Two of the most deciding aspects of any movie’s success are its box office gross and the critical and audience reviews. While the reviews can often be polarizing and not reflect the movie’s true quality, since every person has a different taste, the box office gross is a good indicator of whether the movie was successful with the audience or not.
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Generally speaking, a movie is considered successful if it earns at least twice its budget. The highest-grossing movies of the 2020s have earned much more than that in multiple cases and proved that for some movies, the sky is indeed the limit when it comes to the box office gross.
5The Battle At Lake Changjin (2021): 902 Million Dollars
Despite its box office gross of over 900 million dollars,The Battle at Lake Changjinhas a few reviews on IMDb, only slightly over two thousand, and with an average rating of 5.3. The most likely reason for this is that the movie was filmed in China and IMDb is primarily aimed at the Anglo-American audience.
As the title suggests, the story is about the battle at lake Changjin, and it’s set during the Korean War. An interesting fact about the movie is that it is the most expensive movie produced in China.The Battle at Lake Changjincost 200 million dollars to make but fortunately for the movie, it earned the cost back and much more. It was so successful that it got a sequel only a year later, in February 2022.
4Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022): 955 Million Dollars
When two of the highest-ranking movies at the box office in the 2020s come from the MCU, it’s obvious the MCU universe is doing something right. Even though MCU had multiple box office mishaps in recent years,Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessis one of the most successful and highly profitable MCU movies. After six years, Benedict Cumberbatch returned to another solo movie where he worked alongsidea new young hero, America Chavez, and helped finish storylines first created in the Disney Plus TV seriesWandaVision.
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The movie was full of action, humor, and surprises, as it took the characters and the viewers alike into several universes, each different from the other. That allowed the introduction of new characters (John Krasinski’s Reed Richards) as well as the return of old and popular ones (Sir Patrick Stewart’s Professor X).Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnesssurpassedDoctor Strange(2016) with its box office gross, so it would make sense if Doctor Strange got another adventure in the upcoming years.
3Jurassic World: Dominion (2022): 990 Million Dollars
Releasing a sequel to a popular franchise is often a good way how to earn a large box office gross - although not a guaranteed one. In the case ofJurassic World: Dominion, it worked out wellfor the movie that earned almost a billion dollars worldwide. The fans were curious to know how theJurassic Worldtrilogy would finish. Another important factor of the movie’s success was that just likeSpider-Man: No Way Home, it brought back popular characters from the originalJurassic Parkmovies and had them meeting and working with the new heroes.
This way, the movie attracted both new audiences and the ones who like Steven Spielberg’s iconicJurassic Parkfrom 1993.Jurassic World: Dominiondidn’t get as high a rating as some other movies that did well at the box office in the early 2020s, as the audience only gave it 5.7 on IMDb. That doesn’t change the fact that the return to dinosaurs was a success and that the topic continues to attract viewers.
2Top Gun: Maverick (2022): 1,422 Billion Dollars
Top Gunhas premiered in 1986, it helped bring stardom to Tom Cruise and became an iconic movie. Despite the movie’s popularity, it took 36 years to come up with a sequel which is an exceptionally long time in the world of Hollywood movies.
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Top Gun: Maverickproved that the long wait was worth it as the fans of the original movies, as well as action movies in general, visited the screenings in large numbers and brought the sequel tothe box office gross of 1,422 billion dollarsworldwide. Other than Tom Cruise who reprised the leading role,Top Gun: Maverickstarred other popular actors, such as Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, and Jon Hamm. It even got a better rating online - 8.5 on IMDb as opposed toTop Gun’s rating of 6.9.
1Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021): 1,901 Billion Dollars
It’s safe to say thatSpider-Man: No Way Homebroke the curse of theSpider-Manthird movie sequels as it earned almost two billion dollars at the box office! The movie brought backthe beloved MCU hero, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, as well as popular versions of Spider-Man from previous movies, portrayed by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
If that wasn’t enough, it featured well-known villains, such as Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, or Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus. Considering how many popular characters the movie worked with and how it combined action, humor, and drama,Spider-Man: No Way Homeremains the most successful MCU movie of Phase 4 and of the 2020s so far.
