2. Star Wars: A New Hope ($786 million)

“If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine” – Obi-Wan Kenobi

This is the movie that started a revolution, the sci-fi film that would change everything. It’s probably the best standalone sci-fi movie you can watch, and it not only was a box office smash hit at the time (only surpassed by the new trilogy) but it also made Jedis and the Force part of popular culture and spawned countless imitators.

And this is a movie with plenty to savor, from Alec Guinness great performance as the benevolent Jedi Master who instructs a young Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force, to John Williams fantastic score and the climatic attack on the Death Star. And George Lucas truly created a sci-fi universe like no other, from the desert sands of Tatooine to a vast galaxy filled with Imperial Star Destroyers, rebel fighters, noble Jedis and bounty hunters. It is clear that Star Wars: A New Hope is a timeless sci-fi movie, and thankfully Disney’s new batch of Star Wars films have mostly lived up to it.