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List of highest-grossing films

April 18, 2023

Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box-office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assessing the success of a film, mostly because of the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, but also because of historical practice. Included on the list are charts of the top box-office earners (ranked by both the nominal and real value of their revenue), a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box-office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights, and merchandise.

Gone with the Wind held the record of highest-grossing film for twenty-five years and, adjusted for inflation, has earned more than any other film.

Traditionally, war films, musicals, and historical dramas have been the most popular genres, but franchise films have been among the best performers of the 21st century. There is strong interest in the superhero genre, with ten films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring among the nominal top-earners. The most successful superhero film, Avengers: Endgame, is also the second-highest-grossing film on the nominal earnings chart, and there are four films in total based on the Avengers comic books charting in the top twenty. Other Marvel Comics adaptations have also had success with the Spider-Man and X-Men properties, while films based on Batman and Superman from DC Comics have generally performed well. Star Wars is also represented in the nominal earnings chart with five films, while the Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises feature prominently. Although the nominal earnings chart is dominated by films adapted from pre-existing properties and sequels, it is headed by Avatar, which is an original work. Animated family films have performed consistently well, with Disney films enjoying lucrative re-releases prior to the home-video era. Disney also enjoyed later success with films such as Frozen and Frozen II, Zootopia, and The Lion King (with its computer-animated remake as the highest-grossing animated film), as well as its Pixar brand, of which Incredibles 2, Toy Story 3 and 4, and Finding Dory have been the best performers. Beyond Disney and Pixar animation, the Despicable Me, Shrek, and Ice Age series have met with the most success.

While inflation has eroded the achievements of most films from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, there are franchises originating from that period that are still active. Besides the Star Wars and Superman franchises, James Bond and Godzilla films are still being released periodically; all four are among the highest-grossing franchises. Some of the older films that held the record of highest-grossing film still have respectable grosses by today's standards, but no longer compete numerically against today's top-earners in an era of much higher individual ticket prices. When those prices are adjusted for inflation, however, then Gone with the Wind—which was the highest-grossing film outright for twenty-five years—is still the highest-grossing film of all time. All grosses on the list are expressed in U.S. dollars at their nominal value, except where stated otherwise.

Highest-grossing films

 
Three of the four highest-grossing films, including Avatar at the top, were written and directed by James Cameron.

With a worldwide box-office gross of over $2.9 billion, Avatar is proclaimed to be the "highest-grossing" film, but such claims usually refer to theatrical revenues only and do not take into account home video and television income, which can form a significant portion of a film's earnings. Once revenue from home entertainment is factored in it is not immediately clear which film is the most successful. Titanic earned $1.2 billion from video and DVD sales and rentals,[1] in addition to the $2.2 billion it grossed in theatres. While complete sales data are not available for Avatar, it earned $345 million from the sale of sixteen million DVD and Blu-ray units in North America,[2] and ultimately sold a total of thirty million DVD and Blu-ray units worldwide.[3] After home video income is accounted for, both films have earned over $3 billion each. Television broadcast rights will also substantially add to a film's earnings, with a film often earning as much as 20–25% of its theatrical box office for a couple of television runs on top of pay-per-view revenues;[4] Titanic earned a further $55 million from the NBC and HBO broadcast rights,[1] equating to about 9% of its North American gross.

When a film is highly exploitable as a commercial property, its ancillary revenues can dwarf its income from direct film sales.[5] The Lion King (1994) earned over $2 billion in box-office and home video sales,[1] but this pales in comparison to the $8 billion earned at box offices around the world by the stage adaptation.[6] Merchandising can be extremely lucrative too: The Lion King also sold $3 billion of merchandise,[7] while Pixar's Cars—which earned $462 million in theatrical revenues and was only a modest hit by comparison to other Pixar films[8]—generated global merchandise sales of over $8 billion in the five years after its 2006 release.[9][10] Pixar had another huge hit with Toy Story 3, which generated almost $10 billion in merchandise retail sales in addition to the $1 billion it earned at the box office.[11]

On this chart, films are ranked by the revenues from theatrical exhibition at their nominal value, along with the highest positions they attained. Six films in total have grossed in excess of $2 billion worldwide, with Avatar ranked in the top position. All of the films have had a theatrical run (including re-releases) in the 21st century, and films that have not played during this period do not appear on the chart because of ticket-price inflation, population size and ticket purchasing trends not being considered.

    Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world.
Highest-grossing films[12]
Rank Peak Title Worldwide gross Year Reference(s)
1 1 Avatar $2,923,706,026 2009 [# 1][# 2]
2 1 Avengers: Endgame $2,797,501,328 2019 [# 3][# 4]
3 3 Avatar: The Way of Water   $2,316,758,414 2022 [# 5]
4 1 Titanic   T$2,256,392,809 1997 [# 6][# 7]
5 3 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $2,068,223,624 2015 [# 8][# 9]
6 4 Avengers: Infinity War $2,048,359,754 2018 [# 10][# 11]
7 6 Spider-Man: No Way Home $1,921,847,111 2021 [# 12][# 13]
8 3 Jurassic World $1,671,537,444 2015 [# 14][# 15]
9 7 The Lion King $1,656,943,394 2019 [# 16][# 4]
10 3 The Avengers $1,518,815,515 2012 [# 17][# 18]
11 4 Furious 7 $1,515,341,399 2015 [# 19][# 20]
12 11 Top Gun: Maverick $1,493,491,858 2022 [# 21][# 22]
13 10 Frozen II $1,450,026,933 2019 [# 23][# 24]
14 5 Avengers: Age of Ultron $1,402,809,540 2015 [# 25][# 20]
15 9 Black Panther $1,347,280,838 2018 [# 26][# 27]
16 3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 $1,342,139,727 2011 [# 28][# 29]
17 9 Star Wars: The Last Jedi $1,332,539,889 2017 [# 30][# 31]
18 12 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom $1,308,473,425 2018 [# 32][# 11]
19 5 Frozen F$1,290,000,000 2013 [# 33][# 34]
20 10 Beauty and the Beast $1,263,521,126 2017 [# 35][# 36]
21 15 Incredibles 2 $1,242,805,359 2018 [# 37][# 11]
22 11 The Fate of the Furious F8$1,238,764,765 2017 [# 38][# 36]
23 5 Iron Man 3 $1,214,811,252 2013 [# 39][# 40]
24 10 Minions $1,159,444,662 2015 [# 41][# 15]
25 12 Captain America: Civil War $1,153,337,496 2016 [# 42][# 43]
26 20 Aquaman $1,148,528,393 2018 [# 44][# 11]
27 2 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King   $1,147,633,833 2003 [# 45][# 46]
28 24RK Spider-Man: Far From Home $1,131,927,996 2019 [# 47][# 4]
29 23RK Captain Marvel $1,128,274,794 2019 [# 48][# 49]
30 5RK Transformers: Dark of the Moon $1,123,794,079 2011 [# 50][# 29]
31 7 Skyfall $1,108,569,499 2012 [# 51][# 52]
32 10 Transformers: Age of Extinction $1,104,054,072 2014 [# 53][# 54]
33 7 The Dark Knight Rises $1,081,169,825 2012 [# 55][# 56]
34 31 Joker $1,074,458,282 2019 [# 57][# 24]
35 32 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker $1,074,144,248 2019 [# 58][# 24]
36 30 Toy Story 4 $1,073,394,593 2019 [# 59][# 4]
37 4TS3 Toy Story 3 $1,066,970,811 2010 [# 60][# 61]
38 3 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $1,066,179,747 2006 [# 62][# 63]
39 20 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $1,057,420,387 2016 [# 64][# 65]
40 34 Aladdin $1,050,693,953 2019 [# 66][# 4]
41 6 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides $1,045,713,802 2011 [# 67][# 61]
42 24 Despicable Me 3 $1,034,800,131 2017 [# 68][# 36]
43 1 Jurassic Park $1,034,199,003 1993 [# 69][# 70]
44 22 Finding Dory $1,028,570,942 2016 [# 71][# 72]
45 2 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace $1,027,082,707 1999 [# 73][# 7]
46 5 Alice in Wonderland $1,025,468,216 2010 [# 74][# 75]
47 24 Zootopia $1,023,784,195 2016 [# 76][# 43]
48 14 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey $1,017,030,651 2012 [# 77][# 78]
49 2 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone HP1$1,009,046,830 2001 [# 79][# 80]
50 4 The Dark Knight $1,006,234,167 2008 [# 81][# 82]
TThe totals given for Titanic at Box Office Mojo and The Numbers are both incorrect. Prior to the 2023 re-release, the totals at both trackers were inflated above the true figure.
  • As of 2019, Box Office Mojo correctly recorded that Titanic had grossed $1.843 billion on its original release, $344 million from its 3D reissue in 2012, and a further $692,000 from a limited release in 2017 for a lifetime total of $2.187 billion.[13] Following a limited re-release in 2020, Box Office Mojo incorrectly added $7 million to the original release total.[14] By the end of 2021, Box Office Mojo had corrected the original release total, but added the $7 million figure to both the 2012 and 2017 reissue totals, incorrectly increasing the lifetime total by $14 million to $2.202 billion.[15] At the beginning of 2023, Box Office Mojo corrected the total for the 2017 reissue, bringing the lifetime gross down to $2.195 billion, but retained the error in the 2012 reissue.[16]
  • The Numbers does not log individual releases, but had the lifetime total recorded as $2.186 billion in September 2014 (roughly equating to $1.843 billion for the original release and $343.6 million for the 3D reissue).[17] A couple of weeks later, The Numbers increased the lifetime gross to $2.208 billion, without explanation.[18]

FBox Office Mojo stopped updating its main total for Frozen in August 2014, while it was still in release. The total listed here incorporates subsequent earnings in Japan, Nigeria, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany up to the end of 2015 but omits earnings in Turkey, Iceland, Brazil, and Australia (2016), which amount to a few hundred thousand dollars. The total is rounded to $1 million to compensate for the numerical inaccuracy. It was re-released in the United Kingdom in December 2017 with Olaf's Frozen Adventure earning an additional $2.3 million.

F8In the case of The Fate of the Furious the gross is from an archived version of Box Office Mojo, after irregularities were discovered in the current figure. Ongoing weekly drops in the totals for several countries—Argentina being the worst affected—led to a drop in the overall worldwide total.[19] In view of what appears to be an aberration in the source, a previous figure is provided.

RKThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King saw its original gross corrected in early 2020. The result of this correction is that Spider-Man: Far From Home, Captain Marvel and Transformers: Dark of the Moon all peaked one place lower than shown in the accompanying source.

TS3Box Office Mojo revised the grosses for Pixar films in August 2016, resulting in the gross for Toy Story 3 being corrected from $1.063 billion to $1.067 billion.[20][21] This means that it peaked at number 4 at the end of its run, ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, rather than at number 5 as indicated by the source.

HP1The Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone reissue totals recorded by Box Office Mojo for Brazil (2020), Italy (2021), Netherlands (2021) and South Korea (2021) have been deducted from the lifetime gross due to Box Office Mojo double-counting the original release grosses in those countries.

Highest-grossing films adjusted for inflation

See also: List of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada § Adjusted for ticket-price inflation, and List of films by box office admissions
 
Inflation rates around the world vary, complicating inflation adjustment.

Because of the long-term effects of inflation, notably the significant increase of movie theater ticket prices, the list unadjusted for inflation gives far more weight to later films.[22] The unadjusted list, while commonly found in the press, is therefore largely meaningless for comparing films widely separated in time, as many films from earlier eras will never appear on a modern unadjusted list, despite achieving higher commercial success when adjusted for price increases.[23] To compensate for the devaluation of the currency, some charts make adjustments for inflation, but not even this practice fully addresses the issue, since ticket prices and inflation do not necessarily parallel one another. For example, in 1970, tickets cost $1.55 or about $6.68 in inflation-adjusted 2004 dollars; by 1980, prices had risen to about $2.69, a drop to $5.50 in inflation-adjusted 2004 dollars.[24] Ticket prices have also risen at different rates of inflation around the world, further complicating the process of adjusting worldwide grosses.[22]

Another complication is release in multiple formats for which different ticket prices are charged. One notable example of this phenomenon is Avatar, which was also released in 3D and IMAX: almost two-thirds of tickets for that film were for 3D showings with an average price of $10, and about one-sixth were for IMAX showings with an average price over $14.50, compared to a 2010 average price of $7.61 for 2D films.[25] Social and economic factors such as population change[26] and the growth of international markets[27][28][29] also have an effect on the number of people purchasing theater tickets, along with audience demographics where some films sell a much higher proportion of discounted children's tickets, or perform better in big cities where tickets cost more.[23]

