The Highest-Grossing Movie Every Year Since 1975

Steven Spielberg redefined the thriller genre with this tale of a rampaging Great White Shark off the coast of an imaginary New England town. The director was blamed for keeping people out of the ocean in the summer of 1975.

Sylvester Stallone played club fighter Rocky Balboa, the ultimate underdog who gets a shot at the heavyweight boxing title. The film was lifted by a strong supporting cast of Carl Weathers, Talia Shire, Burt Young, and Burgess Meredith, and a rousing musical score.

This sci-fi classic is the film that launched one of filmdom’s greatest motion-picture franchises and made stars out of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher.

Released at the beginning of the summer of 1978, this musical about teens in high school in the late 1950s was packed with memorable songs — including “You’re the One That I Want,” “Summer Nights,” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” “Grease” was one of a slew of successes for John Travolta, including “Carrie” (1976), “Saturday Night Fever” (1977), and “Urban Cowboy” (1980).

Meryl Streep won the first of her three Academy Awards as a woman fighting for the custody of her son after a divorce. Dustin Hoffman, who played Streep’s husband, won the first of his two Oscars.

The first sequel to the film industry’s second-most successful franchise (after the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), and darker than the original, “The Empire Strikes Back” saw the return of original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Billy Dee Williams. This is one of eight “Star Wars” movies on this list.

Harrison Ford debuted the second of his iconic action characters — Han Solo in Star Wars movies was the first — as the swashbuckling archeologist Indiana Jones, who has to prevent Nazis from finding the Ark of the Covenant.

Steven Spielberg’s tale of a homesick alien who befriends children in a suburban neighborhood became one of the best-loved movies of the 1980s. It holds the highest Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score, 99%, of any Spielberg films.

The third of the classic Stars Wars trilogy finds Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) fighting Jabba the Hut and Darth Vader to save his comrades and defeat the Galactic Empire. Hamill appeared in four of the Star Wars films on this list.

The biggest hit of 1984, launching a franchise about chasers of the spectral, enjoys one of the highest Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer scores on this list at 97%. “Saturday Night Live” alums Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd starred in this archly acted comedy.

Robert Zemeckis directed and Steven Spielberg produced this time-travel adventure that spawned two sequels. “Back to the Future” has been included in the National Film Registry.

Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer play hot-shot fighter pilots in the top film of 1986. A sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” starring Cruise and Jennifer Connelly, is slated for release in 2022.

Bachelors played by Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson have to take care of a baby left with them by one of their girlfriends. The film is based on a screenplay written by Coline Serreau, who wrote and directed the 1985 movie Three Men and a Cradle.

Dustin Hoffman won his second Oscar as an autistic man who stands to inherit a lot of money after his father passes. “Rain Man” also won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Barry Levinson), and Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow).

Director Tim Burton’s dark interpretation of the caped crusader’s adventures launched the superhero genre that dominates motion pictures today. Jack Nicholson played Batman’s nemesis The Joker.

The film that launched the “Home Alone” franchise starred Macaulay Culkin as the adolescent home defender foiling incompetent burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. “Home Alone” is one of five films directed by Chris Columbus that have had box-office revenues of more than $100 million.

Animated films began topping the movie leaderboards in the 1990s, and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” was the first. Oscars went to Alan Menken and Howard Ashman for Best Original Song, and to Menken for Best Original Score.

Scene-stealer Robin Williams voiced the genie in “Aladdin,” another Disney success. Alan Menken chalked up two more Oscars for Best Original Song (with lyricist Tim Rice) and Best Original Score. Menken has won eight Academy Awards during his storied career.

This is the film that launched the “Jurassic” franchise and is the highest-rated of all of these films about reanimated dinosaurs unleashed on the modern world. Rotten Tomatoes said the movie contained Steven Spielberg’s “best sequences of sustained awe and terror since ‘Jaws.'”

Another beloved Disney animation film that became an instant classic, this tells the tale of a young lion being groomed to rule the animal kingdom. It was memorably voiced by Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, and Nathan Lane. Elton John and TIm Rice won an Oscar for Best Original Song and Hans Zimmer picked up the golden statuette for Best Original Score.

Animation’s resurgence continued with the debut of “Toy Story,” the first of the four films about the adventures of treasured toys. The film featured the voices of Tom Hanks as Sheriff Woody and Tim Allen as astronaut Buzz Lightyear, famous for his signature exhortation, “To infinity and beyond!”

