These blockbuster movies with bummer endings undercut the notion that audiences want to leave the theater beaming.
At least in the case of these five hits, audiences proved themselves quite capable of handling some harsh outcomes.
In fact, some of the biggest hits in movie history have some of the saddest endings.
5 — Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
One of our favorite Star Wars movies ends with the word “hope,” spoken by one of the most beloved figures in the entire galaxy far, far away. But before we get to that moment, we see some grim stuff.
This prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope earned over a billion at the global box office — the fourth-highest of any Star Wars movie. It’s also No. 51 in all-time worldwide grosses.
The Bummer Ending (Spoiler): Rogue One follows a ragtag team working together to acquire plans that reveal a major flaw in the Empire’s ultimate weapon, The Death Star. The entire team dies for the mission. In the almost-final moments of Rogue One, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) heroically transmits the plans to the Rebellion, but moments later, both she and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) are vaporized on a beach in a tragic embrace. Not the worst way to go, honestly.
4 — Spider-Man: No Way Home
No Way Home is an ecstatic joy ride for much of its running time — we get to see the current Spidey, played by Tom Holland, team up with former Spider-Men Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire for an all-out battle with villains included the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), Electro (Jamie Foxx), the Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). It’s a Spidey fan’s dream.
The film earned $1.9 billion at the global box office, the second most of any Spider-Man movie. (The latest film in the saga, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, beat it with $2.5 billion.) Still, No Way Home is No. 9 in worldwide box office.
The Bummer Ending: The first major bummer in No Way Home comes with the death of the beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). But that tragedy is compounded by a different kind of heartbreak. In order to return all the characters to their respective places in the multiverse, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) casts a spell that also makes Mary Jane (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) forget Peter. This leaves him adrift, without his aunt, girlfriend or best friend to rely on.
3 — Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War finds all of the Avengers — as well as Spider-Man, Black Panther, and many more — teaming up to battle Thanos as the Mad Titan tries to assemble the five Infinity stones that will seemingly render him unstoppable.
Seeing all those heroes in one place helped lure audiences aplenty, and Infinity War earned $2.1 billion at the global box office — more than any Avengers film except one. Infinity War is No. 8 at the worldwide box office.
The Bummer Ending: After a massive standoff between the good guys and the bad guys, Thanos simply snaps his fingers and eliminates half of all people on Earth — and even some earthlings out in space. Many of our favorite characters, including Spider-Man, simply turn to dust. And that’s it. That’s the ending.
By the Way
We’re gathering all the box office numbers in this story from Box Office Mojo, a site we highly recommend for Hollywood financials. Also, please note that these numbers are not adjusted for inflation; if you care about that, we recommend this list.
Whether something is a bummer or not is kind of subjective, we suppose.
So we’re just going by how we and our friends felt walking out of the theater, and by the general sense we got from the audience.
2 — Titanic
Everyone knew, going in, that the love story of Jack and Rose (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett), passengers upon a famously doomed vessel, was not going to end well for everyone. The big question was whether our star-crossed lovers would make it out alive.
For a while, Titanic was the highest grossing movie of all time. It eventually lost that place to other films. But Titanic director James Cameron can take solace in the fact that he directed two of them, Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water. As it stands, Titanic remains the No. 6 movie in worldwide box office, with $2.3 billion.
The Bummer Ending: Rose lives; Jack dies. Could she have made room for him on that door? Audiences have been debating it ever since. But please bear in mind that weight is also a thing, and the door might very well have sunk if burdened with a second body.
1 — Avengers: Endgame
Set (mostly) five years after Infinity War, Endgame finds the surviving Avengers banding together to try to undo Thanos’ snap through the magic of time travel.
Thanks in part to the huge cliffhanger of Infinity War — and more than a decade of setup in other movies — Endgame was a must-see movie that tied up almost every thread in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That led to $2.9 billion in worldwide box office, the biggest worldwide box office haul of any movie ever.
The Bummer Ending: Maybe you think Avengers: Endgame has a happy ending, given that most of our friends come back to life, and the good guys win. But still, the win comes at a tremendous cost. Many lives have been destroyed or greatly complicated by the five-year disappearance of half of all humans. And defeating Thanos means the deaths of both Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.)
More on the Bummer Ending of Avengers: Endgame
Now of course we know that in super hero movies, dead people tend not to stay dead. But both Black Widow and Iron Man have remained dead, for seven years now, an eternity in franchise time. Robert Downey Jr. returns this December in Avengers: Doomsday, but in a different role, Doctor Doom.
And Johansson’s Black Widow seems to be gone for real (though she came back in a solo film set before the events of Endgame). The new Black Widow (Florence Pugh) seems to now be the Black Widow of record.
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