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Top Summer Blockbusters |
All of the films in the top 25 earned over $300 million, opened in the summer, and were since 1980. The Summer Season is measured from the first Friday in May through Labor Day Weekend. A short summary description of each film is included. A few other sites post all-time box-office information, including the Internet Movie DataBase, Boxoffice.com, Boxofficemojo.com, and The-numbers.com. The
100 Greatest Films that have been selected
at this site are identified throughout by a yellow
star |
Top
Summer Blockbusters of All-Time: These
are the top 25 Summer Blockbusters, according to their total
US domestic gross revenue rankings (doesn't include
revenue from re-releases, re-issues, or 3-D), to fairly accurately
show which films have been the largest blockbusters during
the summer months. Box-Office Index
Top 100 (Domestic) | Top 100 (Inflation-Adjusted) | Top 100 (Worldwide) | Film Franchises - Box-Office | Summer Blockbusters
Top Films (By Decade and Year) | Highest-Grossing Films By Genre Type | Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters, and Flops
(Based Upon Domestic Gross Revenue, Unadjusted for Inflation) |
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| Jurassic World (2015) In a luxury resort that was the habitat for genetically-engineered dinosaurs, an Indominus Rex escaped, followed by others, setting off a chain reaction of chaos. The visitors had to be saved from the prehistoric assault. |
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| Marvel's The Avengers
(2012) The highly-anticipated 3-D superhero tale produced by Disney-owned Marvel Studios brought together, under Nick Fury's peace-keeping S.H.I.E.L.D, a team of superhumans (Iron Man/Tony Stark, the Hulk/Bruce Banner, Thor, the Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Hawkeye/Clint Barton and Captain America/Steve Rogers) to save the Earth from Loki and his army. The sixth installment in Marvel's Cinematic Universe. |
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| Incredibles 2 (2018) A sequel to The Incredibles (2004), with Elastigirl (Helen) as the star super-hero battling against new supervillain Screenslaver, while Mr. Incredible took on domestic chores. |
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| The
Dark Knight (2008) Christian Bale's brooding Batman and Heath Ledger's scary Joker gave this comic-book movie reboot real emotional depth. |
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| Finding Dory (2016) Blue tang fish Dory, afflicted with short-term memory loss, has since childhood been looking for her lost parents, with help from her friends Nemo and Marlin. |
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| Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) The sequel to the 2012 hit film, and the 11th film in Marvel's Cinematic Universe. Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) and other Avengers superheroes, including Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye battled the terrifying technological villain Ultron (James Spader), a mechanical AI with the goal of human extinction. |
 
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| The
Dark Knight Rises (2012) In the last of director Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Batman films, the caped superhero Dark Knight (Christian Bale), aka Bruce Wayne, battled a masked villain named Bane (Tom Hardy) to save Gotham City. |
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| Shrek
2 (2004) Kids loved the rude, stinky-but-goodhearted green troll Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers). Adults identified with his nemesis in-laws. |
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| Star
Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) Fans rushed back to the future, giving Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman a thumbs up and Jar Jar Binks a big thumbs down. |
 
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| Pirates
of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) This sequel added a monster, a ghost ship and the tentacle-bearded Davy Jones to Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. |
 
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| Jurassic
World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) Set three years after the previous film (Jurassic World (2015)), the island of Isla Nublar was abandoned and the theme park was closed down, but its dormant volcano erupted, causing a massive effort to rescue the dinosaurs and prevent them from becoming extinct. |
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| Toy Story 3 (2010) Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the toys had to face the fact that children grow up and put away childish things: Adults wept. |
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| Wonder Woman (2017) The epic adventure and origin story of the former princess of the Amazons named Diana Prince, who became a super-warrioress, after being raised and trained on a paradisical island and transported to World War I-era London. |
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| Iron Man 3 (2013) Another blockbuster sequel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the 7th), featuring billionaire industrialist Tony Stark and his alter-ego, Iron Man pitted against a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin. |
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| Captain America: Civil War (2016) Another superhero film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the 13th), and coming after Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). The Avengers were fractured into two groups, led by: (1) Steve Rogers/Captain America who opposed regulation, and (2) Tony Stark/Iron Man who supported regulation. |
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| Spider-Man
(2002) Director Sam Raimi reinvigorated Marvel's superhero while Tobey Maguire convinced us that high-school nerd Peter Parker could become a superhero after a spider bite, and then battled nemesis The Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and fought for Mary Jane Watson's (Kirsten Dunst) heart (with a unique upside-down kiss). |
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| Transformers: Revenge of
the Fallen (2009) Robots that turned into cars and guns returned in a sequel that outperformed the original. Robots took to new, cooler environments for battle and presented quite a contrast, fighting on the pyramids and the Brooklyn Bridge. |
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| Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017) Marvel's fantasy-sci-fi sequel to its previous 2014 film (with a gross of $333.2 million), about a team of extra-terrestrial misfit superheroes led by Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord) (Chris Pratt), who was to learn about his true parentage. |
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| Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011) The eighth and final installment found Harry and his friends finally defeating Lord Voldemort during a dramatic showdown. |
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| Star
Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) The last of three Star Wars prequels, Revenge of the Sith benefited from being the final link between old and new. |
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| Spider-Man
2 (2004) This sequel with dazzling special effects delivered a great villain Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) that Spidey (Tobey Maguire) had to battle. |
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| The Secret Life of Pets (2016) An animated buddy comedy about pets that tried to answer the question: What do our pets do while we are away all day? The comfortable life of a Jack Russell terrier named Max, belonging to Katie in NYC, was jeopardized when she brought home a large, clumsy, and slovenly sheepdog named Duke, and the two became lost in the city while on a walk in Central Park. |
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| Despicable Me 2 (2013) Three years after the original film, this funny and enjoyable sequel again featured tall and bald retired villain Gru, his yellow oddball minions (turned purple) and his three adopted girls, Margo, Agnes and Edith. Gru was recruited by the Anti-Villain League (AVL) and Lucy Wilde to help deal with a powerful new super criminal named El Macho and recover stolen mutagen serum (PX-41). |
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 E.
T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Spielberg's classic family entertainment enchanted audiences with its story of friendship between a young boy and a stranded alien, and by showing how suburban kids could help a magical, little alien get back home. |
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| Jurassic
Park (1993) Everyone loved Spielberg's summer megahit and its stars, not Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, but those awesome CGI dinosaurs. |
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