50 Highest-Grossing Movies Of All Time Ranked

25. Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Box Office: $934.4 million (#46)

Half-Blood Prince is destined to be remembered as "the one where Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) dies", and though in many ways it's just setting the table for the finale (or rather, the final two movies), it does firm emotional justice to one of the series' most iconic and unforgettable moments.

Not to sound like a broken record, but it's once again too damn long, and there's an unnecessary focus on character romance (even if it's trashy fun). Still, the movie as a whole ably captures the awkwardness of being a teenager, is beautifully lensed by Bruno Delbonnel and provides one hell of a lead-in to the end passage of the franchise.

24. Furious 7 (2015)

Box Office: $1.516 billion (#7)

Nobody would've been surprised if Furious 7 turned out a complete mess, considering the tragic demise of Paul Walker mid-production throwing shooting into total disarray and necessitating extensive production delays.

As it turns out, you can basically watch the film without knowing of Walker's death and probably be none the wiser. Such is the triumph of James Wan's kinetic direction alongside fantastic editing, jaw-dropping visual effects and some clever rewrites to give Walker's Brian O'Conner the poignant send-off he deserved.

Even outside of the Walker tragedy, it's an extremely entertaining action flick, with The Conjuring's Wan making a hugely successful leap from lower-budget fare to the tentpole arena.

The cast, who had to film much of the movie post-Walker's death, do terrific work selling the team dynamic, and perhaps in part due to Walker's absence, those themes feel decidedly less corny than in previous instalments.

Be honest, you cried at the end, didn't you? And there's no damn shame in that.

23. Finding Dory (2016)

Box Office: $1.028 billion (#29)

Though not a follow-up on the calibre of Pixar's Toy Story sequels, Finding Dory is nevertheless a worthy successor to one of their most beloved films: a sweet, beautifully animated reunion with the original's classic characters, while introducing a bevy of wonderful new ones too.

The humour's a little broader this time around, but there are some incredibly memorable gags - Idris Elba and Dominic West's sea lions! - and it's more gently affecting than, say, the emotionally shattering power of the Toy Story movies.

Ellen DeGeneres does great work further developing Dory as a character and ensuring she's not a one-note doofus, while the central plot is thoroughly engaging. Pretty much every frame of this movie could be hung on a wall.

22. Avatar (2009)

Box Office: $2.788 billion (#1)

The highest-grossing movie of all time certainly isn't the best, but if you can forgive the rather familiar, elemental narrative, this is one of the best-crafted and most technically dazzling blockbusters ever made.

Among the few CGI-heavy tentpoles to fully broach the infamous uncanny valley, Avatar's performance-captured creations largely convince as living, breathing entities - especially their eyes - while placed in a wondrous digital landscape so brilliant it left people depressed it wasn't real.

Sam Worthington didn't win any awards for his lead performance, but he was exactly what the film needed to be: a blank slate protagonist on which everything else could be hung. The rest of the cast - especially Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Zoe Saldana - do fine work, and Cameron typically serves up all the brain-explodingly masterful action you'd expect.

21. Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix (2007)

Box Office: $939.9 million (#45)

The first of David Yates' four consecutive Potter movies is also one of his strongest, aided by a positively "snappy" 138 minute run-time (at least for the standards of the series) and some of the franchise's best performances to date.

It really feels like things clicked for the three leads in this one, and they fully come into their own while working alongside the brilliant likes of Imelda Staunton, Gary Oldman and Ralph Fiennes.

The pacing's also terrific in addition to its "brevity", the emotions feel stronger than ever before, and that climax is just a little bit heartbreaking.

It's one of the more divisive Potter movies among the fanbase, but deserves heaps of praise for how efficiently it translates the series' longest book to the big screen.