Only six movies have ever crossed $2 billion at the box office, without adjusting for inflation. Using Box Office Mojo, Insider compiled the only films to cross the threshold.
Avatar, Jurassic Park, Titanic, Star Wars... We review the 53 films that have made history after raising more than a billion dollars.
1. Avatar (2009) - $2.899 billion – after its 2022 release bumped it up above the second entry, which for a while had surpassed it. 3. Titanic (1997) - $2.207 billion (not counting the millions it will doubtlessly make after its 4K HDR 3D rerelease this year.)
"Titanic" (1997)
The James Cameron-directed film was the first movie to cross $1 billion worldwide. At the time, it was the most expensive movie made. The film finally crossed $2 billion during its rerelease in 3D in 2012.
Titanic became the first movie to gross over $1 billion worldwide on March 1, 1998, in 74 days of release. The list below is restricted to the 10 movies that reached the milestone the fastest.
"Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003) People came out in droves for the final installment of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. After only 10 weeks in theaters, "Return of the King" became the second movie ever in history to make $1 billion ("Titanic" was the first in 1997).
Tom Cruise (USA) has been credited in 30 movies that have earned over $100 million (£72 million, as of July 2021) at the worldwide box office, according to TheNumbers.com, the last eight of which have been consecutive, between Jack Reacher (USA, 2012) and Mission Impossible - Fallout (USA, 2018).
Keanu Reeves is the highest-paid actor in history for a single film. He received 30 million dollars for Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions.
The first actor to break the $1 million threshold was Marlon Brando (USA), who was paid $1.25 million (£400,500) – equivalent today to $8.8 million; £6.1 million – for his starring role as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (USA, 1962).
The film gained notoriety from its gross ticket sales of only $30 on its opening run, due to its intentionally limited release at a single cinema; it is the lowest-grossing film in U.S. history in terms of box office sales.
The first film to have a budget of US$100 million (the £64.1 million) was True Lies (US 1994), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire in the title role, the eagerly awaited comic book adaptation Spider-Man was released on Friday, May 3, 2002, and quickly became the fastest movie ever to earn more than $100 million at the box office, raking in a staggering $114.8 million by Sunday, May 5.
Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water has officially surpassed Titanic to become the third highest-grossing film of all-time and Titanic was, of course, also directed by the auteur.
James Cameron's Avatar 2's global collection now stands at $2.2433 billion, surpassing Titanic's worldwide collection of $2.218 billion. Cameron, the only filmmaker with three films grossing $2 billion or more, directed the first, third, and fourth most successful releases in history.
According to Variety, The Way of Water broke even when it surpassed the $2.05-$2.08 billion mark. Regardless of how it will continue making at the box office before it leaves theaters, Avatar 2 will still be behind Endgame and Avatar, though it's impressive it managed to surpass Titanic.
The original Avatar was so successful because of the novelty of hyperrealism in the late 2000s, which was just developing as an art form. The CGI mimics high-resolution photography, giving filmmakers the ability to create entire virtual worlds that look uncannily real.
Claude Lanzmann's award-winning Holocaust documentary Shoah clocks in at 9 hours 26 minutes. The incorrectly titled The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World runs for 48 hours.