List of the top summer movies since 'Jaws' turned it into blockbuster season in 1975
LOS ANGELES (AP) — 'Jaws' turns 50 this week, and its legacy of the summer movie blockbuster remains strong.
The titles that have packed the most summer moviegoers into theaters since 1975 represent some of the best known films of the last half century, including five 'Star Wars' movies, Pixar favorites like 'Toy Story 3' and 'Finding Nemo,' superheroes galore and both 'Top Gun' films. They also include some surprises, and movies both less bombastic and less enduring.
Combined, the top-earning summer films between 1975 and 2004 have more than $15 billion through the summer months, a figure not adjusted for inflation, according to the tracking firm Comscore.
It's also worth noting that box-office tracking before 1981 was not as robust as it is today — and there was essentially no summer movie season in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered theaters across the country.
Here's a list of the top summer movie each year, along with the film's gross earnings from its release date through Labor Day, according to Comscore's data.
1976: 'The Omen,' $60.9 million
1977: 'Star Wars,' $221.3 million
1978: 'Grease,' $132.5 million
1979: 'Alien,' $79 million
1980: 'Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back,' $222.7 million
1981: 'Superman II,' $59.2 million
1982: 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,' $242 million
1983: 'Star Wars: Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi' $222.3 million
1984: 'Ghostbusters,' $189.1 million
1985: 'Rambo: First Blood Part II,' $139 million
1986: 'Top Gun,' $131.3 million
1987: 'Beverly Hills Cop II,' $151 million
1988: 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit,' $130.7 million
1989: 'Batman,' $239 million
1990: 'Ghost,' $125 million
1991: 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day,' $183.1 million
1992: 'Batman Returns,' $159.8 million
1993: 'Jurassic Park,' $316.6 million
1994: 'The Lion King,' $262.3 million
1995: 'Batman Forever,' $181.4 million
1996: 'Independence Day,' $282 million
1997: 'Men In Black,' $235.1 million
1998: 'Armageddon,' $193 million
1999: 'Star Wars: Episode I - Phantom Menace,' $421.4 million
2000: 'Mission: Impossible II,' $214 million
2001: 'Shrek,' $263 million
2002: 'Spider-Man,' $403.7 million
2003: 'Finding Nemo,' $332.7 million
2004: 'Shrek 2,' $436.7 million
2005: 'Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith,' $380 million
2006: 'Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,' $414 million
2007: 'Spider-Man 3,' $336.5 million
2008: 'The Dark Knight,' $504.8 million
2009: 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,' $400.6 million
2010: 'Toy Story 3,' $409 million
2011: 'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows II,' $375.6 million
2012: 'Marvel's The Avengers,' $620.3 million
2013: 'Iron Man 3,' $409 million
2014: 'Guardians Of The Galaxy,' $281.2 million
2015: 'Jurassic World,' $647.4 million
2016: 'Finding Dory,' $482.9 million
2017: 'Wonder Woman,' $409.5 million
2018: 'Incredibles 2,' $602.6 million
2019: 'The Lion King,' $523.6 million
2020: 'Tenet,' $20 million
2021: 'Black Widow,' $182.7 million
2022: 'Top Gun Maverick,' $701.3 million
2023: 'Barbie,' $612.3 million
2024: 'Inside Out 2,' $650.8 million
___
Source: Comscore
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Pixar Gives First Look at ‘Toy Story 5,' Teases New Original ‘Gatto' at Annecy
Pixar Animation Studios offered an exclusive first look at its hottest upcoming features — including Hoppers and Toy Story 5 — and announced a brand-new original production, Gatto, during a studio presentation on Friday at the Annecy international animation film festival as part of a broader showcase that also included extensive footage from Pixar's 2025 release Elio. Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter took the stage to present behind-the-scenes material from Toy Story 5, revealing early footage and confirming the return of franchise veterans Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cussack. Directed by Andrew Stanton and McKenna Harris and produced by Jessica Choi, the fifth installment in Pixar's flagship franchise is scheduled for release on June 19, 2026. More from The Hollywood Reporter Corporate-TV Branding Has Gotten Out of Control Natalie Portman-Produced French Animated Film 'Arco' Wins Annecy Chinese Auteur Bi Gan Breaks Down 'Resurrection,' His Mesmerizing Ode to Cinema's Enigmas Docter shared that the new film will explore the challenges faced by the toys in a digital-first world. 'It's Toy meets Tech,' he said, outlining the film's plot, which will see the original movies' team of toys facing up to the challenge presented by the new favorite plaything of their 8-year-old owner Bonnie Anderson: A tech tablet called Lillypad. Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang will confront a new generation of children more enamored with screens than playthings. Docter screened the world premiere of the film's opening scene, in which a container full of Buzz Lightyears awakens on an isolated desert island and struggles to reconnect with 'star command.' Toy Story 5 will also feature Ernie Hudson voicing Combat Carl, taking over the role originally voiced by the late Carl Weathers. In honor of the franchise's 30th anniversary, the Annecy audience was also treated to archival footage from the making of the original 1995 Toy Story, Pixar's first full-length feature. Docter also announced a brand-new animated feature, the original Gatto. The feature, to be directed by Luca filmmaker Enrico Casarosa, follows Nero, a water-hating black cat living in the picturesque city of Venice, Italy, who befriends Maya, a lonely street musician. Docter gave a sneak peek at the first animated tests and character drawings for the movie, which will have a much more painterly design than is typical of Pixar. Gatto is set to premiere in the summer of 2027. The studio also debuted a first-look clip from Hoppers, an original Pixar comedy about Mabel (Piper Curda), a nature-loving young woman trying to stop the local Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm), from building a highway that will destroy her local woodlands. Thanks to a secret brain-swapping experiment, Mabel is able to transfer her mind into a robot beaver and heads to a pond, where refugees from the encroaching industrialization have landed. There, she tries to convince the animals, led by the regal beaver King George (Bobby Moynihan) to join her and stop the highway. The Annecy session also included a preview of Elio, directed by Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, and produced by Mary Alice Drumm. The science fiction adventure, which premieres in theaters on June 20, follows 11-year-old Elio Solis (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), who is mistakenly identified as Earth's ambassador after being abducted by aliens. The voice cast includes Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil and Shirley Henderson. Elio premiered earlier this week in Los Angeles. The Annecy crowd was treated to a full 25 minutes of footage. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Elio' Review: Pixar's Sweet, Safe Space Adventure Isn't Exactly Out of This World
In Pixar's Elio, the eponymous young hero (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) gets his wish of being abducted by aliens, and is promptly treated to all manner of otherworldly sights. The Communiverse, an airy floating hub for the galaxy's best and brightest, overflows with extraterrestrials of every imaginable shape, color, texture and method of communication (one spits out balls rather than speak words). They have access to amazing technologies like a 'liquid supercomputer' that's basically a floating Siri on steroids, a machine that can spit out clones, a Universal Users Manual that knows the meaning of life. For Elio, outer space is everything that cold, drab Earth isn't, and it's no wonder he's loath to return home. More from The Hollywood Reporter Disney, Amazon Ink Deal to Expand Advertising Partnership Corporate-TV Branding Has Gotten Out of Control Pixar Gives First Look at 'Toy Story 5,' Teases New Original 'Gatto' at Annecy If only the film itself were half so, well, alien. Instead, watching from our humble blue marble, Elio feels just a tad too familiar in its sights and story beats to seem totally fresh. Directed by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, Elio is a perfectly nice kiddie sci-fi adventure that does everything a movie with that description is supposed to do. But much like Elio, I frequently found myself longing for the more transportive experience, of the sort that Pixar used to make a house specialty. The screenplay, by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones, finds a recently orphaned Elio struggling to adjust to his new life with his aunt (Zoe Saldaña's Olga), an Air Force officer who herself is having a difficult time suddenly learning how to parent. Lonely and adrift, Elio becomes obsessed with the idea that if no one on this planet seems to want him, someone on one of the galaxy's 500 million others might — and he seems to be proven right when the Communiverse, having learned of humanity from the Voyager Golden Record, beams him up. Initially, Elio tries to fit in, passing himself off as the leader of Earth in hopes of gaining permanent membership there. But it's with Glordon (Remy Edgerly), the similarly sweet-natured but misunderstood son of a vicious warlord, Grigon (Brad Garrett), that Elio really finds the connection he's looking for, forged over PG shenanigans like drinking way too many neon, crazy-strawed beverages and riding Communiverse waterways like they're waterslides. Will their budding friendship transform both of their lives for the better, making each of them feel more confident and less alone in the universe? Will their combined forces save the day by preventing Glordon's dad from laying waste to the Communiverse? Will Elio then, despite the thrills he's enjoyed in space, come to a better understanding of the real if imperfect love that Olga has been offering him from Earth all along? Well, that would be spoiling. But you can probably guess. There's plenty to enjoy about Elio. Its most striking shots include ones of the Voyager on its journey, looking tiny and alone against the unfathomable vastness of space — and they look even cooler in 3D, where the void seems to stretch in every direction. Their starkness makes the busyness of the Communiverse something of a letdown, filled as it is with bizarre yet oddly unmemorable creatures who look like they could have slithered over from the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But Glordon, the most important of the aliens, looks crafted with love. Like so many of Pixar's finest creations, he is a marvel of texture, his slug-like body somehow rendered leathery and scaly and hairy all at once, with feathery tendrils that quiver adorably when he's happy. Perhaps the movie's most interesting flourish is the