“SHOW ME THE MONEY!”
That’s what every studio wants with most big budget projects. Critical acclaim, audience popularity, and the quality of the movie are all ultimately factors which affect the gross income generated by the movie. The concept of the movie, coupled with heavy marketing can get you some big bucks even if the movie isn’t exactly Oscar worthy.
Let’s check out the top 10 highest grossing films of all time, as of June 23, 2019.
10. Black Panther (2018)
Worldwide Gross: $1,346,900,000
Perhaps this movie deserved more, despite the already astronomical success it earned as a solo superhero film. Beautifully crafted, sticking to its roots, and visually stunning. Never really understood all the hate it gathered when it was announced as one of the nominations for Best Movie at the 2019 Academy Awards. Black Panther deserved all the plaudits.
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014)
Worldwide Gross: $1,405,400,000
Avengers: Age of Ultron wasn’t as good as the other 3 Avengers movies, but it was still pretty alright. Good enough to make billions of dollars, that’s for sure. This was the last film directed by Joss Whedon before the Russo Brothers took over and changed everything. This was the only Avengers movie that didn’t surpass its predecessor in terms of box office revenue.
8. Furious 7 (2015)
Worldwide Gross: $1,516,000,000
The Fast and the Furious series peaked with Furious 7. The franchise’s most successful film by far, the film was marred by the tragic death of Paul Walker. However, one could make a case that one reason for the film’s huge success was the untimely death of the actor, who’d starred alongside Vin Diesel ever since the beginning. The movie ended on a beautiful and touching note, with a goodbye to Paul Walker.
7. Marvels’ The Avengers (2011)
Worldwide Gross: $1,518,900,000
The one that started it all. Seeing all the Avengers in their invincible, mighty, quivered, star-spangled glory changed the superhero genre forever, and evolved into the worldwide spectacle we know and love today. Directed by Joss Whedon, the film might seem a little cheesy and quirky, but that’s just a reminder of how far the franchise has evolved. The Avengers changed the face and look of superhero cinema for the better.
6. Jurassic World (2015)
Worldwide gross: $1,671,713,208
Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt brought back the immensely popular series created by Steven Spielberg, with scintillating results. If you ask me, I wasn’t much for this movie, preferring the first movie, but that’s not to say that Pratt, Howard and Vincent D’Onofrio didn’t do a great job. It was still a very enjoyable film.
5. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Worldwide gross: $2,048,359,754
Lots of MCU movies in this list. The first part of the epic finale of The Infinity Saga was glorious, brought in everyone from the MCU together for the first time, ended in shocking, mind-numbing fashion, which set up the immense anticipation and ultimately, success of its sequel, Avengers: Endgame. It was also the largest scale superhero movie made at the time. That is, until that little battle scene happened at the end of Endgame.
4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Worldwide gross: $2,068,223,624
After a 10 year hiatus and the disaster that was the Prequel trilogy, J.J Abrams brought back George Lucas’ most iconic universe, bringing back old characters from the past as well as new, well-written characters that would carry on the mantle. The movie was nostalgic, with Han, Leia and Chewie opening the memory floodgates, and new characters like Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren proving that they can stand up to their legendary predecessors.
3. Titanic (1997)
Worldwide gross: $2,187,463,944
Getting over 2 billion in the box office in 1997 is no mean feat, I’ll give James Cameron that. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s careers received major boosts after this movie. Titanic is one of the most referenced movies of all time. From ,”I’ll never let go” to “I’m the King of the world!”, Titanic will live forever live in the memory. The image above will always be ingrained in our minds and our hearts.
2. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Worldwide gross: $2,744,012,261
The latest movie on this list. I don’t think I have to elaborate about this movie further. I’m pretty sure you know quite enough about it right now.
Endgame is a few hundred million short of beating the record, and it’s lost its momentum after 2 months. But now that Marvel is planning a re-release in addition to Spider-Man: Far From Home, there’s a very real chance that Endgame will make it.
1. Avatar (2009)
Worldwide gross: $2,787,965,087
The first James Cameron movie on this list, but not the last. In a time when 3D movies had immense popularity, Cameron’s sci-fi epic has achieved unmitigated sucess. Through this sci-fi fantasy, Cameron raised plenty of questions about humanity. The visuals have to be praised as well. For a movie released in 2009, the visual effects were extraordinary. Avatar has held top spot for a decade now. Whether it’ll stay that way remains to be seen over the next few weeks.
