The charts below show the top ten movies of all-time box office records, as they would have been calculated at the end of each calendar year. The amounts shown are the estimated number of tickets sold domestically. (U.S. and Canada)
Many high-ranking films have been released multiple times over the past century, and the ticket amounts reflect that. Several films, such as Avatar and The Birth of a Nation, sold tickets at premium prices. Their ticket sale numbers may be lower than would be expected from looking at their total gross.
(Photo by ©Warner Bros. Studios)
[Box office figures as of 11/20/2023]
After Avengers: Endgame and Avatar duked it out for bragging rights as the all-time highest-grossing movie in 2019, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which effectively shuttered theaters (some of them never to reopen), and this list seemed safe for the time being. But in late 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home blew everyone away and nostalgia-bombed its way into the top 10.
Just a few months later, the decades-in-the-making sequel Top Gun: Maverick also shocked the world by swooping past the $1 billion mark, and another half year later, Avatar: The Way of Water proved James Cameron is the box office GOAT by shooting all the way up to the No. 3 spot. And with the latter’s ascension, Disney laid claim to a whopping seven of the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time (eight, if you count its joint ownership of Titanic with Paramount).
In 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie surprised everyone by jolting into the top half of this list in just its first six weeks of release, ultimately landing at No. 16, and most were ready to call it a year. Nobody was going to beat Mario. Then Barbenheimer fever hit, and before we knew it, we had a new champion that was not only the highest-grossing film ever solo-directed by a woman, but also the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. studio history. With the addition of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Barbie, the top 50 has lost Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit movie and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
For the list below, we’ve included global box office performance, as well as domestic, and release date. We included dollars earned in re-releases, and in each of our descriptions, we look at where the film stood record-wise at the time of its run, and dive into things like critical and audience reception. We’ll be here to track the progress of new blockbusters and regularly update this list of top box office performers. So keep your eyes here, and check in with our weekly weekend box office wrap-ups.
1. $2.924 Billion
2. $2.799 Billion
3. $2.320 Billion
4. $2.265 Billion
5. $2.071 Billion
6. $2.052 Billion
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7. $1.921 Billion
8. $1.672 Billion
9. $1.663 Billion
10. $1.521 Billion
11. $1.515 Billion
12. $1.496 Billion
13. $1.454 Billion
14. $1.441 Billion
15. $1.405 Billion
16. $1.362 Billion
17. $1.350 Billion
18. $1.342 Billion
19. $1.334 Billion
20. $1.334 Billion
21. $1.310 Billion
22. $1.266 Billion
23. $1.243 Billion
- Check out the latest Weekend Box Office Results
24. $1.236 Billion
25. $1.216 Billion
26. $1.159 Billion
27. $1.156 Billion
28. $1.155 Billion
29. $1.149 Billion
30. $1.142 Billion
31. $1.132 Billion
32. $1.131 Billion
33. $1.124 Billion
34. $1.113 Billion
35. $1.104 Billion
36. $1.085 Billion
37. $1.079 Billion
38. $1.077 Billion
39. $1.073 Billion
40. $1.067 Billion
41. $1.066 Billion
42. $1.059 Billion
43. $1.054 Billion
44. $1.047 Billion
45. $1.035 Billion
46. $1.029 Billion
47. $1.027 Billion
48. $1.026 Billion
49. $1.025 Billion
50. $1.024 Billion
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Thumbnail image courtesy ©Universal Pictures, ©Warner Bros. Pictures, ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
What movie has the highest ticket sales of all time?
By Adjusted Gross.
What is the highest selling movie of all time?
Top Lifetime Grosses.
What movie sold the most tickets in 24 hours?
Top Single Day Grosses.
What actor has sold the most movie tickets?
As of August 2023, Samuel L. Jackson was the highest-grossing leading actor in the United States and Canada, which combined are known as the North American movie market. Movies featuring Jackson as a protagonist collectively amassed 5.72 billion U.S. dollars domestically. Robert Downey Jr.