There's no telling what, exactly, will allow a motion picture to cross the billion dollar gross mark - there's no set formula or a pre-determined set of rules that can predict a movie's success at the box office. It just happens. When a movie does successfully manage to cross the billion dollar line, though, it's never anything but impressive - a billion dollars is a hell of a lot of money, and for an "entertainment" product to pull in that much cash... well, it qualifies said entertainment product as something of an unmitigated success. Given the way that pretty much every single billion dollar movie has left its mark on popular culture on a global scale, then, we've decided to take a look through all of the flicks that managed to do so to bring you a list of the most iconic scenes contained within. You might well argue that a lot of these motion pictures probably didn't "deserve" to make as much money as they did, but the simple fact remains: they still contain what might be best described as "iconic" scenes... Here are our picks for 20 of the Most Iconic Scenes In Billion Dollar Movies. Please Note: When constructing this list, we opted to include movies that have made over a billion dollars at the box office, and also those movies which have grossed over a billion dollars when adjusted for inflation...
20. "Let It Go" - Frozen
Since its first release, Frozen has become such a phenomenal force of money-grossing power, that Disney probably don't know what to do with it all the cash (okay, they probably do - sequel anyone?). Indeed, those executive folks over at the House of Mouse probably had no idea that their take on The Snow Queen would do quite as well as it did, and now we're living in a world in which absolutely every human person on the planet knows what "Let It Go" is - and probably all of the lyrics, too. Given how great the song is, though, it's not exactly surprising (it won a well-deserved Oscar earlier this year). The scene unfolds within the context of the movie as distraught Princess Elsa, who has struggled all her life with cryokinetic powers (turning stuff to ice, basically), runs away from home and - free from stigma and constraints of palace life - unleashes the very superpowers she's been hiding away for so long. It's epic, poignant, beautiful and life-affirming.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
