Godzilla vs. Kong, Tenet top pandemic box office: Here are the highest-grossing movies of the COVID era

With millions of COVID-19 vaccinations administered in the U.S. so far, movie theaters around the country have slowly begun pumping life back into the domestic box office.

Among the top 30 highest-grossing movies between March 2020 and May 2021 are the usual suspects: Titanic action flicks like Tenet and Godzilla vs. Kong, comic book spectacles like Wonder Woman 1984, and animated comedies like The Croods: A New Age. But Hollywood is still recovering from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused nearly 12 months of theater closures and billions of dollars in lost ticket sales. In fact, it marked the first yearlong stretch in nearly five decades in which no studio film grossed more than $59 million.

The downturn (coupled with audience tastes shifting to more midrange films in addition to tried-and-true blockbuster titles) has forced the industry to "recalibrate and re-evaluate" what defines success, according to Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian, with pandemic-era box office trends shutting some major doors while opening others.

As theatrical limitations curbed the number of people who could actually see a movie in theaters throughout 2020, most people, understandably, stuck with the action tentpoles and family-friendly fare they're used to, but fewer major releases also allowed moderately budgeted, adult-oriented titles like Unhinged, The Little Things, The Marksman, Honest Thief, News of the World, Let Him Go, and last week's Nobody — which jumped to the No. 18 spot of the last year after only three days in wide release — to squeak into the top 20 in an unorthodox market that probably would've shut them out across any other stretch.

"In the early stages of the pandemic when brick-and-mortar theaters were sidelined, consumers were drawn to the good old-fashioned experience of the drive-in movie theater and older, classic films became part of a nostalgia-based wave of consumption that allowed movie fans to get their big screen fix," Dergarabedian adds.

When it came to new titles, family films "became a dominant force" both at theaters and at home, with films like The Croods 2, Tom & Jerry, and Raya and the Last Dragon all posting sturdy numbers at the box office and healthy streams on digital platforms.

While 2021 likely won't catch up to pre-COVID levels of theatrical attendance, Dergarabedian is hopeful that 2022 "will be the year that tells us if there will be the potential for a return to the pre-pandemic levels of movie theater revenues" and, on a more serious note, "moviegoer enthusiasm" for what studios are throwing weight behind in the first place.

"Given the historic resilience of the movie theater, I would not bet against the chance for this important side of the business to return to revenue-generating greatness," he says. "But, like a great Hollywood movie, this is a cliffhanger that has the entire industry on the edge of its seat."

See the top 30 highest-grossing movies of the COVID-19 pandemic era below (last updated April 30, 2021, with numbers from Comscore).

1. Godzilla vs. Kong — $86.7 million
2. Tenet — $58.5 million
3. The Croods: A New Age — $57.4 million
4. Wonder Woman 1984 — $46.4 million
5. Tom & Jerry — $43.5 million
6. Raya and the Last Dragon — $40.1 million
7. The New Mutants — $23.9 million
8. Mortal Kombat — $23.3 million
9. Nobody — $22.1 million
10. Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train — $21.1 million
11. The War With Grandpa — $21.2 million
12. Unhinged — $19.8 million
13. The Marksman — $15.6 million
14. The Little Things — $15.2 million
15. Monster Hunter — $15.1 million
16. Honest Thief — $13.7 million
17. Chaos Walking — $13.2 million
18. News of the World — $12.7 million
19. The Unholy — $12 million
20. Come Play — $10.5 million
21. Let Him Go — $9.4 million
22. Freaky — $9 million
23. Promising Young Woman — $6.5 million
24. Fatale — $6.3 million
25. The Courier — $6.1 million
26. Trolls World Tour — $5.9 million
27. Jurassic Park — $5.8 million
28. The Invisible Man — $5.5 million
29. Judas and the Black Messiah — $5.4 million
30. The Goonies — $4.4 million

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best films.

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