Summer is synonymous with many things including big-budget, record-smashing films.
As the days grow longer and the sun gets brighter, movies get more exciting and box offices become even more cash-flooded. And yes, this phenomenon happens pretty much every year. What we’re here to do now is discover which summer hits have attracted the biggest crows of them all.
We’ll be using data from Box Office Mojo to determine which films have grossed the most worldwide. Additionally, we’re defining a summer blockbuster as any top-grossing film that has reached a summertime audience. That means films released in April are fair game, as many of them hung out in theaters for many, many weeks.
Sit back, and enjoy the show; here are the highest-grossing summer blockbusters of all time.
The Fate of the Furious
The eighth installment in the Fast & Furious series premiered in mid-April 2017 to an insane number of movie-goers. Its quarter-of-a-billion-dollar budget was destroyed by the over $1.2 billion it raked in from ticket sales.
Featuring a star-studded cast including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Scott Eastwood, The car-crazy movie was praised for its exciting action and consistent energy. Its sequel is scheduled to be released in May 2020.
Incredibles 2
The long-awaited sequel to the 2004 animated action film, The Incredibles, saw the world’s favorite superhero family acclimating to a world that is once again accepting them into society. It is the only animated film to reach the top-ten summer blockbuster ranks, having raked in over $1.2 billion at the box office.
Critics and audiences loved the 2018 film for being almost as exciting as the original. Though a second sequel isn't in the works, it's not outside the realm of possibility. There's a lot more world out there for the Parr family to rescue.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
The 2018 Jurassic World sequel once again took Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard on a high-energy dinosaur-filled adventure. Though the sci-fi film follow-up was not as highly regarded as the original, it contained the same danger-looming entertainment value of the original. The dynamic leads and beautiful scenery also didn’t hurt.
Fallen Kingdom took in $1.3 billion at the box office and is scheduled to receive its own sequel in June 2021. Pratt and Howard are set to embark on another on a new high-stakes adventure.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The final film in the Harry Potter franchise entered theaters during July 2011. It came out with $1.3 billion dollars and a tremendous amount of love from long-time fans.
Though some critics wished the final Harry Potter book wasn’t split into two films, they couldn’t help but enjoy how visually spectacular and compelling the final film was. Casual theater-goers were just as excited, waiting in movie lines for hours. Who could argue with that? The conclusion was nothing short of magical.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
It shouldn't come as any surprise that Age of Ultron, saw the gang teaming together against Stark’s Ultron creation. It also saw over $1.4 billion at the box office, so its nearly half a million-dollar budget was of no concern.
Its predecessor and successors somehow managed to bring in even more money, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. We'll get deeper into the action soon.
Furious 7
We’re racing back to the Fast & Furious franchise, as 2015’s Furious 7 took in even more than its successor. In fact, the action film scored $1.5 billion at the box office.
Furious 7 received generally positive reviews for keeping the visuals big and the dialogue clever. The film received all kinds of awards including a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Movie and became the biggest commercial success of the series.
Marvel’s The Avengers
The opening film in The Avengers franchise resuced $1.5 billion from theaters everywhere. Its ensemble cast was exciting to Marvel fans, who had waited a long time to see heroes including Thor, Captain American, Hulk, Iron Man, and Black Widow team together.
It was just as much a critical success as it was a box office one, being praised for having all the exciting, big-scale makings of a blockbuster. Its $220 million budget paled in comparison to all the funds it racked up.
Jurassic World
The original 2015 Jurassic World film brought the Jurassic Park film series to a modern audience. And boy, the crowds sure did show up.
The film collected over $1.6 billion at the box office with beautiful visuals, an adventurous soundtrack, compelling on-screen chemistry, and just the right amount of thrill. It received several nominations and helped further cement Chris Pratt as an action hero. It also reignited a franchise that still has a lot of life ahead of it.
Avengers: Infinity War
The third film in the Avengers series — 2018’s Infinity War — had the ensemble cast of superheroes ing together to destroy Thanos. It concluded on an epic cliffhanger that was bound to have moviegoers lining up for the final film in the series, which was set to come out the following summer.
Infinity War ultimately scored a whopping $2 billion at the box office, becoming the fifth-highest grossing film of all time. While that title is one worth talking about, Marvel knew it could do better.
Avengers: Endgame
The final film in The Avengers series had the gang teaming together to travel back in time and recover the Infinity Stones that led to half the worlds demise. The stakes were bigger than ever and so was the resulting box office numbers. The film brought in over $2.7 billion becoming not only the highest-grossing summer blockbuster of all time but the highest-grossing film of all time, beating the record previously held by 2009’s Avatar.
You did it, 2019. Thanks for giving us one heck of a summer-smashing hit.