An alien invasion is repulsed by cocky fighter pilot Will Smith and quirky mathematician Jeff Goldblum. The film, released the day before the actual Independence Day in 1996, won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

James Cameron helmed this movie about the doomed ocean liner. Premiering in December of 1997 and became a blockbuster. “Titanic” brought home a titanic haul of Academy Awards, winning 11 in all, including for Best Picture and Best Director, tying the 1959 epic “Ben Hur” for most wins.

Steven Spielberg’s story of an American patrol sent behind German lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in World War II was groundbreaking in its realistic depiction of combat. Spielberg won Best Director, one of five Oscars corralled by the film.

The first of the Star Wars prequels stars Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, and Natalie Portman. “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” is one of four Star Wars films directed by George Lucas.

Frenetic comedian Jim Carrey plays the crusty, green creature bent on canceling Christmas in this clever adaptation of the Dr. Seuss story. It won an Oscar for Best Makeup.

Chris Columbus helmed the first of the movies that adapted to the big screen J.K. Rowling’s children’s novels about a young man sent to a school to master the arts of wizardry. Daniel Radcliffe stars as Harry Potter in all eight of the films.

Director Sam Raimi, a lifelong fan of the Spider-Man comic book character, helmed the launch of this superhero franchise. Tobey Maguire played Peter Parker/Spider-Man in this and the next two movies.

An animation triumph for Pixar Animation Studios and Disney, “Finding Nemo” is about a clownfish’s search for his son. It won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Voiced by Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and Julie Andrews, the sequel about the beloved ogre was the second of four animated Shrek films. “Shrek 2” had the highest domestic box office revenue of the four movies.

Directed by George Lucas, “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” concluded the second of the two Star Wars trilogies. In this episode, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) goes to the Dark Side.

In “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” the second of five “Pirates” films, Johnny Depp’s stoner pirate Jack Sparrow tries to recover Davy Jones’ heart. At times visually mesmerizing, the movie won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Though critics on Rotten Tomatoes thought the third installment of the Spider-Man series lacked the refinement of its predecessors, it still had strong box-office appeal and topped all other movies in revenue in 2007.

Rotten Tomatoes called “The Dark Knight” “dark, complex and unforgettable.” Darkness stalked the movie after it was released — Heath Ledger was posthumously awarded a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the psychotic criminal The Joker after he died from a drug overdose.

Not only was James Cameron’s “Avatar” the highest-revenue producer in 2009, it is the third-highest movie of all time in terms of domestic box office (after “Avengers: Endgame” and “Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens”).

“Toy Story 3” was the box-office champ in 2010. The “Toy Story” franchise is the 20th-most successful in movie history, with domestic box-office revenue of more than $1.75 billion.

The final installment in the youthful wizard series finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron ( Rupert Grint) trying to destroy the Dark Lord. Rotten Tomatoes critics found the movie “thrilling, powerfully acted and visually dazzling.” The “Harry Potter” series produced more than just movie magic — it is the fifth-most successful franchise of all time in terms of domestic box-office revenue.

The three Avengers movies distributed by Disney occupy three of the top spots on this list. This was the first one, starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner.

The dystopian thriller “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” vaulted Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence into superstardom. It was the first of the three “Hunger Game”s films in which Lawrence played heroine Katniss Everdeen.

Bradley Cooper played real-life Navy Seal sniper Chris Kyle, whose heroics on the Iraq battlefield left psychological scars and impacted his family in the United States.

Director J.J. Abrams combined new and familiar actors in this runaway hit that topped all movies in revenue in 2015. The film pumped new energy into Hollywood’s second-most successful movie franchise and it is not only the franchise’s highest-grossing film, but also the film with the highest domestic box office gross of all time.

In “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” a former scientist living on a farm is taken from his family and forced to create the Death Star super weapon for the Empire. This was the second of three Star Wars movies to lead all films in box office gross over three consecutive years.

Director Rian Johnson returned recent and legacy Star Wars stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher to “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi.” The film is the eighth of the Star Wars movies on this list and the second most successful in franchise history.

“Black Panther,” a three-time Oscar winner, was a superhero movie centered on Black characters and became a cultural watershed in 2018. Domestically, it also is the fourth-highest-grossing movie ever.

The second-highest-grossing film of all time domestically is “Avengers: Endgame,” a superhero movie reuniting Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, and Chris Hemsworth playing characters who aim to restore the universe’s balance.

The pandemic laid low the motion picture industry in 2020, closing theaters and shutting down production of films. But films such as “Bad Boys for Life,” a cop-buddy action-comedy starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, found an audience anyway.

The star power of Simu Liu (of the Canadian sitcom “Kim’s Convenience”) and Awkwafina (“Crazy Rich Asians,” etc.) helped boost this action-adventure flick to the top of the leaderboard among films in 2021.