The Sixth Sense, Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad, Parenthood and Rear Window make up just some of the biggest August movies of all time.
With the caveat that Canada counts as “North America” and thus Tenet will count as an August release if it opens in Canada (and much of the rest of the world) on August 26, here’s a look at the very biggest-grossing movies released in the month of August. This “14 biggest-grossers of August” is ordered from 14th to first in order of adjusted-for-inflation domestic earnings. I did my best to make sure I didn’t miss any from “back in the day,” and yes that explains why this is a top-14 instead of a top-ten list. Of note, these are only counting the original theatrical releases, since it’s arguably cheating if we’re dealing with reissues that didn’t occur in the month of August. Will Tenet get anywhere near any of this top-tier grossers? That’s a question for another day.
14. Parenthood (Universal)
$100 million in 1989/$236 million adjusted
One of Ron Howard’s best movies, this thoughtful and heartwarming look at stereotypical suburbia was proof that an adult-skewing but kid appropriate (I saw it and loved it when I was nine) family dramedy could still be a hit during a defining blockbuster summer movie season. Steve Martin and Dianne Wiest anchor a stacked cast which includes early turns from Joaquin Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, while the emphatic screenplay by Howard, Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz offers a large family containing everyone from elderly matriarchs to three-year-old kids, all of whom are someone’s parent, someone’s kid, or both. None of this reinvents the wheel, but it feels as truthful now as it did 31 years ago.
13. American Pie 2 (Universal)
$145 million in 2001/$240 million adjusted
Another summer 2001 “breakout sequel” alongside Rush Hour 2 and The Mummy Returns, etc., this is the biggest-grossing entry ($288 million worldwide) of the franchise. Set after the first year of college, this perfectly enjoyable comedy sequel It straddles the line between teenage antics and young adult maturity, even as it strains to still include certain elements (like Shannon Elizabeth’s foreign exchange student) that made the first film so popular. Warts and all, American Pie 2 doesn’t overthink it in terms of offering a plausible next chapter. As far as comedy sequels go, it’s better than Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, The Hangover part II and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
$122 million in 1994/$274 million adjusted
Released right when Harrison Ford was scoring action movie hits outside of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, this sprawling adaptation of one of Tom Clancy’s more popular books feels like a relic of a bygone era. Not only is it a star+book adaptation for adult audiences, it is unapologetically political and angry in regard to a rogue president using the “War on Drugs” to justify extrajudicial military operations. It’s still pretty great and not just for the attack on a caravan that has been copied to the point of parody or that classic suspense beat where Ford and a deliciously smarmy Henry Czerny get into essentially a computer hacking duel over classified intel.
11. Apocalypse Now (1979)
$79 million in 1979/$295 million adjusted
A chaotic year-long shoot, thanks to (among other things) sets being destroyed by weather, Martin Sheen having a heart attack and Marlon Brando being Marlon Brando, this massive Vietnam War-set adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is oddly enough a classic “rip-off, don’t remake” triumph. Yes, this (ridiculously expensive at the time) $31 million epic is officially an adaptation but, like Amy Heckerling’s Clueless, it updated the source material for the present day and offered iconic imagery, fascinating characters and cinematic pleasures divorced from the source material. George Lucas was supposed to direct this before he went to make Star Wars, but he still got to make his anti-Vietnam movie in the form of Return of the Jedi four years later.
10. The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal)
$227 million in 2007/$310 million adjusted
For one moment, Jason Bourne was a bigger deal than James Bond and Ethan Hunt. The third Matt Damon spy actioner, helmed by Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass, may have been a glorified remake of the second flick, but it clearly worked. One year after Casino Royale opened with $40 million before legging out to $168 million domestic and $599 million worldwide and after Mission: Impossible III disappointed with $393 million (on a $160 million budget), the “Bourne finds out who he is” thriller opened with $72 million and legged out to $227 million and a franchise-high $444 million worldwide. That would be bigger than any 007 movie before Skyfall and is still bigger than any Mission: Impossible movie in raw domestic earnings.
9. Mary Poppins (Walt Disney)
$31 million in 1964/$312 million adjusted
If we were counting reissues, Mary Poppins would be the top grosser from August. It earned $57 million in reissues beginning in 1966 and another $14 million in 1980 for a $106 million cume, or $732 million adjusted-for-inflation. This Walt Disney musical adaptation of P.L. Travers’ novel was so successful that Walt Disney used the profits to buy the land and finance the construction for what would become Walt Disney World. We got a “making of the movie” melodrama (Saving Mr. Banks) in 2013 and a straight-up sequel (Mary Poppins Returns) in 2018. Julie Andrews won a Best Actress Oscar for this one, which played as revenge for her not being cast in My Fair Lady despite originating the role on Broadway.
