X-Men: The Last Stand, the third film of the X-Men trilogy from the early aughts, made its grand debut at Cannes in 2006. It’s the first movie from the franchise that premiered at the esteemed French film festival. While the Cannes audience got the first glimpse Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) rising from the ashes and turning into the Phoenix, The Last Stand switched directors from Bryan Singer to the disgraced Brett Ratner after X-Men and X2, which impacted the quality. Despite tackling heavy themes like the consequences of Jean’s return, TLS lacked the emotional depth of the earlier films. But it looks like the Cannes debut helped anyway; the film went on to gross over $460 million worldwide. [Saloni Gajjar]

How To Train Your Dragon 2 was another DreamWorks Animation success story that premiered out of Cannes. Given the success of the first film—which was nominated for multiple awards at the 2011 Oscars—it made sense for the sequel to debut out of competition at the French festival in 2014. The Jay Baruchel-led fantasy feature was warmly received, going on to garner the franchise more Oscar nominations and winning a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. It also made a tidy $621.5 million at the box office. [Mary Kate Carr]

Animation might not be the genre we most associate with the Cannes Film Festival (the vaunted festival tends to conjure up images of serious dramas), but the animated films that premiere there often go on to the most success. DreamWorks Animation in particular has seen a lot of success (spoiler alert for this list’s #1 entry), with warm critical receptions on the Riviera giving way to big box office numbers. Such is the case with Kung Fu Panda starring Jack Black and Angelina Jolie, which Reuters called a “masterpiece” upon the Cannes premiere, noting the “sustained applause” that the movie garnered. It also garnered a tidy $631.7 million at the box office after opening wide. [Mary Kate Carr]

The first animated film ever to open Cannes, Up premiered in all its existential, heart-wrenching glory at the 62nd iteration of the festival in 2009. At the time, welcoming 3-D animation into the Cannes fold was an exciting leap, with then-festival spokesman Thierry Fremaux calling the premiere “one of cinema’s upcoming adventures.” That premiere set the stage for not only a $735 million worldwide gross, but several ensuing Pixar debuts at Cannes, including Inside Out in 2015, Soul in 2020, and now Elemental, which will serve as this year’s closing night film. In a sweet reference to its beloved ancestor, Elemental’s premiere comes complete with an opening short titled “Carl’s Date,” which follows Up’s elderly protagonist dipping his toe back into the dating world (with the support of loyal canine sidekick Dug) after losing his wife Ellie. There’s nothing like a good full-circle moment. [Hattie Lindert]

Setting the precedent for this year’s Dial Of Destiny Cannes premiere, the fourth installment of the beloved franchise, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull made its debut at the 2008 festival. Steven Spielberg’s first film to bow at Cannes since E.T., the film is generally the least well regarded amongst the franchise (while critics were largely positive, the installment sits at 53% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a franchise low by a wide margin). Nevertheless, by 2008 Spielberg and star Harrison Ford had more than earned their welcome reception to the Cannes red carpet with cinema legend bonafides, and bringing back a legacy character after almost 20 years was received with plenty of goodwill at the festival and beyond, raking in just north of $790 million worldwide after its premiere. [Mary Kate Carr]

From launching a young Drew Barrymore’s career to revolutionizing animatronic technology, it’s hard to overstate the cultural impact Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial had on cinema. That all began at Cannes, where E.T. premiered as the closing film at the 35th annual festival in May 1982.

Released to the public a month later, E.T. went on to not only be critically revered but wildly successful; its nearly $793 million worldwide gross made E.T. the highest-grossing film of all time for over a decade (at which point Spielberg surpassed his own record with the smash Jurassic Park). Still regarded as one of the greatest films of all time (and a highlight of Spielberg’s illustrious career), E.T. was added to the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1994, underscoring its cultural significance. [Hattie Lindert]

There’s a lot to celebrate with Pete Docter’s 2015 animated film, Inside Out. Pixar’s lovely film about Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) and her personified emotions tugs at the heartstrings. It also tugs at the purse, as the film made $858.8 million at the box office. The success was attributed to the star-studded cast and filmmaking, but it was a huge help that Inside Out premiered at Cannes in 2015 and was met with rave reviews. Who can resist that, right? [Saloni Gajjar]

The first Star Wars film to appear at Cannes was 2005’s Revenge Of The Sith. On one hand, it feels somewhat appropriate; the prequel trilogy’s final chapter is generally held up as its best, even if it’s a far cry from the quality of the original set. Revenge Of The Sith was billed as the not-your-father’s Star Wars; on top of the Cannes premiere, it was the first movie in the franchise to earn a PG-13 rating, and George Lucas went so far as to describe it as “Titanic in space.”

“Obviously, fans would love to see a movie about Darth Vader running around, killing people,” Lucas said as the film premiered Stateside. “I’m not telling that story, and I’m not interested in that.” Even if the franchise did eventually give fans exactly that, Revenge Of The Sith was, temporarily, the conclusion of the Skywalker story, and earned both critical acclaim and commercial success that the series hadn’t seen in over two decades. Ultimately, the film grossed $868,390,560 worldwide. [Drew Gillis]

One might not expect the Shrek franchise, delightfully juvenile as it is, to have a strong relationship with the Cannes Film Festival. Yet the game-changing first installment not only had a showing on the Riviera, it was the first animated feature to compete for the prestigious Palme D’Or since Peter Pan.

Knowing what we know now (that Shrek 2 is one of the greatest sequels in animated history, if not all time!), it makes sense that the follow-up would follow in Shrek’s Cannes footsteps, premiering and competing for the top prize. Yet no one could have predicted just what a triumph the movie would turn out to be. Maybe it didn’t nab that Palme D’Or (whatever, Fahrenheit 9/11), but it was acknowledged with Oscar nominations and a major box office haul of over $928 million. Not only is it to date DreamWorks Animation’s biggest hit, it was the highest-grossing film of 2004. [Mary Kate Carr]