10 biggest movies of 2018

Here we stand, battered but triumphant, at the end of the 2018 box office season—and with a lot of quality (and high-earning) movies to show for it.

Not only did 2018 bring some good movies, but movies which shattered records and defied expectations. Avengers: Infinity War surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the title of biggest domestic opening weekend of all time; two new Marvel movies joined the list of top ten highest domestic grossing movies of all time. From action movies to superhero stories to animated feature films, 2018 saw some financial triumphs as well as some box office catastrophes.

Though there’s some variety in the movies which made the top box office cut this year, over half of the titles on this list are Disney films. All but two are remakes, spin-offs, or sequels. Now, this is a list of the top box-office earning films of 2018, not necessarily the best ones on merit alone. So the fact that the top 10 highest grossing movies of the year contains so few original concepts isn’t necessarily a sign of Hollywood’s declining originality—though, let’s be real, there may be an argument to be made there. The fact is, it’s a safer financial bet to churn out more movies in a recognizable franchise than it is to create a masterpiece from scratch and hope that people decide to see it.

And of course, even though the movies themselves are based on things that came before, many make up for what their concepts lack in originality with truly original and top-notch contents. This year continued to prove that the sixth sequel in a franchise can be better than all the others, and that Marvel still has more than a few tricks up its sleeves. So without further ado, here’s the top 10 highest grossing films of 2018.