Only One Of The Highest Grossing Movies Ever Domestically Came Out Before The 21st Century

Thanksgiving 2024 has seen some major box office earners — namely Wicked, Gladiator II, and Moana 2 — but none are close to taking away James Cameron's Titanic's significant box office status. The landmark 1998 movie won three Oscars — Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography — but those would not be the only achievements for the historical disaster epic. Along with being Cameron's first Best Picture and Best Director nominations and wins at the Academy Awards, Titanic would make history at the box office.

Titanic's lifetime gross is currently $674,292,608 at the domestic box office and $2,264,750,694 (via Box Office Mojo), and the third-highest-grossing movie of all time when adjusted for inflation. Titanic also held the top box office spot for 12 years, up until it was knocked down by Cameron's other multi-Oscar-nominated film, Avatar. While it is no longer number one, Titanic remains one of the top domestic box office earners, and out of the 20 top domestic box office films, it stands out because of its earlier release date.

Titanic Is The Only Movie In The Top 20 Domestic Box Office That Was Released Before 2000

Titanic Is The Ninth-Largest Domestic Box Office Film

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Out of the top 20 domestic box office films of all time, only one of them is from before the 2000s, and that movie is Titanic, which is also the first movie to make $1 billion at the box office. Currently, the 1997 film sits at the ninth spot in this ranking, between Jurassic World and Avengers: Infinity War. All the other films on the list are from the 21st century, with the number one movie unsurprisingly being Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.

Movie Domestic Box Office (via Box Office Mojo) Star Wars: Ep. VII – The Force Awakens (2015) $936,662,225 Avengers: Endgame (2019) $858,373,000 Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) $818,866, 759 Avatar (2009) $785,221,649 Top Gun: Maverick (2022) $718,732,821 Black Panther (2018) $700,426,566 Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) $684,075,767 Avengers: Infinity War (2018) $678,815,482 Titanic (1997) $674,292,608 Jurassic World (2015) $653,406,625 Inside Out 2 (2024) $652,980,194 Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) $636,745,858 Barbie (2023) $636,238,421 The Avengers (2012) $632,357,910 Star Wars: Ep. VII – The Last Jedi (2017) $620,181,382 Incredibles 2 (2018) $608,581,744 The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) $574,934,330 The Lion King (2019) $543,638,043 The Dark Knight (2008) $534,987,076 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) $533,539,991

Looking beyond the top 20, it's evident that the next film on this list released before the year 2000 would be Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), which sits at number 23. After that is 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestreial at 31, 1994's The Lion King at 35, and 1993's Jurassic Park at 38. The rest of the top 50 are all from the 21st century. This makes Titanic's ninth position all the more impressive, especially when a majority of the top 20 are not just from the 21st century, but are also predominately from 2010 onward.

Titanic Being An Outlier Shows How Much The Domestic Box Office Has Changed This Century

Every Movie In The Top 20 Is A Sequel Or Connected To An Established IP, Unless It's Titanic Or The First Avatar

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The box office this century is drastically different from the box office of the past. For instance, nearly every movie among the top 20 domestic box office earners list is a sequel, a remake, or connected to an established IP. The only two that are not are Avatar — which would eventually become a franchise — and Titanic, which is based on real events of the 20th century, with several Titanic characters being based on real people.

It is much harder nowadays for movies with an entirely original premise to become a movie event.

Going further down the list, it's notable that most of the highest-grossing films from before the 21st century were original ideas, while a majority of the films of the 21st century are not. While the higher earnings are also obviously attributable to simple inflation, the high-grossing movie culture has simply changed to revolve more around properties the audience is always familiar with. It is much harder nowadays for movies with an entirely original premise to become a movie event.

Will Titanic Ever Be Knocked Out Of The Domestic Box Office's Top 20 All-Time?

There's A $20 million Difference Between Titanic's Domestic Gross Spot & Jurassic World

It will be very difficult for a film to surpass Titanic and steal its ninth position — there is a $20 million difference between it and the next title on the list, Jurassic World. Additionally, Inside Out 2 came in just shy of beating Jurassic World for its spot. It's already a challenge to break into the top 10 list; breaking in and then surpassing Titanic would be an even larger feat. Most importantly, Titanic is comfortably in the top 10 on this list, as it would take many wildly successful movies for it to go from ninth place to the 21st slot.

While major blockbusters have pushed it lower and lower on the list over the past 20-plus years, some of the biggest films recently, like Deadpool & Wolverine, which broke records and toppled major box office milestones, still did not come close to tying with Titanic. Additionally, as all the films that have surpassed Titanic have massive production budgets, it's a high investment to make a film of such scale in the hopes that it could come close.

Meanwhile, there's a growing movie problem Hollywood needs to fix, where some of the biggest budget films are destined to become flops because it's almost impossible to make back the money put into these productions and earn a profit afterward. James Cameron's first Oscar-winning film has been one of the top domestic box office earners for nearly 30 years, while many of its competitors have only enjoyed this success for a handful of years. Chances are, Titanic will continue to enjoy this accolade for years to come.

Sources: Box Office Mojo