Nothing compares to going to the movies; they take us to an endless number of universes and can make us laugh, cry, and cheer like we have never done before with friends, family, and strangers. But some movies stand out from the rest and become iconic cultural moments that attract countless numbers of people from all walks of life and cause those same people to cancel all other plans to grab popcorn and a seat.
These mega-blockbusters sell a mind-boggling amount of tickets and, by looking at the list, you can start to see some patterns as to what it takes to be a member of this exclusive club. First of all, just have your film be directed by James Cameron and there is a pretty good chance you’ll make the list as Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Titanic are all in the top five.
Tell us which one is your favorite and which upcoming movies have a chance to unseat one of these champions! There are other big guns here from the biggest franchises, too; you can check out all of their domestic and international earnings as well as a little bit about what made them so special below!
1. Avatar (2009)
The reason Avatar is the greatest-grossing film ever made is obvious: its expansive universe forbids irony and insincerity. Whether or whether James Cameron meant to appropriate the futuristic residents of Pandora’s world from almost every fanciful ur-text ever imagined doesn’t matter because Avatar is the pinnacle of modern mythmaking. Every fiber of Cameron’s film bears the Herculean effort of truly genius worldbuilding, telling the straightforward story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Dancing with Wolves-like rescue of the Na’vi, natives of the planet Pandora, from the destructive forces of colonialism. Cameron still seems to believe that “the movies” can give audiences a transformative experience.
2. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
When it comes to Avengers: Endgame, where to start is less a question of crazed fandom than a practical assessment of the direction that Kevin Feige and crew have been taking story and audience alike for the preceding 11 years and 21 films. While there are many three-hour-plus films and even a few twenty-plus entry-level movie franchises, there is truly nothing that compares to what Disney and Marvel Studios have accomplished, either in terms of the quantity, caliber, and coherence of the cast (a silent nod to Terrence Howard and Edward Norton), or in terms of how tightly timed those films were made.
3. Titanic (1997)
Even though James Cameron’s epic blockbuster film was released decades ago, its influence on popular culture is still so strong that its artistic achievements are overshadowed by the nostalgia for young Kate and Leo and Celine Dion’s disastrous performance (not to mention the legendary score by the now-deceased James Horner). Despite Cameron’s terrible dialogue choices, he is a cunning storyteller who skillfully crafts a Romeo and Juliet retelling that is set aboard a sinking ocean liner and surrounded by historical details, cutting-edge special effects, and breathtaking visuals.
4. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Like the titular Way as told by a beatific, finned princess of the Na’vi people, Avatar: The Way of Water is a promise that connects everything: the past and the future; cinema as a generational ideal and one film’s world-uniting box office reality; James Cameron’s megalomania and his excuse for Being Like That; one audience member and another audience member on the other side of the world; one archetypal cliché and another archetypal cliché; dreams and waking life. The sequel to Avatar can be nothing less than a fulfillment of everything Cameron has stated, hyperbolic or not. What is less clear is precisely what Cameron intends to deliver.
5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Fans’ near-terminal Prequel-itis was finally relieved with The Force Awakens. J.J. Abrams and crew achieved this restorative cinematic act primarily by returning to the “dirty future” aesthetic that made the Original Trilogy feel so real (despite the ridiculousness of the dialogue delivered by the characters). This is not to say that CGI is lacking; rather, limited resources and advancements in technology made the first three films feel more realistic, an excess of which hurt the next three.
6. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
When it comes to the adaptation of a comic book panel to the big screen, Avengers: Infinity War is epic in a way that has been frequently coveted but never fully realized. It is what happens when filmmakers take their source material seriously, eschewing needless melodrama while fully embracing the grandeur and sheer spectacle of it all.
As a result, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have plenty of room to riff and play as characters meet for the first time or see each other again. There are plenty of frenetic fight scenes in Avengers: Infinity War, but for every one of them, there are numerous character interactions and emotional beats the audience has been prepped for by the previous films (well, maybe not 2008’s The Incredible Hulk).
7. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home is an unsurprising film; it is an interesting examination of corporate collaboration, a self-aware meme machine, and an uninspired film that knows its hero so well that the disservice stings all the more. What director Jon Watts’ trilogy has done better than its Raimi and Webb counterparts is to make us believe that Peter Parker is a child, a shy, endearing goodie-goodie with a head full of knowledge and not a lick of common sense. Therefore, it makes sense that when he, his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) encounter issues that are exaggerated by severe cases of the teen brain, they run to Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and beg for a magical worldwide memory wipe without really thinking through the ramifications or other options.
After playing with the legacy and impact of Spider-Man for so long, No Way Home returns. All the spectacle, all the stunt performers, and all the stunt casting evaporate like so many Snapped extras when confronted with small, connected scenes of human-level dramatic filmmaking that remind you why broke loser Peter Parker resonates with us so deeply in the first place. All of this makes sense only if you have been closely following casting rumors. If so, congratulations: They are here and shenanigans ensue.
8. Jurassic World (2015)
The fourth installment in the company’s paleontological franchise, Jurassic World is likely more significant as the second chapter in the story of Chris Pratt’s unexpected rise to movie stardom. Pratt, who seemed destined to play charming idiots, made Guardians of the Galaxy his career, but in Jurassic World, he has shed that skin almost entirely in favor of emulating the hard-jawed macho men of 1950s B-movie canon. This transformation makes the movie inevitable. As if the film’s box office advantage was not enough, the sight of Pratt riding a motorcycle alongside four raptors should draw in audiences.
9. The Lion King (2019)
The new Disney trend of creating “live-action” versions of their animated catalog—”live-action,” of course, being the exact wrong term for what this is—can serve a purpose other than the obvious profitability of reviving an existing brand name if its goal is to conjure the spirit of the original rather than artificially reinflate its corpse; David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon was not perfect, but it felt like a fond cover rather than, well, taxidermy. The new Lion King feels more like a bloodless X-ray of the classic animated original than a more “realistic” version of the classic animated film.
The movie is dutifully mounted, and Favreau brings the same dogged professionalism he brought to The Jungle Book, a film with many of the same problems as this one. It does its job all too well. The problem is that The Lion King is The Lion King, you know? This is a universally powerful story, with terrific songs and countless funny and fascinating supporting characters. It feels like computers trying to impersonate real life and doing so with such rigid, determined accuracy that the result feels both emotionless and even a little ghoulish. What exactly are these creatures?
10. The Avengers (2012)
Tucked away among the garish box office figures of Joss Whedon’s blockbuster is a much more modest feat: sure, The Avengers should elicit a well-earned appreciation of Whedon’s directing abilities; sure, the movie’s premiere and reception provide a natural “And that is when it was official” moment that the MCU officially took over Hollywood; sure, but for comic book fans in particular, The Avengers represents the first time the superhero team dynamic has been truly captured and sustained on screen. Sure, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four had previously been big-screen adaptations, but they were all still fairly static.
Also read:
