Jaws incredibly turns 50 this week, and its legacy of the summer movie blockbuster remains strong. The titles that have packed the most summer moviegoers into theaters since 1975 represent some of the best known films of the last half-century, including five Star Wars movies, Pixar favorites like Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo, superheroes galore, and both Top Gun films. They also include some surprises, reports the AP, and movies both less bombastic and less enduring. Combined, the top-earning summer films between 1975 and 2004 have made more than $15 billion through the summer months, a figure not adjusted for inflation, according to the tracking firm Comscore.
It's also worth noting that box-office tracking before 1981 wasn't as robust as it is today—and there was essentially no summer movie season in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered theaters across the country. Here's a list of the top summer movies in the five decades since Jaws (which pulled in $260 million), along with the film's gross earnings from its release date through Labor Day:
- 2022: Top Gun: Maverick, $701.3 million
- 2024: Inside Out 2, $650.8 million
- 2015: Jurassic World, $647.4 million
- 2012: The Avengers, $620.3 million
- 2023: Barbie, $612.3 million
- 2018: Incredibles 2, $602.6 million
- 2019: The Lion King, $523.6 million
- 2008: The Dark Knight, $504.8 million
- 2016: Finding Dory, $482.9 million
- 2004: Shrek 2, $436.7 million
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