2025 Marks 50 Years of Summer Blockbuster Movies in the US – Which Years Were the Best?

The summer season officially starts this Friday, June 20, 2025. But for movie fans in the US, the summer blockbuster season basically begins on Memorial Day weekend, which is when Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and the live-action Lilo & Stitch came out, and then it ends in early August.

Summer is when the big movie studios love to crank out A-list titles that will put butts into air-conditioned seats for a few hours as profits hopefully pour in from crowds of all ages.

This year, you can go see horror sequels like 28 Years Later and M3GAN 2.0, but the heavy hitters are expected to be the latest entry in the Jurassic Park franchise, and we’re getting another reboot of Superman to start the new DCU, and another attempt at the Fantastic Four as they officially join the MCU.

But this week is also about honoring the 50-year anniversary of the classic movie that set this in motion.

By the way, don’t forget to check out our top betting sites, where you can wager on plenty of fun movies and TV show props!

Celebrating Jaws 50 Years Later: The Birth of the Summer Blockbuster in Hollywood

2025 is really the 50-year anniversary of the movie that started the summer blockbuster craze in America. We’re talking about Jaws, director Steven Spielberg’s brilliant thriller that created the shark movie genre, which peaked right away with the classic that was released on June 20, 1975 – 50 years ago this Friday.

From the marketing campaign to its incredible success and reception, Jaws gave the Hollywood studios a blueprint on how to make a movie’s release the spectacle of the summer, even when that movie scared people from going into the water. The term “blockbuster” existed for decades in Hollywood, but it wasn’t until Jaws in 1975 that it started being viewed as a “summer blockbuster” event.

The Legacy Continues with Star Wars

Two years later, George Lucas built off this success with Star Wars (1977), and the rest is history. Today, if you want to release your Oscar-bait drama or indie comedy, you wait until the fall or winter months. Summer is for blockbusters, which are often established franchises in the action and adventure/fantasy/sci-fi genres with huge budgets, star power, and wide marketing campaigns.

However, things weren’t always so franchise-driven, as Jaws and Star Wars were both original stories when they came out that started franchises. But even in 2023, Barbie and Oppenheimer were the hit double feature of the summer, with the “Barbenheimer” marketing starting online by fans. By year’s end, Barbie was 2023’s No. 1 highest-grossing film ($1.45 billion) and Oppenheimer was No. 3 ($975.6 million). Not bad for a movie about a famous toy line and a biopic about the father of the atomic bomb.

We can debate the long-term outlook for movie theaters, but 2023 is proof that even today’s younger generations can still have a memorable summer experience enjoying a trip to the show.

The Best Years for Summer Blockbuster Movies

This all begs the question: which years were the absolute best for summer blockbusters? Did the kids in the 80s and 90s really have it the best, or have things actually gotten stronger in the last 20 years, with more budget going to these movies?

When Jaws came out in 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, that year’s 3rd-highest-grossing film, didn’t come out until September 26 in the US. They even had a poster advertising a character’s mouth with “A Different Set of Jaws” written on it, but they missed the summer season as this was still a brand-new concept at the time.

By the summer of 1977, Star Wars was supported by Burt Reynolds’ Smokey and the Bandit, but that was a missed opportunity from Spielberg to rule the summer again as his sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind was delayed to November because of production issues.

So, we dug through each year and found the best summer blockbusters on the simple criteria that they were valid blockbuster movies (no pure dramas or indies) that were released in theaters in the US between late May and mid-August.

Here are the best we could find for summer blockbusters, broken down by decades.

The 1980s: Star Wars Strikes Back

Oh, what a time to be alive in the summer of 1980 with this trio of films at the show:

• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (May 21)
• The Blues Brothers (June 20)
• Airplane! (July 2)

You get the best Star Wars movie ever made with the shocking reveal about Darth Vader and Luke. Seriously, just think how jarring that had to be in 1980 when you were watching only the second movie and piece of media about this franchise rather than today’s oversaturated mess. Then you get classic comedies from some of the best to ever do it, including an all-time spoof comedy in Airplane!. This is a strong early contender for the best summer.

Summer of 1987: Deep and Cult Classic-Heavy

We’re cheating a bit with 1987 (explained below), but just look at what was in the theaters that summer:

• The Untouchables (June 3)
• Predator (June 12)
• Full Metal Jacket (June 26)
• RoboCop (July 17)
• The Lost Boys (July 31)

However, it should be noted that only The Untouchables finished in the top 10 of 1987’s highest-grossing films, so their status as blockbusters using the same criteria for every other year is debatable. But this might have been the best and deepest selection of any year. For whatever reason, these movies just didn’t make as much money as Beverly Hills Cop II, Stakeout, or The Witches of Eastwick.

