To those of you in the U.S., happy fourth of July!
Every American Independence Day weekend, Hollywood studios roll out their tentpole blockbuster movies hoping for a massive turnout. This year, the animated film Despicable Me 2 looks to takeover fourth of July weekend. Disney’s Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp, Kevin Hart’s Laugh at My Pain distributed by Lionsgate, and the Sundance hit The Way, Way Back released to 19 locations by Fox Searchlight also open this weekend.
Let’s look back at the top 10 highest grossing July 4th weekend movies:
10. Men in Black (1997) Sony
Opening weekend: $51.1 million
Total domestic gross: $250.7 million
9. Men in Black II (2002) Sony
Opening weekend: $52.1 million
Total domestic gross: $190.4 million
Will Smith and Tommie Lee Jones carry the black suit into the future with the Men in Black trilogy. Sony is currently developing a fourth Men in Black film, but Will Smith has no intentions of being part of the production. Smith said in an interview with Collider:
“Three of anything is enough for me. We’ll look at it and we’ll consider it, but it feels like that it might be time to let someone else do that.”
8. Superman Returns (2006) Warner Bros.
Opening weekend: $52.5 million
Total domestic gross: $200.1 million
7. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Sony
Opening weekend: $62.0 million
Total domestic gross: $262.0 million
The sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man is set for May 2014 and a third film will follow.
6. Hancock (2008) Sony
Opening weekend: $62.6 million
Total domestic gross: $227.9 million
5. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) Summit
Opening weekend: $64.8 million
Total domestic gross: $300.5 million
4. War of the Worlds (2005) Paramount
Opening weekend: $64.9 million
Total domestic gross: $234.3 million
3. Transformers (2007) Paramount/DreamWorks
Opening weekend: $70.5 million
Total domestic gross: $319.2 million
2. Spider-Man 2 (2004) Sony
Opening weekend: $88.2 million
Total domestic gross: $373.6 million
1. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) Paramount/DreamWorks
Opening weekend: $97.9 million
Total domestic gross: $352.4 million
Transformers 3 grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide. Transformers 4 comes to theaters in June 2014.
Sony has half of the top grossing fourth of July weekend movies, while Paramount has 3.
Wondering how Will Smith’s Independence Day (1996) performed? It comes in at #11 with $50 million opening weekend and $306 million domestic.
Great list so far! Thanks for sharing.
The idea that money makes a film great still astounds my conscience.