The measuring system for gauging a film's success is based on unadjusted grosses, mainly because historically this is the way it has always been done because of the practices of the film industry: the box-office receipts are compiled by theaters and relayed to the distributor, which in turn releases them to the media.[30] Converting to a more representative system that counts ticket sales rather than gross is also fraught with problems because the only data available for older films are the sale totals.[26] As the motion picture industry is highly oriented towards marketing currently released films, unadjusted figures are always used in marketing campaigns so that new blockbuster films can much more easily achieve a high sales ranking, and thus be promoted as a "top film of all time",[24][31] so there is little incentive to switch to a more robust analysis from a marketing or even newsworthy point of view.[30]

Despite the inherent difficulties in accounting for inflation, several attempts have been made. Estimates depend on the price index used to adjust the grosses,[31] and the exchange rates used to convert between currencies can also affect the calculations, both of which can have an effect on the ultimate rankings of an inflation adjusted list. Gone with the Wind—first released in 1939—is generally considered to be the most successful film, with Guinness World Records in 2014 estimating its adjusted global gross at $3.4 billion. Estimates for Gone with the Wind's adjusted gross have varied substantially: its owner, Turner Entertainment, estimated its adjusted earnings at $3.3 billion in 2007, a few years earlier than the Guinness estimate;[32] other estimates fall either side of this amount, with one putting its gross just under $3 billion in 2010,[33] while another provided an alternative figure of $3.8 billion in 2006.[34] Which film is Gone with the Wind's nearest rival depends on the set of figures used: Guinness had Avatar in second place with $3 billion, while other estimates saw Titanic in the runner-up spot with first-run worldwide earnings of almost $2.9 billion at 2010 prices.[33]

    Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world.
Highest-grossing films as of 2022 adjusted for inflation[35][Inf]
Rank Title
Worldwide gross
(2022 $)
 Year
1 Gone with the Wind $4,192,000,000 1939
2 Avatar A1$3,824,000,000 2009
3 Titanic $2,516,000,000T$3,485,000,000 1997
4 Star Wars $3,443,000,000 1977
5 Avengers: Endgame AE$3,165,000,000 2019
6 The Sound of Music $2,884,000,000 1965
7 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial $2,815,000,000 1982
8 The Ten Commandments $2,665,000,000 1956
9 Doctor Zhivago $2,526,000,000 1965
10 Star Wars: The Force Awakens TFA$2,491,000,000 2015

InfInflation adjustment is carried out using the Consumer price index for advanced economies published by the International Monetary Fund.[36] The index is uniformly applied to the grosses in the chart published by Guinness World Records in 2014, beginning with the 2014 index. The figures in the above chart take into account inflation that occurred in 2014, and in every available year since then, through 2022.

A1The adjusted gross for Avatar includes revenue from the original release and all four reissues. The original release and 2010 Special Edition grosses are adjusted from the Guinness base year, whilst the 2020 and 2021 grosses are adjusted from the 2021 index and the 2022 gross from 2022.[37]

TGuinness' adjusted total for Titanic only increased by $102,000,000 between the 2012 (published in 2011) and 2015 editions, a rise of 4.2% shared by the other adjusted totals in the chart, and omitted the gross from a 3D re-release in 2012.[35][38] This chart incorporates the gross of $343,550,770 from the reissue and adjusts it from the 2013 index.[39] Titanic grossed a further $762,994 during limited re-releases in 2017 and 2020, but this sum is not represented in the adjusted total.[40]

AEThe gross for Avengers: Endgame is adjusted from the 2020 index.

TFAThe gross for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is adjusted from the 2016 index.

High-grossing films by year

Glossary: Distributor rentals

Box-office figures are reported in either gross revenue or distributor rentals, the latter being especially true of older films. Commonly mistaken for home video revenue, distributor rentals are the distributor's share of the film's theatrical revenue (i.e. the box office gross less the exhibitor's cut).[41][42] Historically, the rental price averaged at 30–40% when the distributors owned the theater chains, equating to just over a third of the gross being paid to the distributor of the film.[43] In the modern marketplace, rental fees can vary greatly—depending on a number of factors—although the films from the major studios average out at 43%.[41]

Audience tastes were fairly eclectic during the 20th century, but several trends did emerge. During the silent era, films with war themes were popular with audiences, with The Birth of a Nation (American Civil War), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Big Parade and Wings (all World War I) becoming the most successful films in their respective years of release, with the trend coming to an end with All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930. With the advent of sound in 1927, the musical—the genre best placed to showcase the new technology—took over as the most popular type of film with audiences, with 1928 and 1929 both being topped by musical films. The genre continued to perform strongly in the 1930s, but the outbreak of World War II saw war-themed films dominate again during this period, starting with Gone with the Wind (American Civil War) in 1939, and finishing with The Best Years of Our Lives (World War II) in 1946. Samson and Delilah (1949) saw the beginning of a trend of increasingly expensive historical dramas set during Ancient Rome/biblical times throughout the 1950s as cinema competed with television for audiences,[44] with Quo Vadis, The Robe, The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur and Spartacus all becoming the highest-grossing film of the year during initial release, before the genre started to wane after several high-profile failures.[45] The success of White Christmas and South Pacific in the 1950s foreshadowed the comeback of the musical in the 1960s with West Side Story, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Funny Girl all among the top films of the decade. The 1970s saw a shift in audience tastes to high concept films, with six such films made by either George Lucas or Steven Spielberg topping the chart during the 1980s. The 21st century has seen an increasing dependence on franchises and adaptations, with the box-office dominance of films based on pre-existing intellectual property at record levels.[46]

 
Films directed by Steven Spielberg have been the highest-grossing film of the year on six occasions, and on three occasions have been the highest-grossing film of all time.

