List of 1978 box office number-one films in the United States

This is a list of films which placed number one at the weekly box office in the United States during 1978 per Variety. The data was based on grosses from 20 to 22 key cities and therefore, the gross quoted may not be the total that the film grossed nationally in the week.

Number-one films

†	This implies the highest-grossing movie of the year.[1][2][3]

#	Week ending	Film	Gross	Notes	Ref
1	January 4, 1978	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	$4,435,990		[4]
2	January 11, 1978		$3,377,392		[5]
3	January 18, 1978		$2,274,682		[6]
4	January 25, 1978		$1,622,296		[7]
5	February 1, 1978		$1,774,208		[8]
6	February 8, 1978		$1,489,164		[9][nb 1]
7	February 15, 1978	The Betsy	$1,339,400	The Betsy grossed $2,727,084 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended February 12, an opening record for Allied Artists	[12][13]
8	February 22, 1978	Saturday Night Fever	$1,605,673	Saturday Night Fever reached number one in its tenth week on the chart	[14]
9	March 1, 1978		$2,171,501	Saturday Night Fever grossed $3,765,000 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended February 26	[15][16]
10	March 8, 1978		$1,687,869		[17]
11	March 15, 1978		$1,398,108		[18]
12	March 22, 1978		$1,207,132		[19]
13	March 29, 1978	The Fury	$1,444,416	The Fury reached number one in its second week of release grossing $2,777,291 nationally for the weekend ended March 26	[20][21]
14	April 5, 1978		$1,257,159		[22]
15	April 12, 1978	The Goodbye Girl	$969,830	The Goodbye Girl reached number one in its 19th week on the chart	[23]
16	April 19, 1978		$788,848		[24]
17	April 26, 1978	House Calls	$949,285	House Calls reached number one in its sixth week on the chart	[25]
18	May 3, 1978		$818,620		[26]
19	May 10, 1978	F.I.S.T.	$724,367	F.I.S.T. reached number one in its second week of release	[27]
20	May 17, 1978	The Greek Tycoon	$677,300		[28]
21	May 24, 1978		$981,908		[29]
22	May 31, 1978	American Graffiti (reissue)	$1,361,800		[30]
23	June 7, 1978	Capricorn One	$1,411,600		[31]
24	June 14, 1978	Damien: Omen II	$2,216,400	Damien: Omen II grossed $3,880,880 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended June 11	[32][33][34]
25	June 21, 1978	Jaws 2	$4,038,800	Jaws 2 grossed $9.9 million nationally from all markets in the weekend ended June 18, an opening weekend record	[35][36][37]
26	June 28, 1978	Grease †	$4,174,082	Grease reached number one in its second week of release, grossing $7,867,000 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended June 25	[38][39]
27	July 5, 1978		$3,518,287		[40]
28	July 12, 1978		$2,443,707		[41]
29	July 19, 1978		$2,129,200		[42]
30	July 26, 1978		$1,977,551	Star Wars (reissue) placed third on the chart from 166 theaters but grossed $10,166,366 nationally from 1,750 theaters in the weekend ended July 23, beating the weekend record set by Jaws 2	[43][44][45]
31	August 2, 1978	Star Wars (reissue)	$1,891,255	Star Wars grossed $6,501,185 nationally in the weekend ended July 30	[46][47]
32	August 9, 1978	Hooper	$2,476,400	Hooper reached number one in its third week of release. Its nationwide gross for the week was $9,437,484.	[48][49]
33	August 16, 1978		$1,988,915		[50]
34	August 23, 1978		$1,747,842		[51]
35	August 30, 1978	Animal House	$2,022,990	Animal House reached number one in its fifth week on the chart	[52]
36	September 6, 1978		$2,103,917		[53]
37	September 13, 1978		$1,557,835		[54]
38	September 20, 1978		$1,251,100		[55]
39	September 27, 1978		$1,085,881		[56]
40	October 4, 1978	Up in Smoke	$1,109,000	Up in Smoke reached number one in its second week of release	[57]
41	October 11, 1978	Animal House	$1,868,567	Animal House returned to number one in its eleventh week of release	[58]
42	October 18, 1978		$1,337,828		[59]
43	October 25, 1978		$1,298,347		[60]
44	November 1, 1978	Midnight Express	$1,300,711	Midnight Express reached number one in its fourth week of release	[61]
45	November 8, 1978	Up in Smoke	$1,443,320	Up in Smoke returned to number one in its seventh week of release.	[62]
46	November 15, 1978	Magic	$1,376,000		[63]
47	November 22, 1978		$1,177,317		[64]
48	November 29, 1978	Midnight Express	$993,743	Midnight Express returned to number one in its eighth week of release	[65]
49	December 6, 1978		$746,543		[66]
50	December 13, 1978		$590,763		[67]
51	December 20, 1978	Superman	$3,685,756	Superman grossed $7,465,343 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended December 17, beating King Kong's December opening record	[68][69][70]
52	December 27, 1978		$4,171,899	Superman grossed $6,535,784 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended December 24	[71][72][nb 2]

Highest grossing films

Rank	Title	Distributor	Rental[1][2][3]
1	Grease	Paramount Pictures	$83,091,000
2	Saturday Night Fever	Paramount Pictures	$71,463,000
3	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Columbia Pictures	$54,000,000
4	Animal House	Universal Pictures	$52,368,000
5	Jaws 2	Universal Pictures	$49,299,000
6	Heaven Can Wait	Paramount Pictures	$42,517,000
7	The Goodbye Girl	Warner Bros.	$41,000,000
8	Star Wars (reissue)	20th Century Fox	$38,375,000
9	Hooper	Warner Bros.	$31,500,000
10	Foul Play	Paramount Pictures	$25,065,000

See also

• List of American films — American films by year
• Lists of box office number-one films

Notes

1. The Numbers lists The One and Only with a gross of $2,707,679 from 417 theaters for the weekend ended February 5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind grossed $5,143,795 nationally for the week from 629 theaters^[10][11]
2. Box Office Mojo and The Numbers list Every Which Way but Loose as the number one for the weekend with a gross of $10,272,294 however, this is its gross for the week.^[73]