The Ranking
Billion-dollar movies
THE 53 BIGGEST FILMS OF ALL TIME. FOUR EMPIRE WRITERS. LOADSAMONEY
SELMAN HOŞGÖR
OUR CRITICS
JAMES DYER
His favourite TV show (starring Paul Giamatti) is Billions.
CHRIS HEWITT
His favourite Michael Caine movie is the Billion Dollar Brain.
HELEN O’HARA
Her favourite Terence Hill movie is Mr. Billion.
BEN TRAVIS
His favourite dessert is billionaire’s shortbread.
Chris: Fifty-three films have grossed over a billion dollars worldwide. Now, some would argue that crossing this threshold means that you have to cater to the lowest common denominator, and that these films must therefore, by definition, be empty tributes to the gods of IP. So, can a movie that appeals to the great masses be a great movie? Helen: I don’t think a movie’s audience has to be limited for it to be good. If you reverse it, it sounds ridiculous — what, a great movie can only be appreciated by a few? A great movie can be appreciated by everybody. James: If these films weren’t good, with, say, five exceptions, they wouldn’t be on this list. They’ve made this money for a reason, by and large. Chris: Are you sure about that? There are 53 films on the list. Quite a lot of them, I would say, are absolute stinkers and shockers and clunkers. Ben: A film that speaks to the masses can be a really powerful thing, and a real force in the world. But sometimes it’s a bit of a head-scratcher to see some films that hit with a big audience in a big way and are not, objectively, good films. Helen: When Alice In Wonderland passed a billion dollars, I said, “That’s it — the billion-dollar mark doesn’t matter anymore.” It used to denote something extraordinary before that, something that had struck a cultural nerve.