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For Hollywood studios, summer movie season is huge — 40 percent of the year’s box office receipts come in during the warm months. And no one in film history has deliverd the summer movie goods better than Harrison Ford. All told, the actor's summer movies (for the purposes of this list, films released between May and August) have reeled in more than $3 billion at the U.S. box office.
From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, in fact, a Harrison Ford summer hit was as predictable as fireworks on the Fourth of July. Though the dawn of the new millennium brought a temporary drop in his summertime star power, lately he's come roaring back — 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ranks as his highest-grossing movie ever, bringing in $317 million at the U.S. box office. And this July, he returns to his favorite season with a featured role in Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens. Had another actor agreed to take part in the sci-fi/western mashup, the idea might sound positively wacky. With Ford, it sounds more like a sure thing (actually, it still sounds wacky — but cool wacky).
Unlike some summer hits — brainless confections that disappear from the memory as soon as the credits roll — Ford's films more often than not match their box office receipts with quality. Five of the movies on this list garnered Oscar nominations for Best Picture, and when the American Film Institute ranked the top 50 movie heroes of all time in 2003, two of Ford's characters were near the top of the list: Han Solo at No. 14, and Indiana Jones at No. 2.
Harrison Ford as Han Solo in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
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Lucasfilm Ltd./ Everett / Everett Collection
Star Wars (original trilogy)
Released: Episode IV: A New Hope (1977); Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980); Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
U.S. box office gross (cumulative): $1.05 billion
Ford’s casting as cocky Millennium Falcon pilot Han Solo in the most successful movie franchise of all time is the stuff of Hollywood legend. By the mid-1970s, he had all but given up on an acting career and was relying on his carpentry skills to make a living in Los Angeles. One of his jobs was to build a portico at Francis Ford Coppola’s office, where George Lucas was holding auditions for Star Wars. Lucas and Coppola asked Ford to stand in and read lines with the actors trying out for various roles— and the director soon realized that his perfect Han Solo was the guy with the hammer.
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
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Paramount/Everett Collection
Indiana Jones franchise
Released: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981); Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984); Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989); Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
U.S. box office gross (cumulative): $936.5 million
What began as a fairly simple idea drawn up by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg — to reinvent the adventure serials of their youth for a modern audience — blossomed into one of Hollywood’s most lucrative and beloved franchises of all time The first three films were huge hits in the 1980s. Then, after a nearly 20 year hiatus, the series roared back to life three years ago with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Though some hardcore fans weren’t happy with the movie, it became the most financially successful film in the series. A fifth movie is reportedly now in the works.
It’s hard to imagine the movies being as popular without Ford, but the actor’s iconic characterization of the daring archaeologist almost didn’t happen: Originally, director Spielberg offered the Indy role to Tom Selleck, who had to demur because of his TV commitments to “Magnum, P.I.” What did Selleck miss out on? “Fortune and glory, kid,” as Indy says in Temple of Doom. “Fortune and glory.”
Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger
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Paramount/ Everett Collection
Jack Ryan franchise
Released: Patriot Games (1992); Clear and Present Danger (1994)
U.S. box office gross (cumulative): $205.5 million
Though Ford is probably the actor most closely associated with Jack Ryan, he’s only one of three actors to play author Tom Clancy’s durable Cold War hero. Alec Baldwin originated the role in 1989’s The Hunt for Red October , but when Baldwin opted out of a sequel, Ford stepped in for 1992’s Patriot Games. Two years later, he reprised Ryan in Clear and Present Danger, which still ranks as the most successful of the now-dormant Ryan franchise, bringing in a hefty $122.2 million in the U.S. The third actor to slip into the CIA agent’s suit? Ben Affleck, in 2002’s The Sum of all Fears.
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