Top 10 Favorite Movies to Gross $200-$300 Million Domestically
We’re continuing my series of sharing my 10 favorites that come to gross a certain amount of money at the domestic box office. Here are my picks for my favorite 10 movies to gross between $200-$300 million at the domestic box office. Let’s get started!
10. Star Trek (2009): I’m not a massive Star Trek fan. It’s not one of the worlds I’ve gotten super invested in. I’ve seen all of the movies (most of them only one time) and none of the tv shows. Of the Star Trek movies, 2009 has always been my favorite. It might be as thoughtful as past Star Trek movies. But this is the most entertaining film of the franchise with tons of action, comedy, heart, and fun characters. JJ Abrams knows how to craft sequences that are thrilling and exciting. The opening 10 minutes of the film is the best sequence in any Star Trek film of his career. It’s so thrilling and it has emotional weight establishing Chris Pine’s Kirk’s character arc in the film. His entire arc is about finding purpose and living up to his full potential set by his father. The cast all around is great, it propelled several people to stardom, specifically Chris Pine and Zoe Saldaña. And this film probably helped Chris Hemsworth get the role of Thor. It’s a movie that you don’t expect to have a great cast but it does and everybody in here is so good and fits their roles nicely. Michael Giacchino’s score is fantastic, it’s my favorite Star Trek score and my favorite score from him. When you put all of the pieces together you get a film that’s everything I want from a 21st century blockbuster.
9. Monsters Inc.: Pixar’s run from Toy Story to Toy Story 3, 1995 to 2010 is a pretty legendary run. One of their best films from that era and in general is Monsters Inc. What’s fun about this film is that it takes this concept regarding childhood about monsters under the bed and tells this and emotional story with it. It flips the concept on its head and we learn that they do it because they’re trying to make a living and make sure their city has power. It’s a film that perfectly encapsulates the creativity that Pixar had in their first 15 years. This film also gives us one of the best duos with Mike and Sully, Billy Crystal and John Goodman have fantastic chemistry with each other. When Boo gets introduced the dynamic changes and becomes even more fun. There’s plenty of fun side characters with Randal, Roz, Mr. Waternoose fills out the cast so well. It has all of the Pixar magic and heart that you’d expect, when you move into the finale the final interaction with Sully and Boo does pull at the heart strings. This has always been one of my favorite Pixar films, it’s everything that I love about Pixar.
8. X-Men: Days of Future Past: This is my personal favorite film in the X-Men franchise. And I find this to be the most well rounded film of the franchise. Where it’s the biggest film of the franchise, you have stakes for both the past and future, there’s emotional weight, there’s humor, fun characters, and action. Everything that I want from a comic book movie blockbuster, Days of Future Past delivers. This isn’t a multiverse film but it delivers the multiverse experience that we’ve to expect from films like No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine. Since this was the original one of those, it feels fresh as opposed to now when multiverse films have become so common and popular within the genre. Like I said, you get these big emotional stakes where both the past and the future have consequences for what they’re doing. You know exactly what each hero has to do in order for them to win. Because of the stakes there’s multiple deaths of beloved characters that pack an emotional weight. The final moments between Professor X and Magneto hits hard. Of course, you also have the Quicksilver sequence in the Pentagon that’s one of the most fun and most memorable sequences of the entire franchise.
7. Back to the Future: One of the most iconic ‘80s movies of all time and 40 years later still holds up wonderfully as an entertaining ‘80s blockbuster. This is the quintessential time travel movie. Anytime there’s a new time travel movie released it’s immediately compared to this film. Even more modern day time travel films like Avengers Endgame mention this film. The idea that Marty will stop disappearing once he gets parents together probably doesn’t make a lot of sense or with Marty’s mom falling in love with him isn’t the best stuff, you don’t care about it because you’re having so much on this adventure. It’s a film that’s quotable with so many bits and lines that are still so memorable all of these years later. Every single character has a line or a moment that’s become part of pop culture. Alan Silvestri’s score is so loud and bombastic and this type of film shouldn’t have a score like this, but because Silvestri is a master of composing he’s able to make it work and he created one of the best film scores of all time. When all is said and done, it’s a miracle that this film turned out great because with all of the production issues with this film it’s very easy to imagine a version of this film that didn’t work.
6. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: This is my personal favorite Star Wars film, it’s also one of the best sequels of all time, and it’s one of the best movies of all time. It’s such an important sequel in cinematic history because it created the template that so many sequels have copied. In this film the stakes are cranked up and our heroes lose at the end. So many sequels since then have done this same thing, most notably Avengers Infinity War. Beyond that, this is the film that starts Luke’s journey to becoming a Jedi Master. A New Hope establishes him as a hero with promise, a farm boy swept up on this adventure. The Empire Strikes Back he’s training with Yoda for a large portion of the film. There’s a sense of forward momentum in the film as we want Luke to train so he can defeat Darth Vader and other threats. The final confrontation between the two of them is one of the best duels in cinematic history with maybe the most iconic plot twist of all time. John Williams continues to kill it with the score, this film gave us the "Imperial March” and Yoda’s theme when he’s lifting the X-Wing is also fantastic. All around a great movie and a FANTASTIC Star Wars film.
