million domestic (including re-releases)
Release Date: June 11, 1993
Before James Cameron owned the top two spots in all-time domestic box office (for a period), it was Steven Spielberg who had pulled off that feat. His adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park was a return to the revered popcorn blockbusters he made his name on, and it replaced the previous year’s Batman Returns as the top opener ever with $47 million and went on to gross over $357 million that summer. That was just a couple million dollars shy of his 1982 classic E.T., but re-releases in 2-D and 3-D over the years have put the film over $400 million domestic and $1 billion worldwide.
93%
Box Office: $1.094 billion worldwide / $470.7 million domestic (through Aug. 10, 2026)
Release Date: June 19, 2026
Woody and Buzz launched Pixar in 1995, and over 30 years later they still have the hearts of moviegoers everywhere. The Toy Story franchise pulled off the rare feat of increasing its grosses (both domestically and globally) with each successive outing. Even the opening weekends beat the one before, with Toy Story 5 having a series-best start of $159.6 million, the 24th highest ever at the time. By the end of its run, it will become the third-highest grossing Pixar release ever domestically and globally. Collectively, the franchise has grossed over $4 billion across the world.
87%
Box Office: $1.085 billion worldwide / $448.2 million domestic
Release Date: July 20, 2012
The conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy gave us Bane, Catwoman, and even a surprise along the way. By the end of that summer, only four films had grossed more domestically in their initial runs than The Dark Knight Rises: Avatar, Titanic, The Dark Knight, and Marvel’s The Avengers, which was the only film to eclipse Rises in all of 2012. When all was said and done, Nolan’s trilogy grossed over $2.46 billion worldwide.
68%
Box Office: $1.079 billion worldwide / $335.5 million domestic
Release Date: October 4, 2019
The director of The Hangover films wanted to make an origin story out of Batman’s most infamous nemesis. The project was met with skepticism, and then it began a run on the festival circuit. Venice awarded Joker its top prize in the Golden Lion; some critics were hailing it as a masterpiece. Though its Tomatometer score is among the lower ones in the Top 50 (69%), Todd Phillips’ Joker had the highest opening ever in the month of October (passing the previous year’s Venom) and ultimately became the highest-grossing film ever released in that month in North America, surpassing Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity domestically. The film has overtaken Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight on this list, and it has also earned a place in the studio’s history as one of its most profitable films of all time.
51%
Box Office: $1.077 billion worldwide / $515.2 million domestic
Release Date: December 20, 2019
The final chapter of the Skywalker saga may have broken the trend set by the other third entries in the franchise’s trilogies (each outgrossed the middle episodes), but it will become known for a record that we may never see broken again. During the week of January 12, 2020, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker became the seventh film released by Disney in 2019 to break the $1 billion barrier — it reached that marker in 28 days, whereas The Last Jedi did it in less than three weeks. That record will be remembered far longer than having the 12th-highest opening of all-time — The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi were Nos. 1 and 2 until Avengers: Infinity War opened — or that it had the second-lowest Tomatometer score among the nine films, ahead of just The Phantom Menace. Nevertheless, it puts a capper on a nine-episode series from 1977-2019 that grossed (with re-releases) a collective $8.796 billion.
96%
Box Office: $1.074 billion worldwide / $434 million domestic
Release Date: June 21, 2019
When the fourth entry of Pixar’s signature series opened to “only” $120 million, many labeled it a disappointment. Some had expected Toy Story 4 to have the studio’s biggest opening ever, and the film was then written off — by some — as part of a string of failed sequels in the summer of 2019. Well, Woody and the gang proved them all wrong. The movie went on to outgross the third film by over $12 million domestically. Even if it came up a bit short internationally, it still became the fourth billion-dollar grosser in Pixar’s history and their third-highest grossing film overall.
98%
Box Office: $1.067 billion worldwide / $415 million domestic
Release Date: June 18, 2010
We all assumed it was the end for Woody, Buzz, and all their toy friends – that bittersweet finish was just so perfect. The series would have gone out with a box-office bang, too. The first summer release for the Toy Story franchise turned into the first $100 million opening weekend for Pixar as well as the studio’s first $400 domestic tally and first worldwide haul of $1 billion. For almost two years, Toy Story 3 was the second-highest grossing domestic release in Disney’s history.
53%
Box Office: $1.066 billion worldwide / $423.3 million domestic
Release Date: July 7, 2006
Everyone mocked the concept of Disney turning one of their classic rides into a feature-length film. Well, some $300 million and an Oscar nomination for Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow later, we were looking at a franchise with a modicum of respect. At least, for a little while. Critics went from disdain for the concept to disdain for its epic length and earnestness in the span of just two films, with the original movie’s score of 79% dropping to 53% on the Tomatometer for the sequel. But audiences went the other direction, giving Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest a 38.6% boost in domestic earnings and an 84.2% boost internationally. It was Disney’s first $100-plus million opening ($135 million to be precise), and the studio has had dozens more since then. From 2006 until Toy Story 3 was released in 2010, Dead Man’s Chest was the highest-grossing domestic release in Disney’s history.
61%
Box Office: $1.0592 billion worldwide / $460.4 million domestic
Release Date: November 27, 2024
Disney initially envisioned a sequel to its original 2016 animated success as a miniseries for its streaming service. They came to their senses, business-wise, and refashioned it into a theatrical release where it took down all the Thanksgiving records. Moana 2 made $28 million on the holiday alone and $139.8 million the next three days to have the best opening weekend for an animated Disney (non-Pixar) ever, along with the best three-day and five-day Thanksgiving haul ever with $225.4 million. Critics were not as enthusiastic about the sequel (61% compared to the first film’s 96% Tomatometer score) and the film barely doubled its domestic five-day gross, but it was certainly more successful than the first film’s live-action recreation that came in 2026.
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Thumbnail image courtesy ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, ©Universal Pictures, ©Marvel Entertainment/©Columbia Pictures
