Box Office - The 15 Top Grossing Independence Day Blockbusters Ever

Will Smith, the Minions and Spider-Man ruled in the 15 biggest hits released over the Independence Day weekend, ranked by inflation-adjusted domestic box office.

Since it’s a holiday and I haven’t updated this in ten years, I figured I’d take another look at the top-grossing films to open over the long July 4 holiday weekend. In 2014, I did a rundown of the top holiday openers, ranked by the inflation-adjusted domestic box office. Oddly enough, in the last decade, there haven’t been many new would-be champions. Blame scheduling oddities like Transformers: Age of Extinction opening just before the holiday, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Minions and Secret Life of Pets opening just after the Independence Day frame and COVID-impacted theatrical slates. Nonetheless, there’s also a decade’s worth of inflation to account for, along with two “new” entries. Time will tell if this weekend will jump-start another “contender.”

Ten summers ago, Fox was kicking (X-Men: Days of Future Past) box office ass (The Fault in Our Stars) all over the board (How to Train Your Dragon 2) while Paramount was just a few years out from its dominating run of Marvel movies, DWA toons, Transformers flicks and a seemingly resurgent Star Trek series. Disney was on the cusp of tentpole domination (The Lone Ranger, released in 2013, does *not* make this list). In July 2014, the blow-out success of Despicable Me 2 the previous season merely meant that Universal had one (01) mega-bucks animated franchise instead of a full-on empire. Looking at these films in the summer of 2014 versus the summer of 2024 is a radically different experience.