8. Rear Window (Paramount)
$26.5 million in 1954/$336 million adjusted
Rear Window earned $26.105 million in 1954, but its total is $36.5 million for an inflation-adjusted cume of $472 million. Regardless, the Jimmy Stewart/Grace Kelly thriller, about a wheelchair bound man who begins spying on his neighbors and discovers that one of them might be a murderer, was both Alfred Hitchcock’s biggest “tickets sold” success (Psycho earned $32 million in 1961 which is around $399 million in inflation-adjusted grosses) and one of his best movies. It’s also an excellent starter flick for newbies, as it highlights much of what made Hitch such a kick in a comparatively kid-friendly and thrills and chills package. If they take the bait, follow it up with the more lurid likes of Psycho, Vertigo and Frenzy.
7. Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.)
$325 million in 2016/$352 million adjusted
David Ayer’s DC Films super villain caper flick is an exercise of contradictions. It earned miserable reviews and was beset by much behind-the-scenes studio meddling. It was indifferently received past the opening weekend and dropped 67% in weekend two after a record-high (for August) $133 million opening. It is usually considered the very worst film in the DC Films franchise. However, the Will Smith/Margot Robbie/Viola Davis/Joel Kinnaman “supervillains versus zombies” flick also earned $325 million domestic, leggier than summer than Captain America: Civil War and $745 million worldwide without a penny from China. A movie focusing on mostly B-level DC villains) earning almost $750 million should have been an affirmation of the brand rather than a sign of potential doom.
$226 million in 2002/$368 million adjusted
M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs was less obtuse, more thematically on the nose and more conventionally crowd-pleasing than Unbreakable (before comic book superheroes took over Hollywood). Nonetheless, the Mel Gibson/Joaquin Phoenix thriller about a widowed priest trying to protect his family from a global alien invasion is still a terrific blockbuster and arguably Shyamalan’s most explicitly Hitchcock-ian picture. Like Night of the Living Dead, War of the Worlds, Pontypool and the upcoming Greenland, Signs concerns a macro-level global event told entirely from the micro point-of-view of a family or small group of characters. It earned $407 million global on the strength of strong reviews, Gibson’s star power, the generic faith-based messaging and the mere idea of Shyamalan delivering an alien invasion chiller.
5. Rush Hour 2 (New Line Cinema)
$223 million in 2001/$374 million adjusted
Brett Ratner’s second Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker action comedy was a classic breakout sequel. The 1998 flick was a surprise smash, opening with $33 million and grossing $141 million domestic/$244 million on a $35 million budget. Its sequel opened with $66 million (the fifth-biggest domestic opening weekend ever at the time) and would gross $347 million global on a $90 million budget. More action-packed but less narratively disciplined than its predecessor or even the (admittedly lukewarm) Rush Hour 3, it was exactly the sort of mega-hit that should have heralded a more inclusive and diverse Hollywood had the industry not ignored its success for the sake of chasing four-quadrant global-skewing (read: white male) fantasy action franchise tentpoles.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy (Walt Disney)
$333 million in 2014/$392 million adjusted
The movie showed Kevin Feige and friends that they would be rewarded, critically and commercially, when they refused to play it safe. This adaptation of a B-level (at best) Marvel property, directed by a grind house cult director and whose biggest stars (Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper) voiced a tree and an angry raccoon, showed that audiences would show up for almost anything under the banner of the MCU. In a summer of delayed biggies (Furious 7, The Good Dinosaur) and disappointing tentpoles (Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transformers: Age of Extinction), Marvel’s funny, weird and character-focused sci-fi swashbuckler was a blast of fresh air and signaled that Marvel was planning on ruling not just the superhero sandbox but all of Hollywood.
3. The Fugitive (Warner Bros.)
$184 million in 1993/$416 million adjusted
If you subscribe to Quibi, you can already watch the first three episodes of their remake of the 1960s TV show that was the basis for this modern Hollywood action classic. More reliant on star power (Harrison Ford! Tommy Lee Jones!) and a primal hook (a good man wrongfully accused of murder escapes and sets out to prove his innocence) versus franchise loyalty, the Oscar-winning film the first example of a “last biggie of summer” blockbuster. Nitpicks aside (Dr. Kimble proves his innocence after five minutes on a single computer), the Andrew Davis flick builds its suspense via the avoidance of violence and encouraging us to root for both the innocent man and the relentless cop on his trail.
2. The Sixth Sense (Walt Disney)
$294 million in 1999/$539 million adjusted
The Haley Joel Osment/Bruce Willis/Toni Collette supernatural new classic of course a traumatized young boy who can see dead people, an empathetic psychologist who wants to help and the kid’s stressed but protective/loving single mother. Yes, the film’s twist epilogue fueled plenty of post-debut whispering, but Night Shyamalan’s Oscar-nominated The Sixth Sense works despite its twist, not because of it. Its actual climax is an earned tearjerker for the ages. The question that mattered most wasn’t “What’s the twist?” but “Do I make her proud of me?” The film is a $55 million, action-free and violence-lite slow-burn character play, you can argue it almost invented “elevated horror,” one as concerned with breaking your heart as shivering your spine.
1. American Graffiti (Universal)
$115 million in 1973/$612 million adjusted
I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. I have extensively written about all
I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. I have extensively written about all of said subjects for the last 11 years. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing scholarship have included The Huffington Post, Salon, and Film Threat. Follow me at @ScottMendelson and “like” The Ticket Booth on Facebook.