It was once rare for a movie to cross the billion-dollar box office threshold, and when it did, it was a big deal. Now, it’s almost expected, and any movie that doesn’t reach it is seen as a disappointment. (Oh no, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness only grossed $955 million; Marvel is doomed!) By the start of 2010, only five films had crossed the billion mark. Now in 2026, 60 films have reached that milestone, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is likely going to join that club soon.
However, a movie’s box office numbers aren’t always a mark of quality, and plenty of bad movies have made over a billion dollars. Don’t expect to see Alice in Wonderland or Transformers: Age of Extinction on this list. There have also been plenty of great movies that have crossed $1 billion. These movies took the world by storm, tapped into something special, and became part of the larger popular culture conversation. These are the 20 best movies to gross over $1 billion.
20
‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ (2006)
$1.06 billion
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was only the third movie to ever make $1 billion, after Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It was also Disney’s first film to cross $1 billion, a threshold they would surpass many times in the future. While Dead Man’s Chest might not be as polished as its predecessor, the sequel makes up for that. It has an ambitious scale that includes some of the franchise’s best action scenes and lush, vibrant cinematography. 20 years later, the visual effects look better than those featured in most contemporary films.
19
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (2021)
$1.92 billion
After the COVID-19 pandemic shut down movie theaters for over a year, 2021 saw a slow but gradual return of audiences. While Marvel titles like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals certainly helped lead the charge, Spider-Man: No Way Home brought audiences back in a big way. Everyone was also curious thanks to rumors of a live-action Spider-Man team-up between Tom Holland and past incarnations played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
There is a tendency to treat praise for Spider-Man: No Way Home as just nostalgia. However, the movie organically weaves the fan-favorite villains and past cinematic Spider-Man into the narrative in a satisfying way that supports the arc of the MCU’s Peter Parker. Spider-Man: No Way Home is proof that the MCU’s Multiverse Saga can be just as strong as the Infinity Saga.
18
‘Skyfall’ (2012)
$1.10 billion
Although the entire James Bond franchise is storied and iconic, Skyfall is the only entry to gross over $1 billion. (However, adjusting for inflation would likely change that.) Released to coincide with the franchise’s 50th anniversary, Skyfall serves as commentary on the greater 007 franchise and whether the film still has a place in the modern world. The answer was yes.
Skyfall blends classic elements of the James Bond formula, including Moneypenny and Q, and reimagines them for a new generation. The movie proves that Bond could, and should, change with the times. The film’s final moment, with Daniel Craig entering the offices of the new M, recreated the classic set-up of the original films before transitioning into the iconic gun-barrel Bond sequence. It was the ultimate way to pay homage to the past while showing that Bond still had a bright future ahead of him.
17
‘Frozen’ (2013)
$1.28 billion
While Disney’s previous animated films, Tangled and Wreck-It-Ralph, did well at the box office and earned positive reviews, nobody could have anticipated the hit that Frozen would be. Thanks to a rock-solid script that deconstructed classic Disney princess tropes while also creating memorable characters bolstered by one of the greatest Disney songs of all time (“Let It Go”), Frozen took the world by storm. Even 13 years later, with a more profitable sequel and two more films on the horizon, it’s still difficult to top the magic of the first film. Frozen is truly the moment that Walt Disney Animation Studios’ revival era found its footing, and proved that it could go up against any film from the Disney Renaissance.
16
‘Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens’ (2015)
$2.07 billion
Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens nearly crossed $1 billion just in domestic ticket sales alone. It grossed $936.6 million and still holds the record for the biggest movie of all time at the domestic box office. It was the movie the entire world wanted to see, and with a perfectly timed release the week before Christmas, it was everyone’s holiday movie of choice. Despite all that money and status, some still think that Disney would de-canonize it.
While it might be popular to knock The Force Awakens due to its similarities to Star Wars, this was a necessary choice to help put the franchise back on solid footing after the mixed reaction to the prequels. Following a familiar formula allowed J.J. Abrams and company to flesh out the story with new, exciting characters like Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, BB-8, and Kylo Ren. At the same time, fan-favorites like Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Leia had roles worthy of their legendary status. The Force Awakens is both an important blockbuster and a great Star Wars film.
15
‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018)
$2.05 billion
Avengers: Infinity War took the formula set up by The Avengers and cranked it up to 11. It threw beloved characters from The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and the Doctor Strange franchise into the cinematic equivalent of an event comic book. Avengers: Infinity War was a roller-coaster thrill ride that knocked the wind out of audiences and recontextualized how much they cared for these characters over the years. The movie is still impactful today as it transformed Thanos into one of the most iconic villains in cinema history. Its shocking ending is one of the greatest cliffhangers of all time.
14
‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)
$2.79 billion
While Avengers: Infinity War is certainly more action-packed, Avengers: Endgame has an edge thanks to its more character-driven story. The movie bucks convention and is a race to undo Thanos’ snap. The five-year time jump was a bold but powerful swing, along with the decision to let the characters lose and have them sit with their failure. There isn’t much action in the first half of Endgame, as the writers were confident that audiences had grown attached to the characters and their journeys and put them front and center. It ultimately culminates in an epic finale that delivers on all the fun, fan service, and callbacks one would expect, making for a satisfying conclusion to an 11-year story (even if Marvel made it up as they went along).
13
‘Avatar’ (2009)
$2.93 billion
The original Avatar is, to this day, the highest-grossing film of all time at the worldwide box office. Boosted by 3D screenings that,for a moment, made it seem like the cinematic medium of the future, Avatar dazzled audiences and transported themtoPandora, a fully realized world unlike anything ever put on screen. Despite some of the criticism leveled at it over the years, Avatar remains a masterclass in blockbuster filmmaking by James Cameron, whose legacy is beyond doubt, despite what some believe.
12
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (2022)
$2.33 billion
Just as The Empire Strikes Back is the deepest, most personal, and most emotionally complex entry in the original Star Wars franchise, the same can be said about Avatar: The Way of Water. The best entry in the franchise is a family epic in which the stakes are Jake and Neytiri’s kids, which makes the movie’s set-pieces personal. The newly introduced water biosphere is a sight to behold, and the movie wisely devotes an hour of its runtime to allowing the characters (and, by extension, audiences) to mellow out. Plus, it has the Tul’kun Payakan, which makes it one of the best movies of the 2020s.
11
‘Inside Out 2’ (2024)
$1.69 billion
The original Inside Out was a box office smash hit and became Pixar’s highest-grossing original film. Despite that, nobody expected just how big Inside Out 2 would become. The sequel arrived in theaters in the summer of 2024 and shattered box office expectations. Inside Out 2 was the highest-grossing film of 2024 and is the highest-grossing film in Pixar history, unadjusted for inflation.
Like the original, Inside Out 2 is a fantastic film. It boils complex emotional feelings down into easily digestible concepts that kids can understand while maintaining the emotional maturity that older audiences have treasured about Pixar for years. Inside Out 2 is delightfully charming, heartbreaking, and everything anyone could want from a Pixar sequel.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
