The box office champions of 1990, ranked by worldwide gross. Ghost led the year, Home Alone became a Christmas institution, and Dances With Wolves swept the Oscars.
The full ranking
The box office champions of 1990, ranked by worldwide gross. Ghost led the year, Home Alone became a Christmas institution, and Dances With Wolves swept the Oscars.
Ghost
Jerry Zucker's supernatural romance was the year's worldwide box office champion at over $500 million, with Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and a pottery wheel scene that became instant pop-culture shorthand. Whoopi Goldberg won the Oscar for her turn as reluctant psychic Oda Mae Brown.
Home Alone
Chris Columbus directed John Hughes's script into a Christmas institution, with Macaulay Culkin's Kevin defending the house against the Wet Bandits to the tune of roughly $476 million worldwide. It reigned for years as the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever made.
Pretty Woman
Garry Marshall's Cinderella story took in about $463 million worldwide and made Julia Roberts the biggest star of the decade. Richard Gere, a Hollywood Boulevard meet-cute, and one of the most rewatched romantic comedies ever released.
Dances with Wolves
Kevin Costner's directorial debut, a three-hour frontier epic largely subtitled in Lakota, grossed over $420 million worldwide and swept the Oscars with seven wins including Best Picture and Best Director.
Total Recall
Paul Verhoeven sent Schwarzenegger to Mars in one of the most expensive films made to that point, earning about $261 million worldwide. Its effects won a Special Achievement Academy Award.
Back to the Future Part III
The trilogy's Old West finale shot back-to-back with Part II and closed the saga with about $245 million worldwide. Doc Brown finally gets the love story, and the DeLorean gives way to a time-traveling locomotive.
Die Hard 2
Renny Harlin moved John McClane's one-bad-night formula to a snowbound Dulles airport, and audiences bought in to the tune of roughly $240 million worldwide, outgrossing the original.
Presumed Innocent
Alan J. Pakula's adaptation of Scott Turow's courtroom bestseller starred Harrison Ford as a prosecutor accused of murdering his colleague. A slow-burn legal thriller that earned over $220 million worldwide.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The live-action Turtles movie, made independently with Jim Henson's Creature Shop suits, grossed around $200 million worldwide and stood for years as the highest-grossing independent film ever released.
Kindergarten Cop
Ivan Reitman paired Schwarzenegger with a room of five-year-olds and a tumor line destined for immortality. The fish-out-of-water comedy earned about $200 million worldwide.
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