The World's Biggest Movie Franchises

As of July 2024, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the most successful movie franchise worldwide, having grossed more than $30 billion in total. Just one other franchise has made more than $10 billion: Star Wars. The movie series that spans five decades and 12 original releases is planning its next film for 2026.

The franchise getting closest to the $10 billion mark is Harry Potter at $9.6 billion worldwide box office gross, followed by Spider-Man at $9.0 billion. The series now called J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World has been struggling with its three new movies under the Fantastic Beasts umbrella and might not hit the $10 billion mark anytime soon as the fourth and fifth part of the series has reportedly been paused.

At between $7 and $8 billion worldwide box office gross, there are four famous franchises - classic James Bond, the Avengers, the DC Extended Universe and the Fast and the Furious. While the Avengers franchise achieved this number with just four movies (and could also be counted as part of the Marvel Universe), Fast and the Furious needed 10 (plus one spinoff) and James Bond a whopping 27.

Four more franchises fall (or will fall) between the $6 billion and $7 billion mark: Batman, X-Men, Jurassic Park and The Lord of the Rings. While Batman has been another slow burner with 28 releases since 1966, X-Men has been a bit quicker with 14 movies since the year 2000. The quickest success was Jurassic Park, however, releasing just six movies since 1993. Lord of the Rings could achieve a similar feat as its seventh release since 2001, which is scheduled for December, is expected to push it over the $6 million mark. Its worldwide box office gross currently stands at $5.85 billion.