What is the biggest movie franchise?
In recent years, with Hollywood’s increasing reliance on intellectual property to draw audiences out of their homes and into cinemas, franchises have become more crucial than ever. In the past, sequels made up a relatively small portion of a studio’s annual output, as conventional wisdom held that each follow-up typically earned less than its predecessor. Today, however, the landscape has completely changed. In 2024, for example, an astonishing 17 of the top 20 highest-grossing films worldwide were sequels.
What is the biggest movie franchise of all time, though? In a world where audiences know what they like and like what they know, there is a handful of series that can be relied upon to generate big bucks every time a new entry or spinoff is released. In truth, though, because of how multimedia franchises work these days and how all their entries interconnect, specifying which franchise is the biggest isn’t as simple as it sounds.
For instance, there are a couple of candidates who instantly spring to mind as potential holder of the crown. Star Wars has been a cultural phenomenon ever since George Lucas first took audiences to a galaxy far, far away in 1977, and its 12 films—including anthology entries like Rogue One and Solo—have racked up a mind-boggling $10.3 billion at the worldwide box office.
What about Harry Potter, though? Surely the Wizarding World has the potential to have raked in the most money at the box office. Well, its numbers are significant, but it doesn’t quite eclipse Star Wars. The series has made $9.6 billion worldwide across 11 entries, including the core series and the Fantastic Beasts spinoff trilogy.
James Bond is also a contender for the crown, although the iconic super spy lags behind both Star Wars and Harry Potter. The series’ 27 entries have brought in $7.9 billion, although a caveat makes Bond slightly harder to evaluate. After all, the franchise stretches back to the early ’60s, and calculating inflation for some of these earlier entries would be a tall order. It’s possible that Bond has sold more tickets over the years than Star Wars and Harry Potter, but it’s much harder to quantify.
So, what is the biggest movie franchise of all time?
In truth, the biggest movie franchise of all time is actually not one franchise at all. Instead, it’s a collection of smaller franchises that all add up to make one all-conquering behemoth that has hoovered up money at the box office for the past 17 years and counting. That’s right, you guessed it – the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes the crown.
Ever since Robert Downey Jr donned his iconic Iron Man armour in 2008, the MCU has been virtually unstoppable. Even though it has shown signs of faltering in recent years, the achievement of an interconnected series of blockbusters with storylines weaving in and out of disparate entries is still one of the most impressive in Hollywood history. Indeed, several other franchises have tried to repeat its trick over the years, but none have been anywhere near as successful as Marvel.
Across 34 films and a host of mini-franchises, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and The Avengers, the MCU has made a staggering $31.1 billion worldwide. In fact, this number is so unassailable that it’s hard to imagine any other franchise ever getting close to it.
