4. Jurassic Park (1993)
One of the greatest adventure movies ever made that sparked a generation's obsession with dinosaurs (me included) and helped bring about the CGI revolution, Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing movie of all time when it was released with a worldwide total of over $914m, a record it would hold for four years before Titanic sailed along. However, it would take 20 years and a 3D re-release to see Steven Spielberg's classic cross the billion dollar threshold. Maybe I'm a little biased as its one of the movies that defined my childhood, but Jurassic Park remains a timeless classic and one of the high points of event cinema a full 20 years after its release. Yes, the child actors veer dangerously close to annoying, the science is questionable at the best of times, and its a bold move for any movie to market its own merchandise onscreen. Yet the sense of wonder endures with every viewing; from the stunning first shot of the brachiosaurus, the flawless mix of CGI and animatronics (effects that still hold up today), and several thrilling action set-pieces and signature moments that retain their appeal despite being mercilessly parodied over the last two decades. Although most of the human characters are a little two-dimensional, they are buoyed by charismatic performances from the likes of Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough. But nobody watches Jurassic Park for intimate character studies, do they? As two hours of popcorn cinema, the movie is entertainment of the purest form. To mark the 20th anniversary of the movie's initial cinematic release, Jurassic Park was unleashed upon cinemas again, this time with the added gloss of 3D. In the age of shoddy post-conversions, it was refreshing to hear that it was a nine-month process to add the third dimension to the movie using the same company who had worked on the acclaimed 3D rendering of Titanic. The enduring appeal of Jurassic Park saw the re-release claim fourth spot at the domestic box office, and open to a huge $28.8m in China. All told, Jurassic Park 3D added almost $90m to the movie's box office total, taking it to $1.029bn, bumping it up to the thirteenth biggest movie of all time. To paraphrase the original tagline, it was a billion-dollar adventure 20 years in the making.