Every Movie In The $100 Million Losers Club Ranked

"What goes up must come down," as Sir Isaac Newton once said (more or less), a statement that applies just as much to movies as to apples. Though perhaps a better idiom would be "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." For every "Top Gun: Maverick" that has had only mild week-to-week drops, there are far more blockbusters that absolutely plummet after their huge first weekends. This is largely because of our opening weekend culture, where blockbusters burn off demand in just three days.

An astounding 67 movies (and counting) have opened above $100 million since "Spider-Man" kicked that door down 20 years ago — and 15 of them have lost that much by their second weekend too, forming a team of films called the "$100 million losers club" (a term popularized by Forbes). We're counting down these $100 million losers based on numeric losses. We're not saying they tanked or were terrible (well, not all of them, at least), only that they had significant drop-offs in their second weekends. How much? Let's find out! Here's every movie in the $100 million losers club ranked!

"Iron Man" kicked off the MCU in 2008, and you can largely credit Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as Tony Stark for its success. All told, the "Iron Man" trilogy has earned over $1 billion domestically and $2.4 billion worldwide. Not bad for a former C-List character played by a guy once dubbed "box office poison" (by himself, no less). However, more than half of the franchise's worldwide take came from just one movie, "Iron Man 3." 

Riding the waves of "The Avengers" and its record-breaking performance in 2012, the 2013 trilogy-capper earned over $408 million domestically, about $100 million more than previous entries, and $1.2 billion worldwide, more than the previous two films earned combined. That's wild growth. Marvel knew it had a mega-hit when "Iron Man 3" opened to $174 million. Moviegoers were mostly pleased, as "Iron Man 3" only dropped 58% (par for the course with blockbusters) to earn $72 million in its second weekend. Not bad, but this $102 million drop-off does land "Iron Man 3" in the $100 million losers club.

Pixar used to be unbeatable at the box office. Key phrase: "used to." Based on the bad "buzz" for "Lightyear" (yes, we made that joke), Pixar's glory days may be behind it. When even the $3.6 billion "Toy Story" franchise isn't immune, you know you're in trouble. Might be time for Pixar to make a sequel to its biggest hit, "Incredibles 2." This 2018 film made $1.2 billion worldwide, nearly $200 more than "Toy Story 4," Pixar's second highest-grossing film. 

While "Incredibles 2" did well everywhere, its gross was largely driven by North America, where it made $608 million, or 49% of its global gross. And "Incredibles 2" made 30% of its domestic gross in just three days, with its $182 million opening weekend — Pixar's biggest by about $50 million. Incredible indeed. While Pixar films are known for their long legs, an opening weekend that massive meant "Incredibles 2" was bound to suffer a bigger fall than usual. Indeed it fell 56% to $80 million — still a massive haul, but a drop-off of about $102 million. Yep, in one week "Incredibles 2" dropped about what "Lightyear" has earned in total, domestically, so far.

The MCU and "Star Wars" series take up a lot of the oxygen, but the "Jurassic Park" franchise is low-key one of the most reliable in movies. It's tied with "The Avengers" as one of only three franchises to break the opening-weekend record at least three times (Batman is number one, with four films). Even so, the moviegoing world was largely caught off-guard when "Jurassic World" broke the opening weekend record with $208 million, despite that both "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" broke the record in the 1990s.

The 2015 film's massive opening wound up being about one-third of its total domestic haul of $652 million, as it had surprisingly long legs for a live-action blockbuster. "Jurassic World" dropped only 49% to earn $106 million in its second weekend. While this was a drop-off of about $102 million (and thus earns it a spot on our list), the film's second weekend was higher than any of the previous three "Jurassic Park" films' opening weekends, not adjusted for inflation.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" set the opening weekend record in 2011 with $169 million. Just one year later, "The Avengers" absolutely obliterated that number by more than $38 million with a $207 million opening weekend, becoming the first movie to open above $200 million. While Earth's Mightiest Heroes — or any characters — from multiple franchises teaming up on-screen seems like old hat now, back in the day (10 years ago) it was still the domain of comic books, not movies.

Well, "The Avengers" changed all that, and soon everybody in the movie industry wanted to get into the crossover game (RIP "Dark Universe"). We think the film's $623 million domestic and $1.5 billion worldwide box office gross had something to do with it. Despite its historic opening, "The Avengers" only dropped 50%, earning a $103 million second weekend. An impressive hold to be sure, but a mighty drop of $104 million.

The final Star Wars film in both the nine-picture Skywalker Saga and the sequel trilogy — "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" — had the smallest drop of any Star Wars film on our list ... but that may be because it also had the lowest opening weekend too. Aim low, kids! That might have had something to do with the fact that "The Rise of Skywalker" was a disappointing trilogy conclusion, with some of the lowest Tomatometer scores in the entire franchise. 

