What is the highest-grossing movie to never reach number one at the box office?
Sure, numbers aren’t the be-all and end-all. Box offices aren’t the ultimate marker of artistic worth and we all know that. Some of the greatest films ever made have flopped, some of the worst films ever made have been box office smashes bringing in the big bucks. Sales have never been an accurate depiction of artistry, but they are still fascinating.
Box office sales also tap into something else; competition. While studio does try and avoid it where possible, especially if they know the power of the thing another company is brewing, but often two big hitter movies will arrive on the same day or in the same weak, making it a race for who can bring in the most cinema goers.
Before, that would solely have been a bad thing. Another release clashing with yours would be nothing but anxiety for the team behind it, fearing that the race to the top of the box office is now going to become a harsh bumper to bumper fight, especially in a time where cinema tickets are more expensive so there are generally less people and less spending power being thrown in the film world’s direction.
However, in 2023, that changed. Suddenly, this fearful situation was revealed to actually be a potentially genius marketing plot or, at the very least, not quite the money drain studios see it as, if only the two films can come together.
Enter ‘Barbenheimer’: the double-bill phenomenon that swept social media when Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie happened to be released on the same day. The two movies could not be further apart – one is a long, serious war biopic, the other a girlish bringing to life of an iconic doll. Perhaps the studios thought maybe they’d stay in separate enough worlds to not really impact one another, but still, given the heavyweight names behind both movies, there was worry.
In an interview between the two movies’ leads, Margot Robbie told Cillian Murphy, “One of your producers, Chuck Roven, called me, because we worked together on some other projects. And he was like, ‘I think you guys should move your date.’” However, Barbie didn’t back down. “We’re not moving our date. If you’re scared to be up against us, then you move your date,” Robbie told the producer but already she had this weird inkling that maybe the two could work together.
The Barbenheimer social media boom saw cinema fans going out and seeing the two movies back to back. People even made merch of the occasion, going on the release date to engage with the cinematic moment. In the end, both films benefited from the trend it caused.
But, Barbie one. In the end, Barbie bagged the number one box office position. However, this led to Oppenheimer making history as the highest-grossing movie that missed out on the top spot. The movie made a huge $330,078,895, but didn’t get the crown in the ranking.
What is the highest-grossing movie of all time?
Still, Oppenheimer didn’t come close to usurping the reigning leader. The highest-grossing movie of all time remains Avatar, James Cameron’s 2009 epic that has a total gross of over $2.9billion.
Its sequel sits third in the ranks as another big hitter, just after Avengers: End Game. After that, it’s Cameron’s other masterpiece, Titanic, which grossed $2,257,844,554.
