When a movie earns a Thanksgiving weekend release date, expectations soar exponentially. Thanksgiving weekend officially kicks off the holiday film season, spurring some of the top earners of all time. Going to the movies over the long weekend seems as traditional as the turkey-stuffing and calorie-gaining.
To help ring in the start of the holiday season, Hollywood.com has created our list of the 25 Highest Grossing Thanksgiving Releases. We have updated all box office numbers by tallying domestic box office receipts from movies that opened Thanksgiving weekend for both their opening weekend and overall, and then adjusted their performances to current U.S. average ticket prices. See below to find out which movies gobbled up the most in box office receipts to earn their position on the list.
| Rank | Title | Adjusted Opening Thanksgiving Weekend Box Office 1 2 | Opening Thanksgiving Weekend Box Office 2 | Total Adjusted Gross Domestic Box Office 1 | Total Gross Domestic Box Office |
| 1 | Toy Story 2 (Walt Disney / 1999) | $98,384,446 | $80,481,962 | $300,504,586 | $245,823,397 |
| 2 | Back to the Future II (Universal Pictures / 1989) | $67,287,344 | $43,016,225 | $182,116,738 | $116,425,676 |
| 3 | 101 Dalmations (Walt Disney / 1996) | $63,327,218 | $45,073,479 | $191,332,855 | $136,182,161 |
| 4 | Rocky IV (MGM / 1985) | $55,575,310 | $31,770,105 | $219,379,071 | $125,409,936 |
| 5 | Flubber (Walt Disney / 1997) | $48,559,807 | $35,892,031 | $125,782,703 | $92,969,824 |
| 6 | Star Trek IV (Paramount Pictures / 1986) | $42,519,863 | $25,402,366 | $175,328,826 | $104,745,563 |
| 7 | Mrs. Doubtfire (20th Century Fox / 1993) | $41,337,048 | $27,558,032 | $328,792,160 | $219,194,773 |
| 8 | End of Days (Universal Pictures / 1999) | $38,518,839 | $31,509,775 | $81,734,930 | $66,862,068 |
| 9 | The Bodyguard (Warner Brothers / 1992) | $36,515,648 | $24,402,567 | $181,574,591 | $121,342,118 |
| 10 | The Haunted Mansion (Walt Disney / 2003) | $35,062,413 | $34,046,111 | $78,081,218 | $75,817,994 |
| 11 | Alien Resurrection (20th Century Fox / 1997) | $34,891,616 | $25,789,455 | $64,601,061 | $47,748,610 |
| 12 | Christmas with the Kranks (Columbia Pictures / 2004) | $30,818,212 | $30,818,212 | $73,701,902 | $73,701,902 |
| 13 | Scrooged (Paramount Pictures / 1988) | $28,025,319 | $18,548,158 | $87,876,672 | $58,159,923 |
| 14 | My Girl (Columbia Pictures / 1991) | $25,391,963 | $17,214,197 | $81,418,633 | $55,196,851 |
| 15 | Three Men and a Baby (Touchstone Pictures / 1987) | $22,105,130 | $13,918,045 | $266,475,642 | $167,780,960 |
| 16 | Alexander (Warner Brothers / 2004) | $21,837,517 | $21,837,517 | $34,293,771 | $34,293,771 |
| 17 | Behind Enemy Lines (20th Century Fox / 2001) | $20,556,782 | $18,736,133 | $64,574,929 | $58,855,732 |
| 18 | Junior (Universal Pictures / 1994) | $19,968,797 | $13,441,155 | $54,552,324 | $36,719,600 |
| 19 | Treasure Planet (Walt Disney / 2002) | $17,742,551 | $16,599,714 | $40,745,033 | $38,120,554 |
| 20 | Bad Santa (Dimension Studios / 2003) | $17,302,715 | $16,801,187 | $61,850,404 | $60,057,639 |
| 21 | A Low Down Dirty Shame (Buena Vista / 1994) | $16,964,827 | $11,419,159 | $43,663,421 | $29,390,193 |
| 22 | A Perfect World (Warner Brothers / 1993) | $16,871,939 | $11,247,959 | $44,621,645 | $29,747,763 |
| 23 | Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Paramount Pictures / 1987) | $16,090,796 | $10,131,242 | $76,508,120 | $48,171,779 |
| 24 | The Missing (Columbia Pictures / 2003) | $15,686,982 | $15,232,287 | $27,703,331 | $26,900,336 |
| 25 | Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights (Columbia Pictures / 2002) | $15,012,214 | $14,045,244 | $25,057,108 | $23,443,124 |
| Totals | $846,355,296 | $634,932,317 | $2,912,271,674 | $2,093,062,247 | |
| 1 Adjusted Gross Domestic Box Office figures are derived based on the total domestic gross of the film, divided by average ticket price in the year of release, multiplied by 2004 average ticket price ($6.21). Average annual ticket prices source: MPAA.
2 Thanksgiving weekend was considered as Wednesday through Sunday for purposes of this comparison. |
Check out Hollywood.com’s lists of the Top Grossing films in various genres:
Top 25 Highest Grossing Horror Films of All Time
Top 25 Highest Grossing Comedy Films of All Time
