Subtitles had, for a long time, been considered the barrier that kept Hollywood apart from the rest of the world. However, this stereotype is finally dead. Foreign-language films are now attracting the American audience in large numbers, be it watching French romance, holding the breath while watching a Spanish-language fairy tale, or being amazed at the martial arts heroes who defy physics.
These foreign-language blockbusters not only went beyond international borders but also established new rules for foreign-language films in the U.S. So, relax, turn the subtitles on, and let’s start counting down the top ten foreign-language box office successes in the U.S., starting from the bottom for added tension.
10. Il Postino (The Postman)
Italian movies are usually full of raw and strong emotions, and Il Postino is no different. The movie tells the story of a shy postal carrier who, meeting poet Pablo Neruda, embarks on a journey of self-discovery through the power of words. The romance and bittersweet magic that the film conveys to the American viewers got them to fall in love with it and take its box office to $21.8 million. A perfect example that love, poetry, and yearning are universal languages that the entire world can learn from.
9. Fearless
Jet Li was not only an action hero but also a cultural one. In Fearless, he revived the legend of the historic martial artist Huo Yuanjia, combining the great fight scenes with the teaching of pride, honor, and redemption through one-on-one lessons. Viewers in the U.S. embraced this atomic mixture of warmth and combat in the air, catapulting the movie to a domestic total of $24.6 million. There are hardly any films that can so effectively combine fighting with emotions as this one.
8. Amélie
It would be Amélie, the movie, to be the first one to show that whimsy is anything but an international unknown. The way Audrey Tautou plays the odd and Parisian waitress with a peculiar talent to disrupt people’s lives made her character win over hearts (and not only French ones, but those of the U.S. too) With its ethereal cinematography and soft-spoken fairy tale, the picture made a total of $33.2 million in theaters across the U.S. Nowadays, Amélie is not just one of the greatest French movies it’s a global feel-good icon.
7. Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo Del Toro made it a point for the world not to miss the fact that fairy tales are scary as much as they are beautiful. With Pan’s Labyrinth, the director plunged the spectators into a confusing post–Civil War Spain where mythical creatures and brutal death were the same. Its haunting imagery and profuse allegory racked up $37.6 million at the American box office, reinforcing del Toro as a dark fantasy master. The number of foreign-language films that are so sad and beautiful is very few.
6. Instructions Not Included
The opening of Eugenio Derbez’s Instructions Not Included comedy-drama in American theaters was a word-of-mouth phenomenon that spread overnight. Instructions Not Included, telling the story of a Playboy who turns out to be a father, was the kind of movie to make the audience simultaneously laugh and cry. Making $44.4 million, the movie became the highest-grossing Spanish-language film in U.S. history. Besides being a surprise blockbuster, it was a sign for Latino audiences and the rest of the world that authentic storytelling still reigns.
5. Parasite
Parasite, Bong Joon-ho’s film, wasn’t just a box office hit. It was a cultural bell that woke up the audience from its slumber. It racked up $53.3 million in the US, smashing per-theater records, and showing that films with subtitles can stir debates among the masses. And the Oscars breaking records, including the Best Picture award, were there as well. Bong himself puts it simply: after you bypass “the one-inch barrier of subtitles,” a world of cinema is waiting.
4. Hero
A big martial arts epic with a Rashomon-style plot, Zhang Yimou’s Hero knocked America out with its beautiful visuals and A-list stars. Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, and Zhang Ziyi delivered performances as lavish as the film’s action scenes. It went on to gross $53.7 million in the U.S.—and became the very first Chinese-language film ever to open at number one in the American box office. Poetry, politics, and sword fights were an unbeatable draw.
3. Godzilla Minus One
Just when you thought Godzilla had experienced everything, Godzilla Minus One stormed U.S. theaters and shattered box office records. With Oscar-winning effects and a gripping postwar story, Takashi Yamazaki’s monster film became the top-grossing Japanese live-action feature in the United States, earning $56.4 million. A subsequent re-release put it even further up the list, nearly unseating the next film on our list. Evidently, America can’t have too much of that kaiju mayhem.
2. Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni was a tough one to forget. It was a film that Benigni managed to mix laughter with tears, narrating the story of a father who, out of his love for his son, used fantasy to protect him from the horrors of the Holocaust. The response from the US audience was incredibly positive, and the film made $57.2 million in total. Without a doubt, Benigni’s wild Oscar night incident, together with his heartfelt speech, has only added to the immortality of the film’s name. Even now, over 30 years later, it is still considered one of the most moving foreign films in TS history.
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
In the first place, without any doubt, it is Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. By its romantic, philosophical, and breathtaking martial arts combination, this wuxia masterpiece conquered America in a very short time. It gathered an enormous $128 million (to date, it remains the only foreign language film to cross the $100 million mark in the US). Moreover, it was nominated for ten Oscars and won four, making it not just a foreign success but one of the most acclaimed films of all time.
Why is it that these movies seem to be more popular than ever? One of the reasons is their timing; the arrival of streaming platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll has never been more convenient for fans of global cinema. A shift in viewer habits also supports the popularity of these films: survey results indicate that more than half of the US population prefers watching content with subtitles and that the youngest generations are particularly responsible for the anime, K-drama, and foreign film revival.
To sum up, subtitles are no longer a hindrance; they are rather the point of entry. They make it possible for people to live in worlds they’ve never been before, listen to voices that would otherwise go unheard, and feel the stories to the fullest. And this is exactly what the box office numbers amount to: That little white font at the bottom of the screen? That is the future of movies.