Top 15 Opening Weekend Movies Ranked
Over the past year and a half, the box office has been struggling to say the least. But prior to the pandemic taking place, a handful of movies every year were making over $100 million in its opening weekend. So in today’s blog post I’m going to be ranking the 15 movies with the highest box office in its opening weekend. Let’s get started!
15. Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker: This movie was supposed to be the Avengers Endgame of Star Wars, and it wasn’t it was much more a mehgame. This movie was the final movie starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac and I don’t think this movie worked. Right off the bat, the movie feels a bit like a course correction of the movie, because everything that Rian Johnson did in The Last Jedi abandoned everything that J.J. Abrams did in The Force Awakens. And all of the stuff in this movie matters so much to what Abrams set up in The Force Awakens. So the movie has to set up and pay off it’s finale in one movie. I think this movie would have worked better if it was split into two movies. Because the movie has to go from plot point to plot point without explaining any of it or giving it time to breath. This movie should have been top tier Star Wars, it would have been a great movie but it wasn’t.
14. The Lion King (2019): Now to be clear, I don’t hate this movie. I know a lot of people on the internet hated this movie, and thought it was terrible and one of the worst movies of all time. For me, I thought it was fine but it was good enough. I’d give it a positive review, B- for me. The best thing about this movie are the visuals. This is one of the best looking movies of all time. There is not one single shot of this movie that I didn’t buy. The way the animals look is so real and life-like. It looked like they took real animals to star in this movie. The source material of The Lion King is great, and I just love the songs in this movie. And for me, Pumbaa and Timon were great and they stole the show for me. Seth Rogen and Billy Eichener were great as the iconic movie duo. But it’s a very lifeless feeling movie, the animals don’t emote hardly at all. Because if the animals were to emote with human-like faces, the animals would look fake. So when Scar kills Mufasa, Simba’s reaction is very straight and one note.
13. Beauty and the Beast (2017): Yet again another Disney live action remake that made bonkers amounts of money. I rewatched this movie back in 2020, and I thought it was better than I remember it being. I saw this movie once in the theaters, and I think the second time I watched it was in 2020 like I just mentioned. Once again, the music and source material are great and provide for a great and vibrant type story with great characters and people learning to not judge a book by it’s cover. The cast all around is great, Luke Evans as Gaston and Josh Gad as LeFou being the two stand outs. I like Josh Gad in movies like this, I think he’s a funny guy and he has all of his charm and likability present in this movie. But I do think the movie is way too long, they added roughly 50 minutes of extra plot to this movie and I don’t know if it worked. For example, a sub plot of The Black Plaque tieing into the death of Belle’s mom. So this is a nice solid movie, but if I want to watch Beauty and the Beast, I’m watching the animated classic.
12. Iron Man 3: This is a very polarizing MCU movie, and maybe it’s most polarizing. And probably the most polarizing movie on this list. A bunch of people think it’s top tier Marvel and the best of the Iron Man trilogy. But there are a handful of people that think it’s bottom tier Marvel, and for me it’s middle tier. I think this is a good solid MCU movie, with some great things about. Right off the bat, Shane Black writes great dialogue in this movie and his witty dialogue matches perfectly with Robert Downey Jr. 's charm and the second act with the kid, it’s really funny stuff. Some of the action sequences are very well done, the airplane rescue and the final battle being two of the most memorable ones. Now the villains here aren’t the best, the twist with The Mandarin being frustrating, and one I wish was just removed from the movie. And the ending of the movie feels out of place with the rest of the MCU.
11. Jurassic World: Easily, this movie is the best of the Jurassic Park/World Sequels. And some people might be surprised that this movie is on this list. But I’m not, because I guess people just wanted more Jurassic Park type movies, and they got one with modern day visuals. Also, this was Chris Pratt’s first big movie after he did Guardians of the Galaxy which was the movie that launched him to the a-list. And this is a very fun movie, it’s not great cinema but it is a lot of fun. Chris Pratt is great at leading big Hollywood blockbusters like this; he brings his energy and his charm to the big screen. Like I said, the movie is done with modern day visuals and it just looks incredible, the dinosaurs and everything that would need visuals. And the biggest thing going for this movie is that it is just a lot of fun, it moves quickly, there is plenty of dinosaur action and fun action saying funny lines. It’s not Martin Scorsese level cinema, but not every movie has to.