Other notable summer blockbusters from the 1980s:

• 1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman II, Stripes
• 1982: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Poltergeist
• 1983: Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Trading Places, WarGames
• 1984: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Karate Kid
• 1985: Back to the Future, The Goonies, Cocoon
• 1986: Top Gun, Aliens, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• 1987: Beverly Hills Cop II, The Untouchables, Stakeout
• 1988: Die Hard, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Coming to America
• 1989: Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2

I might have given the nod to 1989 if Back to the Future Part II came out in the summer instead of November.

The 1990s: James Cameron’s Decade

Moving into the 1990s, I think 1991 could have had the strongest argument yet, with Terminator 2: Judgment Day arguably the best summer blockbuster ever made. Unfortunately, that year put its other heavy-hitters at the beginning and the end as The Silence of the Lambs came out on Valentine’s Day (how lovely) and JFK and Beauty and the Beast came out after Thanksgiving.

Instead, we’ll give a special shout-out to 1993 when 7-year-old me chickened out at the show when we were supposed to finally see Jurassic Park. Instead, I made my mom buy tickets for Harrison Ford in The Fugitive because the T-Rex scared me. We eventually saw Jurassic Park a week or two later and I love it to this day. The series literally peaked in that famed 1st encounter with the T-Rex. But 1993 was an incredible year for original stories:

• Jurassic Park (June 11)
• Sleepless in Seattle (June 25)
• The Firm (June 30)
• The Fugitive (August 6)

Surprisingly, Titanic (1997) was not a summer release for director James Cameron before it became the highest-grossing film of all time, a record he later broke with Avatar. It came out the week of Christmas, but was in theaters forever, as that’s what they used to do sometimes.

Other notable summer blockbusters from the 1990s:

• 1990: Ghost, Total Recall, Die Hard 2
• 1991: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, City Slickers
• 1992: Batman Returns, Lethal Weapon 3, A League of Their Own
• 1994: The Lion King, Forrest Gump, True Lies, The Mask, Speed
• 1995: Die Hard with a Vengeance, Batman Forever, Apollo 13
• 1996: Independence Day, Mission: Impossible, The Rock
• 1997: Men In Black, Air Force One, The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• 1998: Saving Private Ryan, Armageddon, Godzilla
• 1999: The Sixth Sense, Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, Tarzan

The 2000s: Franchising Gone Wild

By the 2000s, established IP and franchises were taking over Hollywood, especially after the success of adapting Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Comic book movies also started exploding as Spider-Man and X-Men debuted on the big screen, and Christopher Nolan raised the stakes with his Batman trilogy, all leading to the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man in 2008.

But there were a lot of critical misses in this decade, as the Star Wars prequels weren’t great, Transformers were never good from Michael Bay, and let’s forget about Tim Burton’s awful remake of The Planet of the Apes in 2001.

If you had to pick a best year from this decade, it’s probably 2004 on the strength of arguably the best movies ever made about Spider-Man (Spider-Man 2) and Harry Potter (Prisoner of Azkaban). You could also say 2008 (The Dark Knight and WALL-E) if you cheat a little and throw Iron Man in there since it came out the 1st week of May.

• 2000: Mission: Impossible 2, X-Men, The Perfect Storm
• 2001: Shrek, The Planet of the Apes (remake), Pearl Harbor
• 2002: Star Wars: Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones, Men in Black II, Signs
• 2003: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Matrix Reloaded, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Finding Nemo
• 2004: Spider-Man 2, Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, Shrek 2, The Day After Tomorrow
• 2005: Batman Begins, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds
• 2006: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, The Da Vinci Code, Superman Returns
• 2007: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Transformers, Shrek the Third
• 2008: The Dark Knight, WALL-E, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hancock, Kung Fu Panda
• 2009: Up, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The 2010s: Movie Theaters Meet Streaming Services

In the 2010s, Netflix kicked off the streaming boom, with people having way more options than ever before to watch things at home instead of going to the show. This decade was filled with a ton of sequels in the summer, but some opted for non-summer releases such as the latest Star Wars trilogy (December).

Using the last half of May as a cut-off date screws over the MCU more than anything as Marvel has a habit of putting out movies in the last week of April or the 1st week of May, including their heavy hitters like The Avengers (2012), Infinity War (2018), and Endgame (2019).

But I think even if you include those movies on this list, it’s hard to find a truly great year. The one that stands out best is probably 2014, thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

If Captain America: The Winter Soldier didn’t come out on April 4, then 2014 would have an argument for the best year period.