Steven Spielberg is the most represented director on the chart, with six films to his credit, occupying the top spot in 1975, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1989 and 1993. Cecil B. DeMille (1932, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1956) is in second place with five films and William Wyler (1942, 1946, 1959 and 1968) and James Cameron (1991, 1997, 2009 and 2022) are tied for third place with four films. D. W. Griffith (1915, 1916 and 1920), George Roy Hill (1966, 1969 and 1973) and the Russo brothers (2016, 2018 and 2019) all feature heavily with three films apiece. George Lucas directed two chart-toppers in 1977 and 1999, but also served in a strong creative capacity as a producer and writer in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1989 as well. The following directors have also all directed two films on the chart: Frank Lloyd, King Vidor, Frank Capra, Michael Curtiz, Leo McCarey, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Stanley Kubrick, Guy Hamilton, Mike Nichols, William Friedkin, Peter Jackson, Gore Verbinski, and Michael Bay; Mervyn LeRoy, Ken Annakin and Robert Wise are each represented by one solo credit and one shared credit, and John Ford co-directed two films. Disney films are usually co-directed and some directors have served on several winning teams: Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, David Hand, Ben Sharpsteen, Wolfgang Reitherman and Bill Roberts have all co-directed at least two films on the list. Only seven directors have topped the chart in consecutive years: McCarey (1944 and 1945), Nichols (1966 and 1967), Spielberg (1981 and 1982), Jackson (2002 and 2003), Verbinski (2006 and 2007) and the Russo brothers (2018 and 2019).

Because of release schedules—especially in the case of films released towards the end of the year—and different release patterns across the world, many films can do business in two or more calendar years; therefore the grosses documented here are not confined to just the year of release. Grosses are not limited to original theatrical runs either, with many older films often being re-released periodically so the figures represent all the business a film has done since its original release; a film's first-run gross is included in brackets after the total if known. Because of incomplete data it cannot be known for sure how much money some films have made and when they made it, but generally the chart chronicles the films from each year that went on to earn the most. In the cases where estimates conflict both films are recorded, and in cases where a film has moved into first place because of being re-released the previous record-holder is also retained.

    Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world.
High-grossing films by year of release[47][48][49]
Year Title Worldwide gross Budget Reference(s)
1915 The Birth of a Nation $50,000,000–100,000,000
$20,000,000+R ($5,200,000)R		 $110,000 [# 83][# 84][# 85]
1916 Intolerance $1,750,000R IN $385,907 [50][51]
1917 Cleopatra $500,000*R $300,000 [# 86][# 87]
1918 Mickey $8,000,000 $250,000 [# 88]
1919 The Miracle Man $3,000,000R $120,000 [# 89]
1920 Way Down East $5,000,000R ($4,000,000)R $800,000 [# 90][# 91]
1921 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse $5,000,000R ($4,000,000)R $600,000–800,000 [# 92]
1922 Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood $2,500,000R $930,042.78 [# 93][# 94]
1923 The Covered Wagon $5,000,000R $800,000 [# 95][# 96]
1924 The Sea Hawk $3,000,000R $700,000 [# 95]
1925 The Big Parade $18,000,000–22,000,000R
($6,131,000)R		 $382,000 [# 97][# 98][# 99]
Ben-Hur $10,738,000R ($9,386,000)R $3,967,000 [# 100][# 101]
1926 For Heaven's Sake $2,600,000R FH $150,000 [# 90][# 102]
1927 Wings $3,600,000R $2,000,000 [# 90][# 103][# 104]
1928 The Singing Fool $5,900,000R $388,000 [# 104][# 105]
1929 The Broadway Melody $4,400,000–4,800,000R $379,000 [# 106][# 107]
Sunny Side Up $3,500,000*R SS $600,000 [# 108][# 109]
1930 All Quiet on the Western Front $3,000,000R $1,250,000 [# 90][# 110][# 111][# 112]
1931 Frankenstein $12,000,000R ($1,400,000)R $250,000 [# 113][# 114]
City Lights $5,000,000R $1,607,351 [# 115]
1932 The Sign of the Cross $2,738,993R $694,065 [# 96][# 116][# 117][# 118]
1933 King Kong $5,347,000R ($1,856,000)R $672,255.75 [# 119]
I'm No Angel $3,250,000+R $200,000 [# 120][# 121]
Cavalcade $3,000,000–4,000,000R $1,116,000 [# 91][# 111]
She Done Him Wrong $3,000,000+R $274,076 [# 122][# 123][# 124]
1934 The Merry Widow $2,608,000R $1,605,000 [# 125][# 117]
It Happened One Night $2,500,000R ON $325,000 [# 126][# 127]
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty $4,460,000R $1,905,000 [# 117]
1936 San Francisco $6,044,000+R ($5,273,000)R $1,300,000 [# 125][# 117]
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs $418,000,000+S7 ($8,500,000)R $1,488,423 [# 128][# 129]
1938 You Can't Take It with You $5,000,000R $1,200,000 [# 130][# 131]
1939 Gone with the Wind $390,525,192–402,352,579
($32,000,000)R GW		 $3,900,000–4,250,000 [# 132][# 133][# 134][# 135][# 136]
1940 Pinocchio $87,000,862* ($3,500,000)R $2,600,000 [# 137][# 129][# 138]
Boom Town $4,600,000*R $2,100,000 [# 139][# 140]
1941 Sergeant York $7,800,000R $1,600,000 [# 141][# 142]
1942 Bambi $267,997,843 ($3,449,353)R $1,700,000–2,000,000 [# 143][# 144][# 145]
Mrs. Miniver $8,878,000R $1,344,000 [# 146][# 147]
1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls $11,000,000R $2,681,298 [# 148][# 149][# 150]
This Is the Army $9,555,586.44*R $1,400,000 [# 151][# 152][# 150]
1944 Going My Way $6,500,000*R $1,000,000 [# 153][# 154][# 155]
1945 Mom and Dad $80,000,000MD/$22,000,000R $65,000 [# 156]
The Bells of St. Mary's $11,200,000R $1,600,000 [# 157]
1946 Song of the South $65,000,000* ($3,300,000)R $2,125,000 [# 158][# 159][# 160]
The Best Years of Our Lives $14,750,000R $2,100,000 [# 161][# 162]
Duel in the Sun $10,000,000*R $5,255,000 [# 153][# 163]
1947 Forever Amber $8,000,000R $6,375,000 [# 108][# 163]
Unconquered $7,500,000R UN $4,200,000 [# 164][# 165]
1948 Easter Parade $5,918,134R $2,500,000 [# 155][# 166]
The Red Shoes $5,000,000*R £505,581 (~$2,000,000) [# 153][# 167][# 168]
The Snake Pit $4,100,000*R $3,800,000 [# 169][# 170]
1949 Samson and Delilah $14,209,250R $3,097,563 [# 171][# 96]
1950 Cinderella $263,591,415
($20,000,000/$7,800,000R) 		$2,200,000 [# 172][# 173][# 174]
King Solomon's Mines $10,050,000R $2,258,000 [# 175]
1951 Quo Vadis $21,037,000–26,700,000R $7,623,000 [# 171][# 176][# 177]
1952 This Is Cinerama $50,000,000CI $1,000,000 [# 178][# 179]
The Greatest Show on Earth $18,350,000R GS $3,873,946 [# 180][# 181][# 96]
1953 Peter Pan $145,000,000 ($7,000,000)*R $3,000,000–4,000,000 [# 182][# 183]
The Robe $25,000,000–26,100,000R $4,100,000 [# 184][# 185][# 177]
1954 Rear Window $24,500,000* ($5,300,000)*R $1,000,000 [# 186][# 176]
White Christmas $26,000,050* ($12,000,000)*R $3,800,000 [# 187][# 188][# 189]
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea $25,000,134*
($6,800,000–8,000,000)*R		 $4,500,000–9,000,000 [# 190][# 191][# 153][# 192]
1955 Lady and the Tramp $187,000,000 ($6,500,000)*R $4,000,000 [# 193][# 153][# 194]
Cinerama Holiday $21,000,000CI $2,000,000 [# 195][# 196]
Mister Roberts $9,900,000R $2,400,000 [# 197]
1956 The Ten Commandments $90,066,230R
($122,700,000/$55,200,000R) 		$13,270,000 [# 96][# 198][# 199]
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai $30,600,000R $2,840,000 [# 199]
1958 South Pacific $30,000,000R $5,610,000 [# 200]
1959 Ben-Hur $90,000,000R
($146,900,000/$66,100,000R) 		$15,900,000 [# 201][# 202]
1960 Swiss Family Robinson $30,000,000R $4,000,000 [# 203]
Spartacus $60,000,000 ($22,105,225)R $10,284,014 [# 204][# 205]
Psycho $50,000,000+ ($14,000,000)R $800,000 [# 206]
1961 One Hundred and One Dalmatians $303,000,000 $3,600,000–4,000,000 [# 193][# 207][# 145]
West Side Story $105,000,000 ($31,800,000)R $7,000,000 [# 208][# 209]
1962 Lawrence of Arabia $77,324,852 ($69,995,385) $13,800,000 [# 210][# 211]
How the West Was Won $35,000,000R $14,483,000 [# 212]
The Longest Day $33,200,000R $8,600,000 [# 209][# 211]
1963 Cleopatra $40,300,000R $31,115,000 [# 209][# 211]
From Russia with Love $78,900,000/$29,400,000R
($12,500,000)R		 $2,000,000 [# 213][# 214][# 215]
1964 My Fair Lady $55,000,000R $17,000,000 [# 216]
Goldfinger $124,900,000 ($46,000,000)R $3,000,000 [# 213][# 215]
Mary Poppins $44,000,000–$50,000,000R $5,200,000 [# 217][# 216]
1965 The Sound of Music $286,214,076 ($114,600,000)R $8,000,000 [# 218][# 209]
1966 The Bible: In the Beginning $25,325,000R $18,000,000 [# 205][# 219]
Hawaii $34,562,222* ($15,600,000)*R $15,000,000 [# 220][# 153]
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? $33,736,689* ($14,500,000)*R $7,613,000 [# 221][# 153][# 222]
1967 The Jungle Book $378,000,000 ($23,800,000)R $3,900,000–4,000,000 [# 193][# 223][# 224][# 145]
The Graduate $85,000,000R $3,100,000 [# 225][# 226]
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey $141,000,000–190,000,000
($21,900,000)R		 $10,300,000 [# 227][# 209]
Funny Girl $80,000,000–100,000,000 $8,800,000 [# 228][# 229]
1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid $152,308,525 ($37,100,000)R $6,600,000 [# 230][# 209][# 226]
1970 Love Story $173,400,000 ($80,000,000)R $2,260,000 [# 231][# 232][# 233]
1971 The French Connection $75,000,000R $3,300,000 [# 108]
Fiddler on the Roof $49,400,000R
($100,000,000/$45,100,000R) 		$9,000,000 [# 234][# 235]
Diamonds Are Forever $116,000,000 ($45,700,000)R $7,200,000 [# 213][# 214]
1972 The Godfather $246,120,974–287,000,000
($127,600,000–142,000,000)R		 $6,000,000–7,200,000 [# 236][# 235][# 237][# 238]
1973 The Exorcist $413,071,948 ($112,300,000)R $10,000,000 [# 239][# 240][# 241][# 242]
The Sting $115,000,000R $5,500,000 [# 243][# 244]
1974 The Towering Inferno $203,336,412 ($104,838,000)R $14,300,000 [# 245][# 246][# 247][# 242][# 248]
1975 Jaws $476,512,065 ($193,700,000)R $9,000,000 [# 249][# 250][# 251]
1976 Rocky $225,000,000 ($77,100,000)R $1,075,000 [# 252][# 235][# 253]
1977 Star Wars $775,398,007
($530,000,000SW/$268,500,000R) 		$11,293,151 [# 254][# 255][# 235][# 256]
1978 Grease $395,452,066 ($341,000,000) $6,000,000 [# 257][# 258][# 225][# 259]
1979 Moonraker $210,300,000 $31,000,000 [# 213][# 260]
Rocky II $200,182,289 $7,000,000 [# 261][# 262][# 260]
1980 The Empire Strikes Back $547,969,004 ($413,562,607)SW $23,000,000–32,000,000 [# 263][# 264]
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark $389,925,971
($321,866,000–353,988,025) 		$18,000,000–22,800,000 [# 265]
1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial $797,103,542
($619,000,000–664,000,000) 		$10,500,000–12,200,000 [# 266][# 267][# 255][# 268][# 269]
1983 Return of the Jedi $475,106,177 ($385,845,197)SW $32,500,000–42,700,000 [# 270][# 264]
1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom $333,107,271 $27,000,000–28,200,000 [# 271][# 272][# 273]
1985 Back to the Future $389,053,797 ($381,109,762) $19,000,000–22,000,000 [# 274][# 275]
1986 Top Gun $356,830,601 ($345,000,000) $14,000,000–19,000,000 [# 276][# 277][# 272]
1987 Fatal Attraction $320,145,905 $14,000,000 [# 278][# 272]
1988 Rain Man $354,825,476 $30,000,000 [# 279][# 280]
1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade $474,171,806–494,000,000 $36,000,000–55,400,000 [# 281][# 272][# 282]
1990 Ghost $505,870,681 ($505,702,588) $22,000,000 [# 283][# 272]
1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day $523,774,456 ($519,843,345) $94,000,000 [# 284][# 285]
1992 Aladdin $504,050,045 $28,000,000 [# 286][# 145]
1993 Jurassic Park $1,034,199,003 ($912,667,947) $63,000,000–70,000,000 [# 69]
1994 The Lion King $968,511,805 ($763,455,561) $45,000,000–79,300,000 [# 287]
1995 Toy Story $373,554,033 ($364,873,776) $30,000,000 [# 288][# 289]
Die Hard with a Vengeance $366,101,666 $70,000,000 [# 290][# 291]
1996 Independence Day $817,400,891 $75,000,000 [# 292]
1997 Titanic   $2,256,392,809 ($1,843,373,318) $200,000,000 [# 6]
1998 Armageddon $553,709,788 $140,000,000 [# 293][# 294]
1999 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace $1,027,082,707 ($924,317,558) $115,000,000–127,500,000 [# 73][# 264]
2000 Mission: Impossible 2 $546,388,105 $100,000,000–125,000,000 [# 295][# 272]
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone $1,009,046,830HP1 ($974,755,371) $125,000,000 [# 79]
2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers $947,944,270 ($936,689,735) $94,000,000 [# 296]
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King   $1,147,633,833 ($1,140,682,011) $94,000,000 [# 45]
2004 Shrek 2 $928,760,770 $150,000,000 [# 297]
2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire $896,346,413 ($895,921,036) $150,000,000 [# 298]
2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $1,066,179,747 $225,000,000 [# 62]
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $960,996,492 $300,000,000 [# 299]
2008 The Dark Knight $1,006,234,167 ($997,039,412) $185,000,000 [# 81]
2009 Avatar $2,923,706,026 ($2,743,577,587) $237,000,000 [# 1]
2010 Toy Story 3 $1,066,970,811 $200,000,000 [# 60]
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 $1,342,139,727 ($1,341,511,219) $250,000,000HP8 [# 28]
2012 The Avengers $1,518,815,515 $220,000,000 [# 17]
2013 Frozen $1,290,000,000 ($1,287,000,000) $150,000,000 [# 33]
2014 Transformers: Age of Extinction $1,104,039,076 $210,000,000 [# 53]
2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $2,068,223,624 $245,000,000 [# 8]
2016 Captain America: Civil War $1,153,337,496 ($1,153,296,293) $250,000,000 [# 42]
2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi $1,332,539,889 $200,000,000 [# 30]
2018 Avengers: Infinity War $2,048,359,754 $316,000,000–400,000,000 [# 10][# 300]
2019 Avengers: Endgame $2,797,501,328 $356,000,000 [# 3]
2020 Demon Slayer: Mugen Train $507,127,293 $15,750,000 [# 301]
2021 Spider-Man: No Way Home $1,921,847,111 ($1,912,233,593) $200,000,000 [# 12][# 302]
2022 Avatar: The Way of Water   $2,316,758,414 $350,000,000–460,000,000 [# 5][# 303][# 304]
2023 The Super Mario Bros. Movie   $692,968,890 $100,000,000 [# 305][# 306]

