"Dante's Peak" (Universal Pictures) - Feb. 7, 1997
Global box office: $178 million

"Volcano" (20th Century Fox) - April 25, 1997
Global box office: $122 million

The result: The mid '90s saw a glut of disaster movie like "Twister," "Daylight" and "Armageddon"/"Deep Impact" crash into theaters, so it's no surprise that the studios came up with two volcano-themed projects. This is a case, however, where the two too-similar films (both budgeted around $100 million) seemed to have canceled each other out. Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton fight a volcano in Washington state, while Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche face one down in urban Los Angeles. With both films being boosted by overseas box office, "Peak" won by a volca-nose.

- Dave Lewis