10. Avengers Age of Ultron: Easily the weakest of The Avengers franchise, but I still think this is a rock solid MCU movie and Avengers movie. There is plenty of big action in this movie, everybody gets a moment to shine in at least one of the sequences. It’s also a movie that I think is much larger in scale then the original movie where I think Ultron poses a more dangerous threat than Loki does, even though Loki is the better villain overall. The banter amongst the team is once great and some really funny moments. But I think where this movie gets held back is with the story and a bit of the story telling. Joss Whedon is attempting to tell this big epic story but it’s a movie with way too much going on. The main plot line is Tony accidentally creates Ultron and then The Avengers must stop him, that’s the main plot of the movie. But you also have Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver being introduced, setting up Ragnarok and Infinity War. Visiting Hawkeye’s farm so the movie has a great central plot line but a way to many subplots.
9. Black Panther: Now this is a movie that I’ve kind of come to appreciate as time has passed. I’ve always liked the movie, always enjoyed it but the more I watch it and think about it I like it more and more. Right off the bat, I think Ryan Coogler tells a different type of Marvel story. It's a story that is inspired by Hamlet and The Lion King. And Coogler tells it really well in this movie. Also, the villain here, Killmonger is one of the best MCU villains. He is Wakanda in his blood, but he grew up in Oakland so he has a very different world view from T’Challa. And the actions that Killmonger does change T’Challa’s world view and thus the ending of the movie takes place. And that is so clever, and such an interesting way to have a story like this play out. Now on the negative, the visuals for the movie aren’t the best. They are some of the worst visuals in any of the MCU movies, especially the final battle between T’Challa and Killmonger. It looks like Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are standing on a green screen. And I don’t think all of the humor lands for me. But this is a very solid edition to the MCU.
8. Incredibles 2: As a point of reference, the top 8 here I would give a B+ and above to. So the fact that this movie is at number 8, I still really like this movie. And for the most part, they delivered on what I wanted. Like the first movie, the action was very well done and it is some of the best action in any animated movie, and it’s shot with wide angle shots. Brad Bird is great with his action, in all of his movies. I like that it tells a different type of story, and it doesn’t try and copy the structure of the story of the original movie. And it switches up the dynamic of everything where in the original movie Mr. Incredible was out doing missions and Elistagirl was home with the kids this movie it’s the opposite. Elistagirl is out doing missions, and Mr. Incredible is at home with the kids. Jack-Jack gets a great sequence with that raccoon. I think the movie is predictable with the Screensaver plot line, you can see it coming way too far in advance. But honestly besides that, this is a great movie.
7. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi: I’ve always appreciated that Johnson didn’t do the safest Star Wars movie. He went for it, and he created these weird and different movies that took things in wild and new directions. So that side of it has never bothered me, I don’t mind that Luke dies in the final moments of the movie. But I do think this is the best looking of the Star Wars movies, the way the movie looks is really quite remarkable. The third act on the salt planet with the red coming up it’s gorgeous to look at. And just the usages of color in certain scenes are great, especially the throne room scene. It's another great looking sequence. And the movie really is character based, they give each of our main characters some sort of arc for them. Now I do think Finn and Rose’s plot wasn’t very good, it feels totally out of place and feels awkward inside of this movie. I don’t think it worked all that well, and I don’t why the movie spent 15-20 minutes on it. But in general, this is a very good Star Wars movie but a movie that could have been better.
6. The Avengers: The first movie inside of the MCU where all of the heroes pre-established joined together for a movie. And I think that Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige cracked the code, they did what so many studios tried to do, but failed at it. What I think holds this movie together is the banter between the characters, Joss Whedon is known for writing such great dialogue and that is witty and fun. And just seeing all of these characters meet one another for the first is a lot of fun to see. And the third act of this movie is one of the best third acts in any comic book movie. Everybody in that scene gets a moment to shine, Hulk gets a few great moments in that third act. But the movie does keep it’s sense of humor in the third act where some movies don’t, this one does. Now where it does get held back out of that top 5 spot for me is I think the first act of the movie is pretty clunky. It’s moving from character to character and introducing them in the story and that’s essentially what the first act of this movie is. But honestly, that is a small issue, it's still a great time at the movies.
5. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens: The very first of the Disney Star Wars movies, and the first Disney Star Wars product. Now I’ve always really dug this movie, and it’s always been a top tier Star Wars movie for me. Maybe that’s because this was the first Star Wars movie that I ever saw in the theaters, so I might be biased and have nostalgia for my thoughts and feelings on this movie. But it is a movie that I have a lot of fun with every time that I watch it. I’m a big fan of J.J. Abrams as a director and he makes these really fun movies with plenty of action and likable and charming characters. When there isn’t a big flashy action sequence going on, there is humor inside in it so I’m never bored while watching this movie. The characters all around are great, whether they are the returning legacy characters or the new characters like Rey or Poe. And I will say that I think this is the best usage of Han Solo in any of the Star Wars movies, and it’s great to see Harrison Ford return to the role. All around, this is a great edition to the Star Wars universe.
4. Captain America Civil War: This movie could be considered Captain America 3 or Avengers 2.5, either way you want to call it, it is a top tier MCU movie. The big thing that this movie need to pull of was the tension between Steve and Tony, and this movie did. The previous movies did all of the work of building their different world views and helping us, the audience learn about their world views. Steve saw SHIELD collapse and be taken over by the government, he doesn’t trust them. Tony created Ultron and did other bad things, he wants to be controlled by the government in some ways. That is why those two come in clash with one another. Once again, there are plenty of great action sequences in this movie. It almost goes without saying but the airport battle in this movie is one of the best in MCU movie history. That is another sequence where everybody gets a moment to shine. The third act of the movie might not be the biggest one inside of the MCU, but it might be the most personal and emotionally. This is a greatly crafted MCU movie, and I think it works great as a Captain America movie.
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: I think that the Harry Potter franchise is one of the best movie franchises of all time, it’s so consistently great. And the final movie in the franchise is the best one for me. It just has so much emotional pay off, and all of it worked for me. The previous 7 movies were building up to this big final showdown between Harry and Voldemort, and this movie delivers on that. Where we see basically the fall of Hogwarts, as this big epic battle occurs that spans ⅔ of the movie. And once Harry, Ron, and Hermione get to Hogwarts it’s this big epic and awesome battle that is so exciting. But like I mentioned it is a movie that has a lot of emotion and closes out this franchise so well. That as you move into the epilogue, you feel all of the emotions that you are supposed to feel. But it also really moves a number of the character’s story arcs forward and closes them out. Snape being the prime example of that, and what they do with him in this movie is great. All in all, this is one of my favorite movies of all time and it is my favorite of The Wizarding World franchise.
2. Avengers Infinity War: One of the most exciting and most epic feeling movies of all time. This was a movie that people were waiting 10 years to see. This was a movie that was the pay off to 10 years of build up, and they nailed it. They created this movie that is so epic, and you feel the epicness of this movie. It can also be really emotional at points in time, especially as you move into the second half of the movie. But while it is emotional and large in scale, it’s also a very entertaining movie. Where there is so much great banter between the characters. Two of the stand-outs being Iron Man and Doctor Strange and then the other being Thor with The Guardians of the Galaxy. And both of those were duos that I didn’t think I was going to love as much as I do. But the best character in the movie is Thanos, this is Thanos’ movie. Going into this movie all of the other characters were developed and fleshed out. Thanos was the one that still needed it. And they give him this back story, that is emotional and you see why he’s doing what he is doing. This is another top tier MCU movie, it's awesome.
1. Avengers Endgame: This one might come to a shock (to nobody) that it is number 1. If you know me personally or my blog, you know that this is my favorite movie of all time. I have a hard time imagining any movie ever being as good as this movie in my mind. If Infinity War was an epic movie, this movie I think is even more epic in scale. Where it’s a 3 hour long epic that has so many plot lines and characters it is trying to cover and it does it. This is the pay off, the end to The Infinity Saga and The Russo Brothers and Kevin Feige pulled it off. They pulled off what was near impossible, this movie had so much excitement surrounding it. So much pressure on Marvel, this movie could have failed. This movie could have been terrible, a terrible movie. But it wasn’t, it was an awesome movie. I remember setting down on April 25th, 2019 and everything having so much joy watching this movie, and every time I watch it I still get so much joy. This is an epic, awesome, and important movie, so this is my number 1...were you surprised though?
There you have it, my ranking of the 15 highest rated movies with the highest opening weekend box office. What is your favorite? Have a nice day, thanks for reading!
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