(...) Since grosses are not limited to original theatrical runs, a film's first-run gross is included in brackets after the total if known.

*Canada and U.S. gross only.

RDistributor rental.

TBATo be ascertained.

INNo contemporary sources provide figures for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, although The Numbers provides a figure of $8,000,000 for the North American box-office gross.[52] However, it is possible this figure has been mistaken for the gross of the 1954 remake which also earned $8,000,000 in North American rentals.[53]

FHSome sources such as The Numbers state that Aloma of the South Seas is the highest grossing film of the year, earning $3 million.[54] However, no contemporary sources provide figures for Aloma of the South Seas, so it is unclear what the $3 million figure relates to. If it were the rental gross then that would have made it not only the highest-grossing film of the year, but one of the highest-grossing films of the silent era, and if that is the case it would be unusual for both International Motion Picture Almanac and Variety to omit it from their lists.

SSIt is not clear if the figure for Sunny Side Up is for North America or worldwide. Other sources put its earnings at $2 million,[55] which may suggest the higher figure is the worldwide rental, given the confusion over international figures during this period.[56]

ONThe figure for It Happened One Night is not truly representative of its success: it was distributed as a package deal along with more than two dozen other Columbia films, and the total earnings were averaged out; the true gross would have been much higher.[57]

S7Snow White's $418 million global cume omits earnings outside of North America from 1987 onwards.

GWIt is not absolutely clear how much Gone with the Wind earned from its initial release. Contemporary accounts often list it as earning $32 million in North American rentals and retrospective charts have often duplicated this claim; however, it is likely this was the worldwide rental figure. Trade journals would collate the data by either obtaining it from the distributors themselves, who were keen to promote a successful film, or by surveying theaters and constructing an estimate. Distributors would often report the worldwide rental since the higher figure made the film appear more successful, while estimates were limited to performance in North America; therefore it was not unusual for worldwide and North American rentals to be mixed up. Following the outbreak of World War II, many of the foreign markets were unavailable to Hollywood so it became standard practice to just report on North American box-office performance.[56] In keeping with this new approach, the North American rental for Gone with the Wind was revised to $21 million in 1947 ($11 million lower than the previous figure),[58] and as of 1953—following the 1947 re-release—Variety was reporting earnings of $26 million.[59] Through 1956, MGM reported cumulative North American earnings of $30,015,000 and foreign earnings of $18,964,000, from three releases.[60] Worldwide rentals of $32 million from the initial release is consistent with the revised figures and later reported worldwide figures: they indicate that the film earned $21 million in North America and $11 million overseas from the initial release, and added a further $9 million in North America and $8 million overseas from subsequent re-releases up to 1956.