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark: One of Steven Spielberg’s best films, one of the best blockbusters of all time, one of the best adventure films of all time, and one of the best films of all time, period. It’s a near perfect film that delivers on everything that it’s going for. It’s one of the films that helped create the modern pacing for blockbusters with this fast pace speed with tons of action and jokes to keep you entertained. It starts off with this fantastic sequence with the boulder and it never lets up until the credits roll. Harrison Ford is so good as Indiana Jones that it’s hard to imagine anyone else besides him playing this role. He has all of the swagger and charm that you expect from a leading man. I think part of the reason why they haven’t rebooted this franchise is because finding Ford’s replacement as Indiana Jones will be very hard to do. We get another fantastic John Williams score, this time delivering the quintessential adventure score of all time. The main Indiana Jones melody is the music you think of when you think of adventure and the leading action man. The entire original trilogy is pretty fantastic but Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite of the bunch and my favorite Indiana Jones movie in general.
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: It feels weird to rank this film above THREE ‘80s classics, but this is my personal list and I absolutely love The Winter Soldier. It’s one of the best MCU films and does something that more MCU films need to do, pull inspiration from outside sources. This film feels more like a political spy thriller then an MCU film, while still having all of the MCU flash that you’d expect. It’s a film that puts a very black & white character like Captain America into a world where the line behind good and bad isn’t entirely obvious. Sometimes the good people have to do bad things and the bad people have to do good things. It makes Captain America a more interesting character because his worldview gets changed so much. The Russo Brothers of course know how to stage incredible action, this film being no exception. From beginning to end, there’s a ton of awesome action that’s thrilling and exciting. The boat, elevator, and highway sequences being the big stands outs for me. You get a great villain in here with The Winter Soldier (with the coolest costume in the MCU) that’s a great villain that helps push Captain America more and more. Finally, the late great Robert Redford is awesome in this film playing this despicable villain that you want to see taken down.
3. The LEGO Movie: This film wins the award for the most times I’ve seen in a film at the theaters. I loved this movie so much as a kid that I saw it four times in the theaters, within a month of the film releasing. 11 years later I think this movie still holds up wonderfully as one of the sharpest and cleverest animated movies of all time. The humor and one liners still hit so well after seeing the film countless times over the years. Every minute or so is some joke that makes me laugh out loud. There’s so many memorable sequences that are filled with great moments, references, cameos, and so much more. The film is about accepting originality and creativity over conformity. Given the world we currently live in, the themes and ideas are so relevant and makes you view this movie in a different fashion that rewatching earlier this year is one of the things that really stuck out to me about this film. As somebody who is a creative person, seeing a movie that values creativity through LEGOs (something else that I love) is something very interesting to me and hits all the right notes. We’ll talk about my #1 favorite animated film shortly, but this is certainly in the top 3.
2. The Martian: I love survival films, I love sci-fi films, and I love Matt Damon so The Martian is a movie that I’m very likely going to enjoy. Having seen this film several times over the years, I can tell you that I do enjoy this movie, in fact I love this movie. What I think works so well about this movie is that Ridley Scott is able to tell a story about a guy strained on Mars with a lot of exposition about science and farming and turn it into one of the most entertaining blockbusters of the last decade, that’s funny and thrilling. It’s a very scary situation that Scott could’ve leaned down the more serious version of this story but added enough levity into the film to make it very entertaining and engaging. It’s a movie that’s designed for a great actor like Matt Damon to exceed in. The movie is built on his shoulders so if he doesn’t work, the movie doesn’t work. Damon is one of my favorite actors who has done several fantastic films over the years, this would be my favorite Matt Damon movie and performance. It also has a great supporting cast of great actors that fill out the movie nicely (a ton of MCU alumni in here). The third act of the film is one of the most emotional and thrilling third acts of all time. The Martian is EASILY one of my favorite movies of all time.
1. The Incredibles: I’ll say this, The Incredibles is my favorite animated movie of all time. And I find it to be a perfect example of everything that Pixar is great at. The film is telling a story about a guy having a mid-life crisis. This is a story and idea that kids wouldn’t understand but they packaged it in a way that makes it entertaining for everybody. That’s one of MANY reasons why Pixar was so legendary for 15 years. The Incredibles is one of their best examples of that. It’s a film that when you rewatch it, you pick up on so many details once you know Syndrome’s plan and the twist. When you rewatch it, you realize how sick and sadistic Syndrome is with all that he’s doing with killing all of the superheroes. It’s a film that feels vibrant with Brad Bird’s direction and gives it this 1960’s futuristic James Bond vibe that adds this freshness to the entire thing. Michael Giacchino’s score is once again fantastic, this is my favorite of Giacchino’s scores that’s so vibrant and pulls inspiration from James Bond and Mission Impossible, but is still able to make it his own. Once again, this film is a film that’s filled with memorable sequence after memorable sequences with quotable lines sprinkled all throughout. When you put it all together you get a film that delivers so much value from the characters, the world building, the direction, the themes, the score, and so much more.
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