"The Rise of Skywalker" opened to $177 million in 2019, impressive by most measures, but a steep drop from both "Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi" in 2017 and "Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens" in 2015. And for that matter, it opened to about $180 million less than 2019's other epic conclusion, "Avengers: Endgame." Guess we know who has bragging rights on the Disney lot. All told, "The Rise of Skywalker" dropped a standard 59.2% for a second weekend of $72 million domestically. That wasn't the problem; the problem was it kept dropping, to the point where it finished the year with "just" $1 billion worldwide, making it the first and only film in the Skywalker Saga to not make the global top five.

"Avengers Part III" — er, "Iron Man 4" — er, "Captain America: Civil War" continued the Captain America franchise's box office growth, becoming only the second non-Avengers MCU movie at that time to gross more than $1 billion at the box office. Of course, it helped that it starred the character who was in the first solo superhero MCU movie to gross a billion bucks, Iron Man. The prospect of seeing Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man throw down proved a tremendous draw, scoring an opening weekend of $179 million, about $84 million higher than "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and the best non-Avengers opening in the MCU at that time.

But despite sky-high Tomatometer scores from both critics and fans, interest in "Captain America: Civil War" flamed out quicker than Evans' other Marvel character, Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm. In its second weekend, "Captain America: Civil War" plunged 59.5% to $72 million (par for the course with big blockbusters) for a drop-off of $107 million. However, it kept plummeting week to week, finishing at the domestic box office with $408 million. While that was $149 million more than "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" earned in 2014, the opening weekend for "Captain America: Civil War" accounted for about 44% of its domestic business, making it one of the MCU's most front-loaded films.

"The Avengers" broke all the records (well, most of them anyway) when it opened to $207 million in 2012. In hindsight, it was probably unreasonable to expect its 2014 sequel — "Avengers: Age of Ultron" — to hit those same numbers. After all, "The Avengers" combined multiple heroes from different franchises, something that had never been done before. Comparatively, the marketing campaign for "Avengers: Age of Ultron" was basically, "Hey, it's the Avengers again, but this time they're fighting an effete robot that sounds like James Spader." All due respect to fans of "The Blacklist," but that just doesn't have the same drawing power. 

Consequently, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" opened $16 million lower than "The Avengers" — $191 million. It fell a standard 59.4% for a $77 million second weekend, a drop-off of about $114 million, and finished with $1.4 billion worldwide. This was about $120 million less than "The Avengers," making "Avengers: Age of Ultron" the first and so far only MCU to both open and close lower than its predecessor. We know, boo hoo MCU, right?

So for those of you who don't remember a world before 2020, the year 2019 was dominated by Disney, with seven of the year's top 10 biggest hits coming from the Mouse House. Meanwhile one of them, Sony's "Spider-Man: Far From Home," was produced by Disney-owned Marvel. While most of those hits were from companies Disney acquired (Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar), Disney's biggest homegrown hit was "The Lion King," the live-action (more or less) remake of their 1995 animated classic.

Turns out Disney fans really wanted to see a basically shot-for-shot remake of the film they watched to death on their clamshell VHS copy, as "The Lion King" grossed $543 million domestically and $1.6 billion worldwide, finishing second only to "Avengers: Endgame" for the year. It's easy to sing "Hakuna Matata" with numbers like that. Thirty-five percent of the film's gross came from its opening weekend, $191 million, showing "The Lion King" had fairly long legs (for a summer blockbuster, at least). However, "The Lion King" did topple down pride rock by 60% in its second weekend, earning $76 million, a drop-off of $115 million.

Following the so-so reception of 2013's "Man of Steel" and the record-breaking success of the rival MCU, Warner Bros. knew just what to do with their DC properties — have their two most popular characters try to kill each other ... for reasons. Oh, and then they stop trying to kill each other because their mothers are both named "Martha." Oh, and have Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, er, Lex Luthor blow up Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter with a jar of pee. Yeah, "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" was even clunkier than its title.

Which helps explain that while its opening weekend is not even close to being the highest on this list — $166 million — its second-weekend drop was one of the biggest. Word-of-mouth killed this movie faster than kryptonite, as it collapsed 69% to earn $51 million in its sophomore frame, a loss of $114 million. While fans were clamoring for WB to release the Zack Snyder Cut of "Justice League," we can kinda see why the studio was a bit nervous with the DCEU's direction following this film's reception. When a movie starring two of the most popular characters in pop culture history bombs worse than granny's peach tea, you know there's a problem.

The Harry Potter franchise is the highest-grossing film franchise based on books, topping even "The Lord of the Rings" with over $9.5 billion worldwide. Yes, there have been twice as many Potter films (including the "Fantastic Beasts" spinoffs) as Middle-Earth movies, but we digress. The biggest hit in the series is "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," which earned $1.3 billion worldwide, more than $363 million more than second-place finisher "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" 10 years before. Surprisingly, "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is also the only Harry Potter movie to top $1 billion.