horror influence it wears proudly on its sleeve, without letting things cross over into family-unfriendly terror. So tender-hearted Glordon has teeth that suggest xenomorph DNA but uses them only to smile, not maim, and a habit of swaddling his visitors in spider-like silk but only to soothe, not trap. And while the cloning machine tends to spit out copies too uncannily agreeable to seem real, they're also too cheerfully helpful to be scary. If Elio's plot points are predictable, they also check every box they're supposed to, in a reasonably efficient 100 minutes. You'll chuckle at Elio's attempts to get abducted by parking himself next to a giant 'Abduct me!' drawn in the sand, and cluck sympathetically at his confession to Glordon that he fears 'there's nothing about me to want.' You'll probably get misty-eyed at the reconciliations and goodbyes you already see coming, and smile at a mid-credits glimpse into the characters living their best lives. Where I never found myself, however, was surprised by any particularly clever insight, or moved by any powerful wave of emotion, or delighted by some daring and original twist. Elio is too straightforward for that, too pat and by the book. The characters are endearing but thin, flattened by a story that favors forward motion over slower, deeper development; their bonds are similarly hazy. Even the happy ending seems rooted less in choices that make sense for them than in a desire to acquiesce to formula. It doesn't make the film any less sweet, but it does make it register less meaningfully. All Elio wants is to know, through all his wild misadventures across the stars, is that he's not alone, that there are others like him and others who might like him. The letdown of Elio is that it seems to feel the same way. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Box Office Preview: Will ‘How to Train Your Dragon' Eat '28 Years Later' and Pixar's ‘Elio' for Lunch?
Things could could get mighty interesting — and messy — at the June 20-22 box office as Pixar's original animated movie Elio and Sony's zombie pic 28 Years Later go up against holdover How to Train Your Dragon, which has quickly turned into an all-audience hit for DreamWorks Animation and parent company Universal. Forecasts are all over the place, but one scenario shows the live-action Dragon staying atop the domestic box office chart with $40 million or more after opening to nearly $200 million globally last weekend. The film, fueled by stellar audience scores, is appealing to both families and hordes of Gen Zers who grew up on the animated franchise. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Elio' Review: Pixar's Sweet, Safe Space Adventure Isn't Exactly Out of This World European Box Office Revenue Rises (Barely) Despite Softer Admissions Box Office: 'How to Train Your Dragon' Roars to Record $84M U.S. Opening, $198M Globally From Sony, Boyle's zombie sequel 28 Years Later has all the ingredients of turning into a box office win, considering its relatively modest net production budget of $60 million before marketing. Sony is suggesting an opening in the $28 million range, while tracking shows it coming in at $30 million or more. Others think it could scare up as much as $40 million to $45 million. The film — the first in a planned trilogy — reunites Boyle with writer Alex Garland 25 years after 28 Days hit big screen and became a cult classic. Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes star in the pic, which is set nearly three decades after the events of the first film. Prerelease tracking suggests that Elio — about a young boy whose wish to travel to outer space and interact with aliens comes true — will open to $30 million plus in North America. That's on par with Pixar's original title Elemental, which was raked over the coals when debuting to $29.6 million in June 2023. That was the second-lowest, 3-day debut of all time for Pixar behind the $29.1 million launch of its first very first film, 1995's Toy Story, not adjusted for inflation. (Toy Story opened over Thanksgiving, and amassed $39 million over the long five-day holiday weekend.) Elemental found redemption, however, and was soon declared a sleeper hit on its way to earning nearly $500 million globally. Pixar and widely admired chief creative officer Pete Docter, along with Disney, are confident that Elio will have the same sort of staying power throughout the summer when kids are sprung from school. (So far, Elio is graced with a better critics score on Rotten Tomatoes than Elemental.) Pixar has been struggling to find its footing in a world where original animated stories don't open to the heights they once did — think north of $70 million — in the post-pandemic world. And during the pandemic years, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek decided to send three Pixar titles straight to Disney+ domestically, including Turning Red, Luca and the Oscar-winning Soul, a decision rivals said taught families to wait to watch a film at home. (All three were considered streaming hits.) But Pixar and parent company Disney reversed course once again and now remain committed to telling original theatrical stories, mixed in with known IP, such as last year's blockbuster and recrord-shattering Inside Out 2, the top-grossing pic of 2024, the top ever title for Pixar and the top animated of all time with more than $1.69 billion in worldwide ticket sales, not adjusted for inflation. June 18, 7:51 a.m.: Updated with additional details about Soul. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
