5 Biggest Thursday Night Preview Grosses In Box Office History, Ranked

If you want to see the hottest new theatrical release as soon as possible, you don't have to wait for its opening day on Friday in North America. Instead, movie studios have taken to launching films with Thursday screenings that keep starting earlier and earlier in the day. While "Iron Man 3," for instance, launched at 9:00 p.m. during its 2013 Thursday night shows, July 2026's "Spider-Man: No Way Home" began its Thursday showings at noon. Whenever these Thursday showings start, the money made at them are then then rolled into the film's Friday-to-Sunday opening weekend hauls. Thursday screenings can provide a major box office boost in this regard.

Given how important these showings have become for Hollywood, it's well worth checking out the highest grossing Thursday pre-opening box office numbers in history. While fun facts like the world's biggest movies ever at the box office are more commonly known, data surrounding Thursday screening grosses is a lot harder to come by. That makes it extra important to break down the five biggest Thursday/midnight screening box office hauls of all time, ranked in ascending order. 

This provides not only a fascinating look into the theatrical runs of some of the biggest films of all time, but a snapshot of what kind of movies people rush out to see as quickly as possible — making these the first box office achievements of movies that took the world by storm.

After the horrors of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting, Hollywood studios immediately began moving back the very first showtimes for new release movies. For decades, new titles like "The Avengers" and "Jurassic Park" would start screening at 12:01 a.m. on Friday. After July 2012's tragedy, studios began starting these screenings earlier on Thursday. Today, these showings can start as early as noon. This practice has ensured that films have more showtimes at their disposal and, by proxy, can make more money during their Thursday night preview period. However, one pre-2012 film adhering to the classic midnight screening rule still looms over almost all other movies in the Thursday night preview box office game.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2," the finale featuring some of the most heartbreaking moments in the "Harry Potter" franchise, grossed a massive $43.5 million from its midnight showings. Up to this point, no title had made more than $30.3 million at midnight screenings (let alone cleared the $40 million mark), so these figures were jaw-dropping. Inevitably, given that this was a fans-only affair and opening in the summertime meant more younger audiences could immediately see it at midnight, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2" was a frontloaded affair, earning more than 25% of its $169 million opening weekend sum from these midnight showings.

Given that this was the biggest domestic bow ever at that point, nobody was Warner Bros. was complaining about this massive haul.

"Star Wars" fans love to see these installments on the big screen as soon as possible. Back in 2005, "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" grossed a gargantuan $16.5 million at midnight screenings as fans scrambled to be the first to see Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader. "Sith" became the first movie to make $10+ million at midnight/Thursday preview screenings. Inevitably, 12 years after "Sith" obliterated box office norms, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" kicked off its domestic run with a whopping $45 million from Thursday night showings.  

This figure meant that, at the time "The Last Jedi" debuted, the two biggest Thursday night screening hauls in history belonged to the first two Sequel Trilogy installments. That $45 million sum was just the start of the positive box office news for "Star Wars: Episode VIII," as "The Last Jedi" went on to score the second biggest domestic opening weekend ever ($220 million) at the time of its release. As a cherry on top, its opening weekend did roughly 4.9 times its Thursday box office gross. Fans were eager to see "The Last Jedi" ASAP, but they weren't the only ones yearning to witness Rey's next adventure. General audiences still came out in droves throughout the remainder of the weekend.

Eventually, "The Last Jedi" amassed $620.2 million domestically, a hearty lifetime gross worthy of the towering "Star Wars" box office legacy.

For most of 2021, the question of "can the movies come back?" was still in doubt. "Godzilla vs. Kong" had gotten the ball rolling for major theatrical releases in March 2021, but for the rest of the year, Hollywood's commitment to the big screen materialized only intermittently. There were often weeks devoid of any new theatrical titles as studios grew wary of launching a potential box office disaster during a vulnerable time for the theatrical exhibition industry. But then Spider-Man swooped into the final weeks of 2021 and gave the box office a massive jolt of life with "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

Any worries that gargantuan audience numbers for titles like "No Way Home" were impossible to replicate in the 2020s were immediately annihilated by this title's Thursday night grosses. Earning $50 million from these screenings, audiences showed up in droves for a superhero movie like it was still May 2018. But the box office journey of "No Way Home" was just getting started. Since the film launched days before Christmas, it legged out during the entire holiday season like past December smashes "Avatar," "Titanic," and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

When ranking "Spider-Man" movies by how much they made at the box office, "No Way Home" is the clear winner to date with an $814.8 million domestic cume. December and January legs helped mightily, but those staggering Thursday box office numbers solidified "No Way Home" (which currently remains the biggest movie of the 2020s domestically) as a box office behemoth.

It's easy to forget now, given the deluge of low-rated "Star Wars" streaming shows and films like "The Mandalorian and Grogu" becoming a box office failure, but the pre-release brouhaha behind "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was like few other events in the history of cinema. Anticipation was everywhere. People were poring over every frame of the trailers and TV spots for clues as to what the film's plot would be. "Saturday Night Live" was delivering constant "Force Awakens" sketches for an entire year before the film even debuted. A proper sequel to "Return of the Jedi" that finally brought back beloved characters like Han Solo and Leia Organa was a monumental event in cinema history.

Naturally, box office records tumbled the moment "Star Wars" returned to theaters. That included its gargantuan $57 million Thursday night grosses, which left all prior Thursday/midnight screening box office hauls in the dust. Just from Thursday night numbers alone, "The Force Awakens" surpassed the lifetime domestic grosses of other 2015 titles like "Fantastic Four," "Jupiter Ascending," and "Focus," among many others. That $57 million sum eventually led to a $247.1 million domestic bow, the biggest North American opening ever at that point.

All the "Force Awakens" hype inspired not only imposing Thursday night returns for "The Force Awakens," but also its impressive lifetime domestic cume. "The Force Awakens" grossed $936.7 million in North America, which still remains the biggest domestic total ever (not adjusted for inflation). 

Somehow, "Avengers: Endgame" managed to live up to the hype. The film was preceded by so much speculation and excitement that it would be easy to imagine the whole endeavor culminating in a boondoggle that left fans frustrated. Instead, once it hit theaters, "Endgame" inspired tremendous positive reactions. Years after its debut, the most paused moments in "Avengers: Endgame" still get people talking and impassioned. The momentousness of this production was glaringly apparent from the moment "Avengers: Endgame" started playing in theaters and people began showing up in hordes to witness its spectacle.

During Thursday night showings, "Avengers: Endgame" grossed a massive $60 million, dethroning "The Force Awakens" for the biggest Thursday night box office haul in history. Just a year earlier, "Avengers: Infinity War" had grossed $39 million from Thursday night showings. That meant "Endgame" improved roughly 55% on its predecessor's Thursday night haul. These numbers were nothing short of madness and eventually led to a $357.1 million domestic bow. This didn't just set the domestic opening weekend record: "Endgame" also managed to do nearly six times its Thursday screening numbers through its entire North American debut, a figure reflecting how the film wasn't tremendously frontloaded despite its massive numbers.

With this box office feat, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's grand end to an era got to make box office history. Just 14 years after "Revenge of the Sith" made $16.5 million at midnight showings, "Endgame" had taken these grosses to another level.