All-Time Top 10 Movies About Cannabis

Aug 19, 2025

1) Up in Smoke

Year released: 1978
Budget: $2.0M - inflation adjusted approx $9.9M (2025)
Box office revenue: $44.4M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $220.0M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Stacy Keach

Premise: Lou Adler’s counterculture comedy follows Pedro and Man as they bumble through Los Angeles after inadvertently driving a van made entirely of marijuana. The movie plays like a string of sketches that escalate from immigration mix-ups to a chaotic battle-of-the-bands finale. Its humor is loose, musical, and proudly handmade, capturing a subculture that had rarely been given center stage on a cinema screen.

Why it is top 10: Up in Smoke is the blueprint for stoner comedy. It codified a tone that every successor either borrowed from or reacted to. The box office return relative to a modest budget made it a phenomenon, and the characters became enduring cultural touchstones. The film’s scrappy charm still works for new audiences because it is ruthlessly simple: two friends, a haze of mishaps, and jokes that hit whether you are watching alone or with a crowd.

2) Dazed and Confused

Year released: 1993
Budget: $6.9M - inflation adjusted approx $15.4M (2025)
Box office revenue: $8.3M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $18.6M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck

Premise: Richard Linklater’s hangout classic wanders through the last day of school in 1976 Austin. Freshmen dodge hazing, seniors hunt for a party, and everyone negotiates who they are becoming. The plot is barely a plot by design. Instead you get a time-capsule of small choices, big music, and the rhythm of a summer night that refuses to end.

Why it is top 10: Few films bottle vibe the way this one does. Dazed and Confused nails the social ecosystem of teen life while nodding to the foggy role cannabis plays in loosening boundaries. It launched a surprising number of careers and set a high bar for authentic ensemble storytelling. The relatively small initial gross belies a huge second life in home video and repertory screenings. Its feel-good elasticity makes it an evergreen watch, the rare film that feels mellow without being aimless.

3) Friday

Year released: 1995
Budget: $3.5M - inflation adjusted approx $7.4M (2025)
Box office revenue: $28.2M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $59.8M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long

Premise: Set largely on one front porch over a single day, Friday tracks Craig and Smokey as they scramble to settle a debt while navigating neighborhood dramas, parents, bullies, and crushes. The movie is a hangout comedy that uses weed as a social connector rather than a plot gimmick. Dialogue drives the engine, and the chemistry between Ice Cube and Chris Tucker is instant and electric.

Why it is top 10: Friday reframed the stoner comedy through a distinctly Black perspective, prioritizing community and language play over slapstick. It also stands as a case study in efficient filmmaking, turning a small budget into a quotable classic that spawned sequels and a mountain of cultural references. Its staying power comes from warmth and specificity. You feel like you know this block, these people, and the unhurried pace of a day that somehow becomes huge.

4) The Big Lebowski

Year released: 1998
Budget: $15.0M - inflation adjusted approx $29.7M (2025)
Box office revenue: $47.4M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $93.9M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore

Premise: A case of mistaken identity drags easygoing bowler Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski into a convoluted kidnapping plot. The Coen brothers use noir scaffolding to stage a comedy about friendship, failure, and the urge to remain unbothered by chaos. Bowling alleys, dream sequences, and eccentric side characters orbit a hero who would rather keep to his rug and his routine.

Why it is top 10: The Dude became the stoner archetype for a generation. Lebowski broadened the genre beyond gag-driven hijinks into a philosophically playful space where cannabis is part of a lifestyle rather than the whole joke. The theatrical numbers were solid, but the afterlife was enormous. It turned into a ritual movie that people gather around, quote, and celebrate annually. In a canon full of loud energy, Lebowski proves that chill can be cinematic muscle.

5) Half Baked

Year released: 1998
Budget: $8.0M - inflation adjusted approx $15.9M (2025)
Box office revenue: $17.5M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $34.7M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Guillermo Díaz

Premise: After a friend lands in jail, a group of buddies spins up a medical-marijuana delivery hustle to post bail. Cameos crash in, schemes multiply, and the whole thing plays like a live-action cartoon. Dave Chappelle’s elastic timing anchors the movie, which bounces from bit to bit with bright colors and unabashed silliness.

Why it is top 10: Half Baked distilled the 90s stoner comedy into a fast, joke-dense package that became a home-video staple. While its theatrical run was modest, the movie’s quotability and cable presence turned it into a rite of passage. It also mapped out a path for stand-up comedians to make the leap to the big screen without sanding off their edge. In the genre’s family tree, this one is the loud, lovable cousin that everyone invites back.