• 2010: Toy Story 3, Inception, Despicable Me, Shrek Forever After
• 2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Hangover Part II, Kung Fu Panda 2
• 2012: The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, Ice Age: Continental Drift
• 2013: Man of Steel, Fast & Furious 6, Despicable Me 2
• 2014: Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Maleficent, Transformers: Age of Extinction
• 2015: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Jurassic World, Minions, Inside Out
• 2016: Finding Dory, Suicide Squad, The Secret Life of Pets
• 2017: Dunkirk, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Wonder Woman, Despicable Me 3
• 2018: Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Incredibles 2, Deadpool 2
• 2019: Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Lion King (“live-action” remake), Toy Story 4, Aladdin (live-action remake)

The 2020s: Recovering from COVID

As for this decade, things obviously got off to a rough start as COVID-19 made sure there was no 2020 summer movie season, with theaters closed and people practicing social distancing. That’s why the highest-grossing film of 2020 is a Demon Slayer anime movie from Japan.

2021 wasn’t much better, as F9 was the summer’s biggest movie in the US. But by 2022, things returned to normal thanks in large part to Tom Cruise, of course, for Top Gun: Maverick. But it didn’t have a great running mate as The Batman debuted in March, and Jurassic World Dominion was a poor sequel.

But while people may snicker about the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon in 2023, those movies are good, and they were the highlight of a strong summer for movies. In fact, I think you could easily make the argument that 2023 is the best year for summer blockbusters in the 21st century thanks to the release of Across the Spider-Verse and one of the best Mission: Impossible sequels:

• Fast X (May 19)
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (June 2)
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12)
• Barbie (July 21)
• Oppenheimer (July 21)

Throw a tip of the cap to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5), and 2023 was easily the best year in a long time. As for 2024, it produced Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Despicable Me 4, 75% of the 4-highest-grossing films of the year, even if none of them were particularly great.

Conclusion: The Best Years for Summer Blockbusters and Looking Ahead to 2025

While there is always a subjective element to how people feel about these movies, needless to say, there aren’t a lot of films listed above that are on par with Jaws and the original Star Wars.

If there’s a surprise to be had from this research, it’s how difficult it is to have several great blockbusters come out in the same summer. You’re lucky if your year can have a strong top 2 like 2010 (Inception and Toy Story 3) had, and yes, we need to give 2023 credit as the best year in decades.

The Best Summer Movie Years

As for the best of the best, I’d rank the top 5 years for summer blockbusters this way:

1. 1980: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Airplane!, The Blues Brothers
2. 1993: Jurassic Park, The Fugitive, The Firm, Sleepless in Seattle
3. 1994: The Lion King, Forrest Gump, True Lies, The Mask, Speed
4. 2023: Oppenheimer, Barbie, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
5. 1984: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Karate Kid

Again, if I could use 1987 and use those movies like Predator, RoboCop, and Full Metal Jacket for it, then that might just be my No. 1. But these are the best of the best.

Big Names, Bigger Expectations

As for this summer, here are some of the most anticipated summer blockbusters coming to theaters in 2025:

• 28 Years Later (June 20) – A long-awaited zombie apocalypse sequel to director Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later and its overlooked sequel 28 Weeks Later.
• F1 (June 27) – Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 thriller with British driver Lewis Hamilton serving as a producer (and appearing as himself).
• M3GAN 2.0 (June 27) – A sequel to the horror film that asked what if Chucky was a female killer doll in the age of AI?
• Jurassic World Rebirth (July 2) – The 4th installment in the Jurassic World movies sees Scarlett Johansson take over as the new lead.
• Superman (July 11) – James Gunn’s 1st entry in the new DC Universe (DCU) begins with Superman, a great underdog pick to make the most money this summer.
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25) – After a couple of failed attempts to bring this Marvel team to the big screen, they’ll try it again with Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby.

We’ll see how it goes, but the Jurassic Park franchise is 0-for-5 at coming up with a sequel that’s anywhere close to the brilliance of the 1993 classic. Also, these are the 3rd attempts at rebooting Superman and the Fantastic Four in the last 20 years, so we’ll truly get to see if the 3rd time is the charm for either.

Still, a lot of money will be made from these movies, and the smart money is on Superman having the best shot at garnering box-office and critical success this summer.

Scott Kacsmar

NFL football picks are Scott Kacsmar's expertise, serving as his main focus. He has contributed to various sports websites and blogs, such as NBC Sports, ESPN Insider, FiveThirtyEight, and, JoeWager. Originating from Pittsburgh, Scott maintains a love-hate connection with the Pirates.

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