The Top 10 Highest-Grossing R-Rated Movies Of All Time

While no film wants to be at the bottom of any list, Detective Chinatown 3 is at least in great company as the tenth-highest grossing R-rated film of all time. The third entry in the comedy-mystery series, the film brings brilliant Qin Feng and his crooked uncle Tang Ren to Tokyo just in time for another mystery to solve.

While the film series hasn’t exactly blown up in western markets, the movie’s success in China—to the tune of $686 million at the box office—makes it one of the best releases for any film in the region and an ideal pick for audiences looking for a wacky-ish mystery that does something similar to the tone of Knives Out (2019) or Poker Face (2023).

One of the highest-grossing horror films of all time, the 2017 adaptation of It stands out as the only horror film in the current top-ten grossing R-rated films of all time. The first half of Stephen King’s iconic story about a group of pre-teens who find themselves the target of an immortal killer drawn to children and trauma, It earned a staggering $704 million at the box office.

Although It: Chapter 2 (2019) wasn’t able to achieve the same level of success, the impact of this horror film—especially coming out so close to the similarly nostalgic Stranger Things (2016)—helped bring Stephen King back to the silver screen in a major way. Even compared to other hit horror films, It stands out as the best example of the potential of Pennywise.

Following up on the groundbreaking success of The Matrix (1999) was always going to be tricky. While the two sequels may have suffered critically compared to the original, the cultural footprint of that first film helped set up the immediate follow-up for massive success.

Returning to Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity as they continue to try and bring down the Machines, The Matrix Reloaded did terrific work building on the surprise success of the first one to earn $741 million at the global box office. Unfortunately, the muddled plot and lackluster response from both fans and critics hurt the box office of the follow-up, The Matrix Revolutions (2003), but that film still managed a solid showing at the box office, even if it couldn’t join this list.

Deadpool broke ground as an R-rated superhero film in a genre that often leans more into films that are broadly appealing, proving there was an appetite for comedic superheroes and R-rated takes on the genre alike.

A passion project of Ryan Reynolds that refused to die even after the character was infamously mishandled in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Deadpool was a lean and mean comedy that found the right balance between poking fun at the genre as well as living up to it in a very coarse take. Earning $782 million at the box office, Deadpool remains one of the most profitable superhero movies ever, considering the minuscule budget it had for production. It also helped lay the groundwork for Deadpool to become one of the most financially successful superheroes at the box office.

Deadpool 2 took everything good about the first film and amplified it, leaning both into the chaotic comedy of the first film—X-Force, anyone?—as well as amplifying the action and emotion to great effect. The result was a sequel that genuinely surpassed the original in several metrics, even at the box office.

The film ended up making $785 million at the box office, slightly surpassing the original and proving that the Merc with a Mouth had real staying power as a self-aware riff on the superhero genre. While that result may not have had the massive payoff of the first film given the larger budget and greater ambition, the movie was a better critical hit that managed to prove Wade Wilson’s brand of humor could expand to other characters like Domino and Cable.

Part of the larger Demon Slayer franchise, Demon Slayer The Movie: Infinity Castle is the biggest reminder that anime has really expanded to hit broader audiences. The popularity of the source material helped ensure that the film was a massive hit, even with an R-rating keeping younger audiences from coming out for the movie.

The film serves as a direct sequel to the fourth season of the anime adaptation of Demon Slayer, making it a genuine event for fans of the franchise. The global spread of anime and the popularity of the source material ensured it was a massive hit, garnering $793 million at the box office and ensuring that Western film studios can no longer deny the appeal of anime as a theater draw.

Christopher Nolan has cemented himself as one of modern cinema’s most important and popular directors, with movies like The Dark Knight (2008) and Inception (2010) immortalizing him to generations of film fans. However, it was his historical biopic Oppenheimer that finally won him attention from the Academy Awards, as well as earning a massive amount of money for a biopic about the man who led the development of the nuclear bomb during World War II.

A painfully emotional (even while purposefully restrained) film, Oppenheimer had the additional bonus of coming out alongside Barbie (2023), the unlikely double feature becoming a cultural milestone. Oppenheimer's $983 million box office draw helped ensure that the film stood out even among Nolan’s other big hits, even if his next film surpassed it.

A flashpoint of controversy and an audacious experiment, Joker remains one of the most surprisingly effective superhero movies of all time. The film, a grounded reimagining of the character that takes more cues from Taxi Driver (1976) than Batman (1989), Joker is a raw movie about stunted rage, with a meaningfully murky presentation that reflects the nature of the agent of chaos that is the Joker.

The film focuses on a somber and lonely wannabe comedian whose breaking sanity leads to him becoming an unlikely icon for the disenfranchised people of Gotham, even as his mind crumbles. Earning $1.07 billion at the box office, Joker was a wild experiment that connected with audiences in a way the much maligned sequel Joker: Folie a Deux (2024) really didn't.

The third entry in the Deadpool series—and the movie that helped really cement Wade Wilson as one of cinema’s most unexpected success stories—Deadpool & Wolverine is a love letter to Marvel as much as it is a crank call.

Focusing on a dimension-hopping Deadpool and a morose riff on Wolverine, Deadpool & Wolverine served as something of a rejuvenating boost for the MCU during a lull period, paying tribute to the past Marvel movies from Fox Studios while also riffing on those elements to a delightfully crass effect. The result? A massive success to the tune of $1.3 billion at the box office, the movie also benefited from bringing back Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, who was more or less sundowned following the events of Logan (2017), bringing him back just in time for the multiversal story of Avengers: Doomsday (2026).

Christopher Nolan’s epic fantasy was one of 2026’s most anticipated films, and it did not disappoint. The adaptation of the epic poem follows Odysseus on his travels back to Ithaca after the Trojan War. The movie has become one of the most impressive releases of the 21st century, surpassing $1.4 billion at the box office just at the time of writing.

In part bolstered by the IMAX presentation, that record number speaks to something that other IMAX-assisted releases like Dune (2021) couldn’t quite match. Nolan has become one of cinema’s most important names and faces, so his great take on a foundational epic was always going to be a big hit. Despite some vocal critics trying to claim the movie was going to bomb, it has since become the most profitable R-rated movie at the box office in cinema history.