MDMom and Dad does not generally feature in 'high-gross' lists such as those published by Variety due to its independent distribution. Essentially belonging to the exploitation genre, it was marketed as an educational sex hygiene film in an effort to circumvent censorship laws. Falling foul of the Motion Picture Production Code, Mom and Dad was prevented from obtaining mainstream distribution and restricted to independent and drive-in theaters. It was the biggest hit of its kind, and remained in continual distribution until the 1970s when hardcore pornography eventually took over. At the end of 1947 it had earned $2 million, and by 1949, $8 million; by 1956 it had earned $22 million in rentals, representing a gross of $80 million, and would have easily placed in the top ten films in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Estimates of its total earnings are as high as $100 million.

UNChopra-Gant stipulates that the figure given for Unconquered is for North American box-office, but as was common at the time, the chart confuses worldwide and North American grosses. Other sources state that the takings for Forever Amber ($8 million) and Life with Father ($6.5 million)[61] were in fact worldwide rental grosses, so it is possible this is also true of Unconquered.

CIThe Cinerama figures represent gross amounts. Since the Cinerama corporation owned the theaters there were no rental fees for the films, meaning the studio received 100% of the box-office gross, unlike the case with most other films where the distributor typically receives less than half the gross. Since Variety at the time ranked films by their U.S. and Canadian rental, they constructed a hypothetical rental figure for the Cinerama films to provide a basis for comparison to other films in their chart: in the case of This Is Cinerama, the $50 million worldwide gross was reconfigured as a $12.5 million U.S. rental gross; this is exactly 25% of the amount reported by Cinerama, so Variety's formula seemingly halved the gross to obtain an estimate for the U.S. share, and halved it again to simulate a rental fee.[62] All five Cinerama features collectively generated $120 million in worldwide box office receipts.[63]

GSVariety put the worldwide rental for The Greatest Show on Earth at around $18.35 million (with $12.8 million coming from the United States[53]) a year after its release; however, Birchard puts its earnings at just over $15 million up to 1962. It is likely that Birchard's figure is just the North American gross rental, and includes revenue from the 1954 and 1960 reissues.

SWThe "first run" Star Wars grosses do not include revenue from the 1997 special-edition releases; however, the figure does include revenue from the re-releases prior to the special editions.

HP1The Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone reissue totals recorded by Box Office Mojo for Brazil (2020), Italy (2021), Netherlands (2021) and South Korea (2021) have been deducted from the lifetime gross due to Box Office Mojo double-counting the original release grosses in those countries.

HP8Production costs were shared with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.

Timeline of highest-grossing films

 
The Birth of a Nation pioneered many of the techniques used in filmmaking today, becoming the most successful film ever made at the time of its release.

At least eleven films have held the record of 'highest-grossing film' since The Birth of a Nation assumed the top spot in 1915. Both The Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind spent twenty-five consecutive years apiece as the highest-grosser, with films directed by Steven Spielberg and James Cameron holding the record on three occasions each. Spielberg became the first director to break his own record when Jurassic Park overtook E.T., and Cameron emulated the feat when Avatar broke the record set by Titanic. When it took over the top spot in 2019, Avengers: Endgame became the first sequel to hold the record of highest-grossing film, and in doing so interrupted thirty-six years of Spielberg/Cameron dominance before Avatar reclaimed the top spot two years later in 2021 upon a re-release.

Some sources claim that The Big Parade superseded The Birth of a Nation as highest-grossing film, eventually being replaced by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which in turn was quickly usurped by Gone with the Wind.[64] Exact figures are not known for The Birth of a Nation, but contemporary records put its worldwide earnings at $5.2 million as of 1919.[65] Its international release was delayed by World War I, and it was not released in many foreign territories until the 1920s; coupled with further re-releases in the United States, its $10 million earnings as reported by Variety in 1932 are consistent with the earlier figure.[66] At this time, Variety still had The Birth of a Nation ahead of The Big Parade ($6,400,000) on distributor rentals and—if its estimate is correct—Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ($8,500,000)[67] would not have earned enough on its first theatrical run to take the record;[68] although it would have been the highest-grossing 'talkie',[69] displacing The Singing Fool ($5,900,000).[70] Although received wisdom holds that it is unlikely The Birth of a Nation was ever overtaken by a silent-era film,[71] the record would fall to 1925's Ben-Hur ($9,386,000) if The Birth of a Nation earned significantly less than its estimated gross.[72] In addition to its gross rental earnings through public exhibition, The Birth of a Nation played at a large number of private, club and organizational engagements which figures are unavailable for.[73] It was hugely popular with the Ku Klux Klan who used it to drive recruitment,[74] and at one point Variety estimated its total earnings to stand at around $50 million.[75] Despite later retracting the claim, the sum has been widely reported even though it has never been substantiated.[65] While it is generally accepted that Gone with the Wind took over the record of highest-grossing film on its initial release—which is true in terms of public exhibition—it is likely it did not overtake The Birth of a Nation in total revenue until a much later date, with it still being reported as the highest earner up until the 1960s.[73] Gone with the Wind itself may have been briefly overtaken by The Ten Commandments (1956), which closed at the end of 1960 with worldwide rentals of $58–60 million[76][77] compared to Gone with the Wind's $59 million;[78] if it did claim the top spot its tenure there was short-lived, since Gone with the Wind was re-released the following year and increased its earnings to $67 million. Depending on how accurate the estimates are, the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur may also have captured the record from Gone with the Wind: as of the end of 1961 it had earned $47 million worldwide,[79] and by 1963 it was trailing Gone with the Wind by just $2 million with international takings of $65 million,[80] ultimately earning $66 million from its initial release.[81]

 
The 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat reportedly earned as much as $600 million, a figure that may have been inflated by gangsters in money-laundering schemes.

