List of all movies that made $1 billion as Spider-Man: Brand New Day joins cinema's elite
From Titanic to Avatar, every film to earn $1 billion after Spider-Man's record run
Dubai: Titanic became the first film to cross a billion dollars worldwide on 1 March 1998. It took 74 days.
Between those two entries sit 62 other films, and the pace of arrivals has changed completely. For the first decade after Titanic, a billion-dollar film was a once-every-few-years event. This year alone has produced four, with a fifth arriving within days.
Let's take a look at all the movies that have been billionaire hits.
Tier one: the $2 billion films
Only seven films have ever passed two billion dollars.
1. Avatar (2009): $2.92 billion
2. Avengers: Endgame (2019): $2.80 billion
3. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022): $2.33 billion
4. Titanic (1997): $2.26 billion
5. Ne Zha 2 (2025): $2.26 billion
6. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015): $2.07 billion
7. Avengers: Infinity War (2018): $2.05 billion
Avatar has held the top position since its 2021 re-release in China, having previously lost the record to Endgame for two years.
Ne Zha 2 is the outlier here, having reached the mark almost entirely on Chinese domestic ticket sales, which would have been unimaginable when Titanic was released.
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Tier two: $1.5 billion and up
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021): $1.9 billion
2. Jurassic World (2015): $1.67 billion
3. The Lion King (2019): $1.66 billion
4. Furious 7 (2015): $1.52 billion
Tier three: $1.2 to $1.5 billion
1. Top Gun: Maverick (2022): $1.49 billion
2. Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025): $1.48 billion
3. Frozen II (2019): $1.45 billion
4. Barbie (2023): $1.45 billion
5. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023): $1.36 billion
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011): $1.36 billion
7. Zootopia 2 (2025): $1.28 billion
8. Beauty and the Beast (2017): $1.26 billion
Tier four: the ones that squeaked in
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003): $1.16 billion
2. Aquaman (2018): $1.15 billion
3. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011): $1.12 billion
4. The Dark Knight Rises (2012): $1.11 billion
5. Moana 2 (2024): $1.06 billion
6. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026): $1.05 billion and climbing
7. Jurassic Park (1993): $1.04 billion
The rest of the 64 sit in this band, mostly Marvel, Disney remakes, Pixar, Star Wars, Fast & Furious and Harry Potter titles, along with 2025's Lilo & Stitch.
A footnote on two of the older entries
Two films on the list did not reach their totals in a single theatrical run, and it is worth being precise about it.
Titanic's $2.26 billion includes multiple re-releases, most significantly the 3D conversion in 2012 and the 25th anniversary reissue in 2023. Its original 1997 to 1998 run finished at roughly $1.84 billion, which was still a record at the time by an enormous distance.
Jurassic Park grossed around $912 million on its original 1993 release, and only crossed the billion-dollar line after its 3D re-release in 2013, twenty years later.
Avatar's position at the top of the all-time list depends on a 2021 re-release in China, which is what took the record back from Endgame.
The class of 2026
This year has been a comeback for the cinemas. I personally believe Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has bought back the love for cinemas.
1. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie: reached $1 billion in early June, over two months after its 1 April release. Took $429.8 million domestically and $581.6 million internationally, with Mexico, France, the UK and Japan the strongest overseas markets.
2. Michael: crossed in July, becoming the highest-grossing biopic ever made and a first for Lionsgate. Around $371 million domestic and $630 million international.
3. Toy Story 5: joined on 26 July.
4. Spider-Man: Brand New Day: joined in six days, the second-fastest ever.
5. The Odyssey: sitting at roughly $923 million and expected to become the fifth within days.
To put that in context, 2019 produced a record nine billion-dollar films. In every year since the pandemic, no year had managed more than three.
Who got there fastest
1. Avengers: Endgame: 5 days
2. Spider-Man: Brand New Day: 6 days
3. Avengers: Infinity War: 11 days
4. Ne Zha 2: 12 days, Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 12 days , Spider-Man: No Way Home: 12 days
5. Jurassic World: 13 days
And, for scale, Titanic at 74 days.
That gap says more about release strategy than popularity. Titanic rolled out market by market over months, as was standard in 1997. Modern blockbusters open almost everywhere at once.
The firsts worth knowing
Titanic was the first film to reach the mark, in 1998.
Toy Story 3 was the first animated film to manage it.
Greta Gerwig became the first solo female director to reach the milestone with Barbie in 2023. Jennifer Lee had reached it earlier with Frozen II, co-directing alongside Chris Buck.
Michael is the first biopic.
Ne Zha 2 is the first film to reach $2 billion largely on the strength of a single non-English-speaking market.
The one that was supposed to be higher
Avatar: Fire and Ash is the most interesting entry on the list, because of where it was expected to land.
Analysts had it on course for $2 billion and possibly beyond. James Cameron's first two Avatar films finished at $2.92 billion and $2.33 billion, and the franchise is famous for long, slow-burning runs rather than huge openings.
Fire and Ash opened to $345 million worldwide, the second-best global debut of 2025, and crossed a billion in January. Then it settled at around $1.48 billion, with $1.07 billion of that coming from overseas.
That is an enormous figure by any normal standard and a considerable shortfall by this franchise's own. It spent ten weeks in the domestic top ten, against fourteen for the original and fifteen for The Way of Water, and took less domestically than two other Disney releases from the same year.
What the list tells you
Scanning the 64 names and there is a pattern. Sequels, Disney remakes and established franchises dominate like: Star Wars, Avatar, James Bond, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Harry Potter, Fast & Furious, Jurassic Park, Batman, Transformers and the Disney and Pixar catalogue.
Original films that got there without a franchise behind them are rare enough to name individually. Titanic, Avatar, Barbie in its own way, and now Michael.
Ticket prices have more than doubled since 1997, premium formats carry surcharges, and China alone can supply a billion dollars, which it did for Ne Zha 2. A billion in 2026 buys a smaller share of the audience than a billion in 1998 did.
Which does not make the achievement small. It just means the list is a record of how films are sold as much as how many people watched them.
