5. War of the Worlds (2005)
$603.9 million
War of the Worlds grossed $603.9 million out of $132 million Budget.
Plot:
An opening narration explains that Earth was being observed by extraterrestrials with immense intelligence and no compassion: “As man dominated the world, without a doubt, much in the way microorganisms swarm in a drop of water, these beings plotted to take it all from them.”
Divorced longshoreman Ray Ferrier works as a crane operator at a dock in Brooklyn, New York, and is estranged from his children: 10-year-old daughter Rachel, and teenage son Robbie. Ray’s pregnant former wife, Mary Ann, drops the two off at his house in Bayonne, New Jersey on her way to visit her parents in Boston. Later, a strange storm occurs during which lightning strikes multiple times into the middle of a nearby intersection, causing an EMP that instantly fries almost all electronic devices. Ray reluctantly joins the crowd at the scene of the impacts, where a massive “tripod” war machine emerges from the ground and uses powerful energy weapons to destroy the area, disintegrating most of the witnesses into gray ash.