The most successful films of the last 22 years, which became the highest grossing films in different years (23 photos)
Let's remember which films became the highest grossing films in different years of the 21st century. Here we have solid hits and masterpieces! Well, except for one thing. 
On December 16, a film will be released worldwide that has every chance of becoming the highest-grossing film in cinema history. We are talking about the second part of James Cameron's Avatar. The sequel is called “Avatar: The Way of Water,” whose release will take place 13 years after the first part. Let us remember that “Avatar” is the current record holder for the number of total box office receipts - and if anyone is going to knock it off the pedestal, then only its own sequel.
2001: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 
Total box office: $978 million
2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 
Total box office: $927 million
2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 
Total box office: $1.120 billion
2004: Shrek 2 
Total box office: $923 million
2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 
Total box office: $896 million
2006: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 
Total box office: $1.066 billion
2007: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 
Total box office: $961 million
2008: The Dark Knight 
Total box office: $1.004 billion
2009: Avatar 
Total box office: $2.923 billion
By the way, “Avatar” retained its box office championship due to re-release in China in March 2021. Without this trick, the film would have been inferior to some sci-fi blockbuster that came out exactly 10 years after Avatar. More about him below.
2010: Toy Story: The Great Escape 
Total box office: $1.066 billion
2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II 
Total box office: $1.341 billion
2012: The Avengers 
Total box office: $1.518 billion
2013: Frozen 
Total box office: $1.274 billion
2014: Transformers: Age of Extinction 
Total box office: $1.104 billion
Do you know which of this list of titans has the lowest audience ratings? Precisely from the unfortunate “Transformers”. Neither Mark Wahlberg nor the iron dinosaurs saved the film from being destroyed by its purely artistic features.
2015: Star Wars: The Force Awakens 
Total box office: $2.068 billion
2016: Captain America: Civil War 
Total box office: $1.153 billion
2017: Star Wars: The Last Jedi 
Total box office: $1.332 billion
2018: Avengers: Infinity War 
Total box office: $2.048 billion
2019: Avengers: Endgame 
Total box office: $2.797 billion
And here is the highest-grossing film of all time, if you count only one theatrical period. In a fair fight, “Endgame” grossed 8 million more than “Avatar,” but the latter had the same re-release mentioned above.
2020: Eight hundred (China) 
Total box office: $461 million
The most unexpected film on the list. Have you watched it? Have you even heard of him? The pandemic year of 2020, the temporary closure of cinemas around the world and the postponement of world premieres for the first time in history allowed a non-English-language film to become the highest-grossing film of the year. As you can see, for this he received very modest fees compared to the others on this list.
2021: Spider-Man: No Way Home 
Total box office: $1.901 billion
2022: Top Gun: Maverick (so far) 
Total box office: $1.486 billion
Unfortunately for Tom Cruise and the highest-grossing film of his career, on December 16 of this year, the long-awaited “Avatar: The Way of Water” is coming out, which is capable of setting a box office record in just half a month. We will find out very soon whether its collections will reach one and a half billion by the end of the year. In the meantime, the leader of 2022 remains the sudden sequel to the 1986 action film about military pilots.
By the way, have you noticed that almost all the films on the list are sequels? Only 4 films here are the first parts. This is the age of franchises and sequels!