6) How High

Year released: 2001
Budget: $12.0M - inflation adjusted approx $21.9M (2025)
Box office revenue: $31.3M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $57.1M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Method Man, Redman, Mike Epps

Premise: Two friends experience a supernatural twist on exam prep, ace their tests, and land at Harvard. Campus antics follow, with weed gags stitched into a fish-out-of-water story that pokes fun at academic gatekeeping. Method Man and Redman share an easy, unforced chemistry that turns even broad bits into grin-worthy set pieces.

Why it is top 10: How High planted a firm hip-hop flag in studio-scale stoner comedy. It is a gateway film for fans who came in through music and stayed for the buddy energy. The box office return proved the premise had reach, while the soundtrack and persona-forward humor gave it a durable afterlife. It also helped widen the genre’s voice, making space for different cultural textures and comic rhythms.

7) Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Year released: 2004
Budget: $9.0M - inflation adjusted approx $15.4M (2025)
Box office revenue: $23.9M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $40.9M (2025)
Top 3 actors: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris

Premise: A simple craving for sliders turns into a wild road odyssey that touches on friendship, identity, and post-9-11 anxieties. Harold and Kumar encounter raccoons, rogue cops, and a scene-stealing version of Neil Patrick Harris while trying to keep a promise to themselves and each other.

Why it is top 10: The film mainstreamed Asian American leads in a stoner buddy adventure without turning identity into a lecture. It balanced absurdity with heart, and it came roaring back in sequels because audiences saw themselves in the pairing. The financials were strong relative to budget, but the real victory was cultural. It refreshed the genre’s energy for the 2000s and showed that a munchies quest can be a Trojan horse for talking about belonging.

8) Grandma’s Boy

Year released: 2006
Budget: $5.0M - inflation adjusted approx $8.0M (2025)
Box office revenue: $6.6M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $10.6M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Allen Covert, Linda Cardellini, Nick Swardson

Premise: A thirtysomething video game tester moves in with his grandmother and her roommates, all while trying to ship a game and figure out adulthood. The movie blends stoner humor with gamer culture in the pre-streaming era, leaning heavily on character bits, office pranks, and a surprisingly sweet romance thread.

Why it is top 10: Grandma’s Boy is the midnight-movie hero of weed-and-gaming comedy. The theatrical run was small, yet the movie became a comfort watch for coders and console kids who recognized their subculture on screen. It is also a reminder that the genre can be kind. Beneath the juvenile gags is a story about finding your people, doing the work, and not losing your oddness. That balance keeps it spinning in living rooms year after year.

9) Pineapple Express

Year released: 2008
Budget: $26.0M - inflation adjusted approx $39.0M (2025)
Box office revenue: $101.6M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $152.4M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride

Premise: A process server and his dealer witness a crime and bolt, triggering an action-comedy that plays like a chase movie with a very foggy GPS. Fistfights, car crashes, and a hilariously indestructible middleman push the pair to redefine their friendship as the stakes rise.

Why it is top 10: Pineapple Express reset the commercial ceiling for stoner films by successfully welding buddy-comedy to action mechanics. It proved the genre could carry real stakes without losing charm. The film also crystalized a comic persona for Danny McBride and became a cornerstone of late-2000s comedy. The box office validated the gamble, and its set pieces remain sticky in the cultural memory because they are both absurd and oddly sincere.

10) The Gentlemen

Year released: 2019
Budget: $22.0M - inflation adjusted approx $27.8M (2025)
Box office revenue: $115.2M worldwide - inflation adjusted approx $145.6M (2025)
Top 3 actors: Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Charlie Hunnam

Premise: Guy Ritchie returns to twisty crime form with a caper about a posh English cannabis empire, a potential sale, and several parties trying to outmaneuver each other. The story is framed by a seedy investigator pitching the whole tale as a screenplay, which lets the movie play with unreliable narration and sparkling dialogue.

Why it is top 10: The Gentlemen treats cannabis as big business rather than mere prop, and it does so with style. The film is a bridge between the genre’s goofy roots and a modern landscape where weed is regulated, monetized, and ripe for power games. Strong global grosses backed up the bet. It is also simply fun to watch, a reminder that sharp plotting and character work make the haze feel luxurious rather than sloppy.

Notes on money and method

Budgets and grosses are widely reported estimates. Accounting practices vary by era, and worldwide reporting from the 1970s and 1980s can be incomplete.
Inflation adjustments use a simple CPI scale to express figures in approximate 2025 dollars, which makes cross-decade comparisons more meaningful.