Another film purported to have been the highest-grosser is the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat. In 1984, Linda Lovelace testified to a United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on juvenile justice that the film had earned $600 million;[82] this figure has been the subject of much speculation, since if it is accurate then the film would have made more money than Star Wars, and finished the 1970s as the highest-grossing film. The main argument against this figure is that it simply did not have a wide enough release to sustain the sort of sums that would be required for it to ultimately gross this amount.[83] Exact figures are not known, but testimony in a federal trial in 1976—about four years into the film's release—showed the film had grossed over $25 million.[84] Roger Ebert has reasoned it possibly did earn as much as $600 million on paper, since mobsters owned most of the adult movie theaters during this period and would launder income from drugs and prostitution through them, so probably inflated the box-office receipts for the film.[85]

The Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind, The Godfather, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., and Avatar all increased their record grosses with re-releases. The grosses from their original theatrical runs are included here along with totals from re-releases up to the point that they lost the record; therefore the total for The Birth of a Nation includes income from its reissues up to 1940; the total for Star Wars includes revenue from the late 1970s and early 1980s reissues but not from the 1997 Special Edition; the total for E.T. incorporates its gross from the 1985 reissue but not from 2002. The total for Avatar's first appearance on the chart includes revenue from the 2010 Special Edition, which represents all of its earnings up to the point it relinquished the record, whereas its second appearance also incorporates revenue from a 2020 re-release in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the 2021 re-release in China which helped it to reclaim the record. Gone with the Wind is likewise represented twice on the chart: the 1940 entry includes earnings from its staggered 1939–1942 release (roadshow/​general release/​second-run)[86] along with all of its revenue up to the 1961 reissue prior to losing the record to The Sound of Music in 1966; its 1971 entry—after it took back the record—includes income from the 1967 and 1971 reissues but omitting later releases. The Godfather was re-released in 1973 after its success at the 45th Academy Awards, and Jaws was released again in 1976, and their grosses here most likely include earnings from those releases. The Sound of Music, The Godfather, Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Titanic increased their earnings with further releases in 1973, 1997, 1979, 2013, and 2012, respectively, but they are not included in the totals here because they had already conceded the record prior to being re-released.

    Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world.
Timeline of the highest-grossing film record
Established Title Record-setting gross Reference(s)
1915[64] The Birth of a Nation $5,200,000R [# 84]
1940 $15,000,000R ‡ [# 307]
1940[32] Gone with the Wind $32,000,000R [# 134]
1963 $67,000,000R ‡ [# 308]
1966[64] The Sound of Music $114,600,000R [# 209]
1971[64] Gone with the Wind $116,000,000R ‡ [# 309]
1972[64] The Godfather $127,600,000–142,000,000R [# 235][# 310]
1976[87][88] Jaws $193,700,000R [# 250]
1978[89][90] Star Wars $410,000,000/$268,500,000R [# 311][# 235]
1982 $530,000,000 ‡ [# 255]
1983[91] E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial $619,000,000–664,000,000 [# 255][# 268]
1993 $701,000,000 ‡ [# 312]
1993[64] Jurassic Park $912,667,947 [# 69]
1998[92] Titanic $1,843,373,318 [# 6]
2010[93][94] Avatar $2,743,577,587 [# 1]
$2,788,416,135 ‡
2019[95][96] Avengers: Endgame $2,797,501,328 [# 3]
2021[97] Avatar $2,847,397,339 ‡ [# 1]
2022 $2,923,706,026 ‡

RDistributor rental.

 Includes revenue from re-releases. If a film increased its gross through re-releases while holding the record, the year in which it recorded its highest gross is also noted in italics.

Highest-grossing franchises and film series

See also: List of highest-grossing media franchises

Prior to 2000, only seven film series had grossed over $1 billion at the box office: James Bond,[98] Star Wars,[99] Indiana Jones,[100] Rocky,[101][102][103] Batman,[104] Jurassic Park,[105] and Star Trek.[106] Since the turn of the century, that number has increased to over eighty (not including one-off hits such as Titanic and Zootopia).[107] This is partly due to inflation and market growth, but it is also due to Hollywood's adoption of the franchise model: films that have built-in brand recognition such as being based on a well-known literary source or an established character. The methodology is based on the concept that films associated with things audiences are already familiar with can be more effectively marketed to them, and as such are known as "pre-sold" films within the industry.[108]

A franchise is typically defined to be at least two works derived from a common intellectual property. Traditionally, the work has a tautological relationship with the property, but this is not a prerequisite. An enduring staple of the franchise model is the concept of the crossover, which can be defined as "a story in which characters or concepts from two or more discrete texts or series of texts meet".[109] A consequence of a crossover is that an intellectual property may be utilized by more than one franchise. For example, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice belongs to not only the Batman and Superman franchises, but also to the DC Extended Universe, which is a shared universe. A shared universe is a particular type of crossover where a number of characters from a wide range of fictional works wind up sharing a fictional world.[110] The most successful shared universe in the medium of film is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a crossover between multiple superhero properties owned by Marvel Comics. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is also the highest-grossing franchise, amassing over $28 billion at the box office.

The Star Wars films are the highest-grossing series based on a single property, earning over $10 billion at the box office (although the Eon James Bond films have earned over $19 billion in total when adjusted to current prices).[a] If ancillary income from merchandise is included, then Star Wars is the most lucrative property;[112] it holds the Guinness world record for the "most successful film merchandising franchise" and was valued at £19.51 billion in 2012 (approximately $30 billion).[113][114] The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had the most films gross over $1 billion, with ten. The four Avengers films, the two Frozen films, and the two Avatar films are the only franchises where each installment has grossed over $1 billion, although the Jurassic Park and Black Panther series have averaged over $1 billion per film.

  Background shading indicates that at least one film in the series is playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world.
Highest-grossing franchises and film series[§] (The films in each franchise can be viewed by selecting "show".)
Rank Series Total worldwide gross No. of films Average of films Highest-grossing film

SShared universes for which some properties also have their own entries.

*Canada and U.S. gross only.

RDistributor rental.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Prior to the release of Spectre in 2015, the James Bond series had grossed approximately $17.7 billion at 2015 prices;[111] after factoring in earnings of over $1.6 billion from Spectre and No Time to Die, the series has earned at least $19.3 billion adjusted for inflation.

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  28. ^ Hoad, Phil (August 11, 2011). "The rise of the international box office". The Guardian. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
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  36. ^ "World Economic Outlook: Inflation rate, end of period consumer prices". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  37. ^ "Avatar (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 10, 2022. 2020 Re-release: $1,281,204; 2021 Re-release: $57,995,770; 2022 Re-release: $76,012,917
  38. ^ Glenday, Craig, ed. (2011). Гиннесс. