As Disney turns 100, a look back at the US's top-grossing Disney films of all time
Exactly 100 years ago, on Oct. 16, 1923, cartoonist Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, California. The company, which got its start with animated short films, went on to produce some of the biggest spectacles in cinema.
The Mouse House started working on its first feature-length animated film in 1934. It was a massive undertaking with 300 animators, and it surpassed its budget by 400%. However, when it was released in December 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became a huge hit, much to the studio’s relief.
The Walt Disney Company today is a multifaceted corporate behemoth, straddling filmmaking, TV and web series production, theme park operations, merchandise sales, and more. But media and entertainment remain its biggest revenue driver. Box office receipts for its biggest movies hover around the coveted $1 billion mark each, and one even breaches it.
After adjusting for inflation, contemporary Disney film classics like The Lion King, Toy Story, and Frozen—undoubtedly mega-hits in their own right—don’t make the US top 10 on an inflation-adjusted basis, according to film industry data website The Numbers. (Although, internationally, they do).
The names on the US top 10 aren’t entirely unpredictable, though. After all, the two big cinematic universes—Lucasfilm’s Star Wars and Marvel’s Avengers franchises—dominate.
10. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Disney is reaping the rewards for sowing a lucrative seed back in 2012: Buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion.
Uninhibited access to the Star Wars franchise, first created by George Lucas in the late 1970s, gave Disney the opportunity to cash in across formats and platforms from making blockbuster movies and Disney+ streaming shows to selling Star Wars merchandise and creating theme park experiences around the intergalatic universe.
Between 2015 and 2019, Disney released five movies in the Star Wars franchise, all of which became massive hits, barring the 2018 release Solo: A Star Wars Story.
2016's Rogue One made $645 million.
9. Finding Nemo
Made in 2003, Finding Nemo was a heart-warming comedy-adventure animated film featuring a father clownfish (Marlon) looking for his son (Nemo) that was produced by Pixar Studios and distributed by Disney. Three years later, Disney acquired Pixar.
Director Andrew Stanton credits the success of Nemo to other Pixar movies that came before it like Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. “I think there was a wave effect, where people said, ‘I loved that one, so I trust that I can go to the next one,’ and it compounded. So I think with Finding Nemo, we were the beneficiaries of a nice run,” Stanton told Vulture in 2016, after the sequel Finding Dory’s stellar box office performance.
Finding Nemo made a total of $647 million in today’s dollars. Finding Dory, at $592 million, didn’t make it to the top 10 Disney grossers list. (It’s #13.)
8. Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
The 2006 release, the second installation among the Pirates of the Carribean titles, raked in $681 million in the US. The best performer out of the five films in the collection was the least expensive to make.
7. Incredibles 2
The box office collection of the 2015 release Incredibles 2 is equivalent to $703 million today. In yet another instance of Disney (read:Pixar) topping itself, Incredibles 2 broke Finding Dory ’s record for the biggest opening for an animated film.
6. Star Wars Ep. VII: The Last Jedi
The sequel to 2015's blockbuster Force Awakens couldn’t compare to its predecessor. However, the 2017 release still fared well at the box office courtesy of a Christmas release. It became one of the biggest Disney movies ever, with $726 million in box office receipts.
5. Avengers: Infinity War
In Marvel, Disney bought another money-maker. The $3.96 billion it paid for Marvel Entertainment, and its associated characters, appears worth every penny.
The 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War made $785 million at the box office in today’s dollars.
4. Black Panther
The Avengers world is all about superheroes coming together, but it also heavily features solo-hero films for Captain America, IronMan, Hulk, Antman, Captain Marvel, and others. However, at $809 million in inflation-adjusted dollars, Black Panther is the only one among them that made it to the top 10.
3. The Avengers
The first time the Avengers assembled together in a movie, released in May 2012, Disney made $825 billion in 2023 dollars.
2. Avengers: Endgame
Adjusted for inflation, Avengers: Endgame made $987 million at the US box office.
Now that all the big Avengers movies are exhausted, can you guess which movie nabbed the top spot on this list? (Hint: It’s already been mentioned above.)
1. Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens
Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens is Disney’s highest grossing film domestically. It raked in the equivalent of $1.16 billion in today’s dollars at the box office, back in 2016.