Counting Down The Top 10 Highest-Grossing Opening Weekends In Movie History

Seemingly everywhere you look, somebody around you is talking about Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, which just raked in a jaw-dropping $264.1 million worldwide during in its opening weekend.

But where does that number place the film among all-time great opening weekends? Surprisingly, The Odyssey not only fails to crack the top-10 highest-grossing opening weekends of all-time, but it doesn’t even come close.

In fact, if the figures are correct, the film doesn’t even break into the top 50 highest-grossing weekends of all time.

Perhaps it’s due to the fact that the film was geared toward a more adult audience, which isn’t the case for the rest of the top-ranking films. But in this piece, we’re counting down the top 10 highest-grossing open weekends of all time.

(*Even adjusted for inflation, the 10 films on the list are still the highest-grossing for their opening weekends)

10) Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness – 2022 – $452,000,000

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t quite what it once was at its peak, the number of films from within the MCU that feature on this list only begins to highlight its immense popularity.

No film exemplifies that quite like Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which raked in jaw-dropping $452 million on its opening weekend at a time when many felt the MCU was already on the decline.

The film benefited from the immense popularity of both lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange as well as the success of the show WandaVision on Disney+, which featured Elizabeth Olsen starring as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlett Witch, who would later reprise the role in the film.

9) Captain Marvel – 2019 – $456,718,598

Captain Marvel, which came out right at the height of the MCU movie boom, was widely panned by both fans and critics, but that didn’t hurt its box office numbers.

Superstar actress Brie Larson made her MCU debut as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, and while her future role in the universe is uncertain, the film did give rise to Teyonah Parris’ character, Monica Rambeau, a role that she went on to later play again in WandaVision.

In total, Captain Marvel reeled in a jaw-dropping $456.7 million across its opening weekend, showing that even the more poorly reviewed Marvel films could draw at the box office at the height of the franchise’s popularity.

8) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – 2011 – $483,189,427

While a number of movies on this list are from within the MCU, not all of them are! At No. 8, we have the final movie in the legendary Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Oddly enough, the first Deathly Hallows movie sits all the way down at No. 42 on the list, while Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince both sit above it.

The final movie in the Harry Potter series had been years in the making, and unsurprisingly did huge numbers at the box office, making just over $483 million in its opening weekend.

7) Jurassic World – 2015 –  $525,504,128

After the immense success of Jurassic Park in 1993 and The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997, Jurassic Park III in 2001 flopped without the aid of Steven Spielberg directing it.

However, nostalgia is a hell of a drug, so when the film series was revived in 2015 with Jurassic World, which starred Chris Pratt at the height of his popularity, fans rushed to the box office to the tune of $525.5 million dollars across the opening weekend.

Director Colin Trevorrow then passed on the 2018 follow-up, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, before returning in 2022 for Jurassic World: Dominion, which comes in at No. 23 all time with $386 million over its opening weekend.

6) Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 2015- $528,966,675

Much like the Jurassic Park franchise, the Star Wars franchise had remained dormant for 10 years after the release of Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

Many believed that would be the end of the franchise … that is, until it was revived in 2015 with famed director J.J. Abrams at the helm and a mix of both new (Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega) and familiar faces (Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher).

The film was a huge hit both at the box office, drawing over $528 million in its opening weekend, and among critics, as it scored a 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

5) The Fate of the Furious – 2017 – $541,937,239

How many times can you essentially remake the same exact movie and still make money?

Well, apparently the answer is at least eight, as The Fate of the Furious, which was the eighth movie in the Fast & Furious series, was by far its most successful at the box office, raking in just under $542 million in its opening weekend alone.

Sadly, it was also the first movie in the series not to feature Paul Walker, who tragically passed away in a single-car accident during production of the previous film, Furious 7, which checks in at No. 18 all time with $397.6 million earned across its opening weekend.

4) Zootopia 2 – 2025 – $560,333,554

Shockingly, Disney’s Zootopia (2016) does not feature anywhere in the top 50 highest-grossing films across its opening weekend.

However, the movie clearly left its mark, as the sequel, which was released in November of 2025, is the highest-grossing animated film of all time across its opening weekend $560,333,554, and the second-highest-grossing animated movie ever behind the Chinese film Ne Zha 2.

Of course, the movie benefits from appealing to young kids, but as somebody who recently watched Zootopia 2 while on a cross-country flight, I can confidently say that it’s worth the watch for fans of all ages.

3) Spider-Man: No Way Home – 2021 – $600,506,041

We now return to our regularly scheduled Marvel Cinematic Universe part of this list with one of my personal favorite movies from the series and by far the biggest movie of Phase Four, Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The film was most notable because it represented a crossover between the MCU and the previous Spider-Man films directed by Sam Raimi and Marc Webb. That meant a return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, as well as Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin and Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus.

It brought in over $600 million in the opening weekend alone and, for those who haven’t seen it, seemingly put a bow on that era of both the Spider-Man and MCU films.

The follow-up to the film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, is set to release nationwide on July 30.

2) Avengers: Infinity War – 2018 – $640,521,291

There could only ever be two movies at the top of this list.

When Marvel Studios began its quest to form a “Cinematic Universe” with Iron Man in 2008, it couldn’t have imagined, even in its wildest dreams, what the MCU would become.

By the time 2018 rolled around, the world was enraptured by the series and couldn’t wait to find out how its heroes could overcome Thanos.

Spoiler alert: They’d have to wait a little longer following Avengers: Infinity War. But the film, which featured half of the big names in Hollywood today, blew up the box office, making over $640 million in its opening weekend alone.

1) Avengers: Endgame – 2019 – $1,223,641,414

Yes, that is $1.2 billion with a “B.”

One year after the release of Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel put out its pièce de résistance in the form of Avengers: Infinity War.

While the MCU has persisted after Endgame, much to the chagrin of many fans, especially after the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Victor Von Doom after playing Tony Start/Iron Man for over a decade, many consider this film the unofficial end to the MCU.

The movie didn’t just set box office records; it blew them to smithereens. Endgame made nearly twice as much money on the opening weekend as its predecessor and set a mark that very likely won’t be broken anytime soon, if ever. In fact, Zootopia 2 is the only movie to be released in the five years since Avengers: Endgame to come close to making even half as much on the opening weekend.

How’s that for a blockbuster?