July 2011: The Highest Grossing Single Month At The Domestic Box Office Of All-Time
The box office has always been unpredictable, with movies that seemed destined to become huge successes bombing, and unexpected films pulling through to become hits. Despite 2024’s successes, the box office as a whole is still significantly reduced when compared to pre-pandemic numbers. However, one month in particular made history, and its level of success hasn’t been repeated since.
July 2011 holds the record for the highest grossing single month at the domestic box office, with a total of around $1.394 billion. The month was filled with highly anticipated and well-liked movies, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Captain America: The First Avenger. These franchise films were the backbone of the month’s success, with each earning over $100 million at the domestic box office.
Other successful films in July 2011 included Horrible Bosses, Cars 2, and Zookeeper, which collectively added to the month’s total. The month’s success can be attributed to the fact that streaming services like Netflix were not yet as dominant, giving a wider breadth of movies a chance to become successful at the box office.
Since July 2011, there have been several attempts to break the record, including December 2017, which came close with a total of $1.325 billion. While Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle were huge hits, they were not enough to surpass July 2011’s record.
It remains to be seen if the box office will ever see a month like July 2011 again, but for now, it remains the highest grossing single month at the domestic box office of all time.
