The Highest-Grossing Movie of Each Year Since 2000

At this time last year, it looked like the movie theater experience was going the way of the VCR. Thanks to online streaming services and higher ticket prices, fewer people were heading out to the multiplex. 

Then the superhero movies started to land, led by the historic and wildly successful “Black Panther”; Rami Malek flawlessly summoned the ghost of Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody”; and yet another entry into the “Star Wars” universe grossed hundreds of millions at the box office. Suddenly 2018 was the highest-grossing year at the box office in history.

And yet despite all of that, 2018’s top-grossing film is only the ninth highest of all time (when counting domestic and international figures). That had us thinking about which films have made the most money at the box office each year during the 21st century. Although we included both the domestic and international totals, it was the domestic figure that landed each movie in the top spot. We sourced data from Box Office Mojo.

Studio: Universal

Total gross: $345,141,403 (domestic: $260,044,825; international: $85,096,578)

Opening weekend: $55,082,330

Budget: $123 million

Oscar nominations: Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup (win)

“Grinch” has become a favorite during the holidays. This iteration of the classic Dr. Seuss story starred Jim Carrey back when he could power a film to box office success.

The story, of course, centers around the curmudgeonly Grinch of Whoville as he tries to ruin Christmas for all the residents until a small child named Cindy Lou Who shows the green creature the true meaning of the holiday (hint: it has nothing to do with what you buy at big-box stores).

The film was also notable for being the first since “The Wizard of Oz” to use so many actors, including extras, who required stage makeup. And indeed this feat garnered “Grinch” the Academy Award for best makeup design.

Studio: Warner Bros.

Total gross: $974,755,371 (domestic: $317,575,550; international: $657,179,821)

Opening weekend: $90,294,621

Budget: $125 million

Oscar nominations: Art Direction, Costume Design, Original Score

It took 13 attempts for J.K. Rowling to get her first “Harry Potter” book published, but she eventually became a billionaire thanks to the novel and film series that would follow. “Sorcerer’s Stone” introduced the world to lovable Harry Potter, who as an 11-year-old orphan discovers that he’s actually the son of two powerful wizards. He enrolls at Hogwarts, a school designed for those with this particular gift, and the rest is film and literary history.

There are tons of quirky facts associated with the “Harry Potter” franchise, but a few are worth noting. The film and book are only called “Sorcerer’s Stone” in the U.S. due to the powers that be believing Americans wouldn’t understand “Philosopher’s Stone.” And J.K. Rowling is actually a nom de plume, as Joanne Rowling’s publisher believed — in a nod to gender stereotypes dating to 1997 — that boys would not be interested in a book written by a woman.

Studio: Sony/Columbia

Total gross: $821,708,551 (domestic: $403,706,375; international: $418,002,176)

Opening weekend: $114,844,116

Budget: $139 million

Oscar nominations: Sound, Visual Effects

The film’s quote, “With great power comes great responsibility,” is perhaps the maxim for all the comic book character franchises that would follow — and that are still dominating ticket sales around the world with no end in sight.

The “responsibility,” in this case, is not for our “Spider-Man” hero Peter Parker to use his supernatural abilities to do good in the world, but rather for the producers and directors of these films to not only make heaps of money but to also make good movies. Luckily that’s been the case for the past 16 years.

As you will see in the rest of this list, it’s hard to imagine a time when studios thought superhero films wouldn’t make any money. But that was the case in 1985 when this version of “Spider-Man” first started, er, spinning its web. It took 17 years and many studio and personnel changes to finally make it to the big screen, but when it did it helped launch a Midas era for comic books in which anything made into a movie became box-office gold.

Studio: New Line

Total gross: $1,119,929,521 (domestic: $377,845,905; international: $742,083,616)

Opening weekend: $72,629,713

Budget: $94 million

Oscar nominations: Adapted Screenplay (win), Art Direction (win), Best Picture (win), Costume Design (win), Director (win), Editing (win), Makeup (win), Original Score (win), Original Song (win), Sound (win), Visual Effects (win) 

“Rings” is without a doubt one of the greatest franchises filmdom will ever know, and 2003 marked the culmination of a three-year run in which Peter Jackson bestowed Tolkien’s masterpiece on the world with the touch of a true genius. It’s the only film to sweep the 11 Academy Award nominations it received, and one of three movies (the others: “Ben Hur,” “Titanic”) to win that many Oscars.

The fantasy is set in Middle-earth and centers around a hobbit named Frodo who, with the help of fellow hobbit Samwise and the rest of the Fellowship, embarks on a mission to destroy the One Ring and strip all power from its creator, the evil Dark Lord Sauron.