"Deathly Hallows: Part 2" opened to $169 million, breaking the opening weekend record Warner Bros. had set three years before with "The Dark Knight" by about $10 million. However, unlike "The Dark Knight," which had famously long staying power, "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" suffered a deadly drop in its second weekend, earning only $47 million, a week-to-week fall of $122 million. As bad as that number is, its 72% drop tells the real story, as "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" had the biggest percentage drop on our list. Guess those teenagers who dressed up for the midnight showing didn't feel like coming back for seconds.

If 10 years ago you'd told us a Doctor Strange movie would out-earn Batman and Superman, we'd have thought you'd visited the multiverse of madness. But the post-"Avengers" MCU is truly a rising tide that lifts all ships. "Doctor Strange" opened in 2016 to $85 million, on its way to $232 million domestic and $676 million worldwide. Frankly, we would've thought that was the former C-list character's ceiling at the box office (actually, far above it). 

But the "Endgame" Effect elevated Doctor Strange to the upper tier, with 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" opening to $187 million, earning just $45 million less in one weekend than the first film earned in its entire run domestically. This also made it the biggest opening weekend (and biggest total gross) of director Sam Raimi's career, topping even the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy (inflation is crazy, but you probably knew that already). However, the true madness was just how far "Multiverse" fell in its second weekend. Its 67% drop was steeper than those of most MCU movies, earning $61 million, for a drop-off of about $126 million.

"Avengers: Infinity War" brought Earth's Mightiest Heroes back to their record-breaking ways, as the opening weekend record set by "The Avengers" in 2012 had been broken twice, first by "Jurassic World" and then by "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." The 2018 film earned a $257 million opening weekend and made it look like a "snap" (see what we did there?). While not quite "Top Gun: Maverick" in terms of summer staying power, "Avengers: Infinity War" did have some legs, dropping only 55.5% in its second weekend, lower than the MCU standard.

However, 55.5% of $257 million is $114 million, a drop-off of $143 million, one of the biggest on our list. While "Avengers: Infinity War" topped the year by about $700 million worldwide, on the domestic front victory belonged to "Black Panther." While "Black Panther" opened about $55 million less than "Avengers: Infinity War" (with a still incredible $202 million), thanks to its strong week-to-week holds, "Black Panther" actually topped the year domestically.

There's not much left to say about "Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi" that hasn't already been said, and honestly we don't want to wade into it anyway. We'll just say that while "The Last Jedi" had some of the best critical scores of the entire "Star Wars" saga, it also had the lowest audience scores for any live-action film in the series. Love it or hate it, moviegoers largely did not dig "The Last Jedi." This is reflected in the film's box office results as well. 

"Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens" was a highly popular legacy sequel that broke the opening weekend record in 2015 and still holds the record for biggest domestic gross of all time, with a $78 million lead we don't see going away anytime soon. Even with that momentum at its back, "The Last Jedi" opened to $220 million — the second highest-grossing opening ever at the time, after "The Force Awakens" — showing audience enthusiasm had died down a bit. But the real story came when it dropped 67.5% (a franchise high or, rather, low) to earn $71 million, dropping $149 million from its first weekend, likely due in no small part to some negative word of mouth and controversy from audiences.

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" became the "Avengers: Endgame" of the nine-film Spider-Man series, combining characters from every film, sans the animated "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." This isn't exactly a hot take, but Spider-Man is really popular, and bringing together all of the Spider-Men was bound to be a big deal. Even so, we didn't realize how big of a deal it was until the holiday season in 2021.

Proving that moviegoers weren't scared of the pandemic (they just weren't interested in most of the movies Hollywood released during the pandemic), "Spider-Man: No Way Home" earned $260 million opening in its opening weekend, becoming the second-biggest opening weekend of all time. However, the spider appeared to stumble in its sophomore frame, losing 67.5% of its audience for a $84 million second week, a huge loss of about $175 million. However, much like Spider-Man does in pretty much every movie, the wall-crawler recovered from the temporary setback and went on to score over an amazing $804 million domestic and over $1.9 billion worldwide, making "Spider-Man: No Way Home" the highest-grossing solo-superhero film of all time and the highest-grossing Spider-Man film by more than $753 million.

"Spider-Man" showed a movie could open above $100 million in 2002. "The Avengers" showed a movie could break $200 million in 2012. While three films broke that record over the next six years, surely $300 million was the ceiling, right? Yeah, right. There's no such thing as hyperbole when describing the opening weekend of "Avengers Endgame." With $357 million, "Avengers Endgame" earned $100 million more than previous record holder "Avengers: Infinity War." Let that sink in for a sec.

Despite massive up-front demand, its 58.7% drop was typical for the MCU, leading to a $147 million second weekend, the second-best sophomore frame in history. As impressive as that was, it was still a drop of $210 million, meaning "Avengers: Endgame" dropped more week-to-week than the $207 million record-setting opening of "The Avengers" in 2012. Not that we're knocking "Avengers: Endgame." It's just that the sometimes-highest-grossing movie ever is also the leading member of the $100 million losers club.