The ‘90s were an explosive era for cinema. Big-budget action films dominated the box office, whether they were disaster films like “Armageddon” and “Twister” or sci-fi epics like “Independence Day” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Advancements in computer-generated imagery (CGI) provided many of these movies with the most depictions of imagined events that viewers had ever seen.
The CGI boom also gave us the first completely computer-animated feature film — Pixar’s “Toy Story” — which has spawned three wildly successful sequels to date, and is one of the 76 movies with a perfect score from critics.
Click here to see the biggest box office hits of the 1990s
To identify the biggest box office hits of the 1990’s, 24/7 Tempo reviewed box office data from The Numbers, an online movie database owned by consulting firm Nash Information Services, as updated in April 2021. Rankings for box office success were out of 4,230 movies for which data was available. The actors and director(s) for each movie come from IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon.
The ‘90s also saw a wave of memorable comedies, including “Home Alone,” “There’s Something About Mary,” and “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” as well as hit romance movies like “Ghost,” “Pretty Woman,” and — romance meets disaster — “Titanic” (which was the highest grossing film of all time until “Avatar” surpassed it in 2009, and one of the 20 films that has earned the most award nominations).
24/7 Tempo has compiled the biggest box office hits of the 1990s, including prime examples of all these genres.
30. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
> Domestic box office: $173.6 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #298 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara
> Director: Chris Columbus
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29. Apollo 13 (1995)
> Domestic box office: $173.8 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #297 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise
> Director: Ron Howard
28. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
> Domestic box office: $176.5 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #285 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Ben Stiller, Lee Evans
> Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
27. Pretty Woman (1990)
> Domestic box office: $178.4 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #276 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo
> Director: Garry Marshall
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26. Mission: Impossible (1996)
> Domestic box office: $181.0 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #268 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny
> Director: Brian De Palma
25. Liar Liar (1997)
> Domestic box office: $181.4 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #265 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Jim Carrey, Maura Tierney, Amanda Donohoe, Jennifer Tilly
> Director: Tom Shadyac
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24. The Fugitive (1993)
> Domestic box office: $183.9 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #257 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore
> Director: Andrew Davis
23. Batman Forever (1995)
> Domestic box office: $184.0 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #256 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman
> Director: Joel Schumacher
22. Dances with Wolves (1990)
> Domestic box office: $184.2 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #255 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
> Director: Kevin Costner
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21. Toy Story (1995)
> Domestic box office: $192.5 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #237 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney
> Director: John Lasseter
20. Armageddon (1998)
> Domestic box office: $201.6 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #219 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler
> Director: Michael Bay
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19. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
> Domestic box office: $203.5 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #215 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
> Director: James Cameron
18. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
> Domestic box office: $206.0 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #212 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Michael York, Robert Wagner
> Director: Jay Roach
17. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
> Domestic box office: $206.3 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #211 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Jesse Corti, Rex Everhart
> Director: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
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16. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
> Domestic box office: $216.3 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #189 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
> Director: Steven Spielberg
15. Aladdin (1992)
> Domestic box office: $217.4 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #184 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman
> Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
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14. Ghost (1990)
> Domestic box office: $217.6 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #181 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn
> Director: Jerry Zucker
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13. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
> Domestic box office: $219.2 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #178 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Fierstein
> Director: Chris Columbus
12. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
> Domestic box office: $229.1 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #161 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Vince Vaughn
> Director: Steven Spielberg
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11. Twister (1996)
> Domestic box office: $241.7 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #144 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz
> Director: Jan de Bont
10. Toy Story 2 (1999)
> Domestic box office: $245.9 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #139 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer
> Director: John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich
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9. Men in Black (1997)
> Domestic box office: $250.7 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #136 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D’Onofrio
> Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
8. Home Alone (1990)
> Domestic box office: $285.8 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #106 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard
> Director: Chris Columbus
7. The Sixth Sense (1999)
> Domestic box office: $293.5 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #96 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams
> Director: M. Night Shyamalan
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6. Independence Day (1996)
> Domestic box office: $306.2 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #90 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell
> Director: Roland Emmerich
5. Forrest Gump (1994)
> Domestic box office: $330.2 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #73 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
> Director: Robert Zemeckis
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4. Jurassic Park (1993)
> Domestic box office: $402.5 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #43 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough
> Director: Steven Spielberg
3. The Lion King (1994)
> Domestic box office: $421.8 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #33 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg
> Director: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
2. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
> Domestic box office: $474.5 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #23 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd
> Director: George Lucas
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1. Titanic (1997)
> Domestic box office: $659.4 million
> Box office rank out of all movies: #8 out of all movies in database
> Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
> Director: James Cameron
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