The Top 10 Virus Outbreak and Pandemic Films Ranked by Box Office

The Top 10 Virus Outbreak and Pandemic Films by Box Office

Some people are bingeing comedies and others are enjoying rom-coms during the Covid-19 outbreak, but if being smack in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic makes you want to watch movies about, well, pandemics, you have a lot to choose from.

Top Ten Virus / Outbreak Films

10. Resident Evil (franchise)

Based off of the extremely popular video game of the same name, this $1.233 billion box office franchise includes six films. The premise is the commando team must break into an underground laboratory where a deadly virus has been unleased. The virus kills the lab’s personnel and they become Un-dead. The commando team has a few hours to shut down the supercomputer before the virus takes over the earth.  The franchise stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, and Michelle Rodriguez. The franchise isn’t quite award-winning for its writing, but right now if you’re looking for a mind-numbing action movie, you’ve come to the right place.

9. The Andromeda Strain

Based on the 1969 of the same name by Michael Crichton’s the film stars Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne. The movie centers around scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin. It was the 16th highest-grossing film of 1971 and was nominated for two Academy Awards: one for Best Art Direction and the other for Best Film Editing. It grossed $12.4 million.

8. Virus

Jamie Lee Curtis knows how to make us scream because she’s a leader in the field (she is a scream queen — see Halloween). In this movie, Virus, an alien begins killing off a crew that is lead by Robert Everton, played by Donald Sutherland and you can just tell how intense this movie is by Curtis’ look in that photo. The movie, which debuted in 1999, earned $30.7 million at the box office.

7. 28 Days Later

Oh, sadly the chimps get all the blame in this 2003 movie, but blame the animal rights activists who released a caged chimp who was infected with a virus. A bike courier (played by (Cillian Murphy) is infected and wakes up after a month-long coma to a deserted city and a bunch of zombies. He finds more survivors and they try to figure out exactly what’s happening and how they can make it end. The movie earned $82.7 million at the box office.

6. Train to Busan

This 2016 South Korean horror film takes place on, of course, a train to Busan. It’s a zombie apocalypse. According to the background of the movie, the film was a reunion for Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi, who both starred in the 2011 film The Crucible. The film was incredibly successful, grossing $98.5 million worldwide.

5. Contagion

Contagion has a huge cast of actors, including Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle, and Sanaa Lathan. This one is probably too close for comfort, but there is a disease that turns into a pandemic and now they need to find a vaccine to stop it. It’s directed by Steven Soderbergh, who also directed Erin Brockovich, Magic Mike, and the Ocean’s franchise. The Contagion blockbuster movie, which came out in 2011, grossed $135.5 million.

4. Twelve Monkeys

Twelve little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and, no, wait. That’s not these Twelve Monkeys. In 1995, this American science fiction film, which was directed by Terry Gilliam and stars Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, grossed $57.1 million. The film was released to critical praise and grossed $168.8 million worldwide. Brad Pitt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. 

The premise of the movie is  about a deadly virus that wipes out almost all of humanity and whoever is left goes underground. Time travel is involved as a prisoner is trained to go back in time and find the original virus to develop a cure.

3. Outbreak

The 1995 film Outbreak was based on Richard Preston’s book, The Hot Zone. iIs powerful cast includes Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kevin Spacey and Patrick Dempsey. There is an outbreak of a fictional Ebola-like virus that comes to the United States. Ironically, there was a real-life Ebola outbreak at the time the movie was being filmed. The movie grossed $189.8 million at the box office. 

2. World War Z
Max Brooks wrote World War Z and it came out in 2006. This blockbuster action movie which stars Brad Pit as Gerry Lane came out in 2013 American and grossed an incredible $540 million. It’s considered an apocalyptic action horror film and Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a United Nations investigator who must stop a zombie pandemic.

1. I Am Legend
In case you didn’t know, this 2007 movie is based on a novel by Richard Matheson, but it’s not the first adaptation. The first one starred the king of creepy, Vincent Price, and was 1964’s The Last Man. The second one was in 1971 and it’s The Omega Man. Will Smith’s film made $585.3 million. You can always watch all three during your quarantine. Picture it — New York City and there’s a virus which didn’t cure cancer, but did wipe out so many people. Will Smith’s character is immune to it and now needs to try and develop a cure. Maybe we just need Will Smith right now.

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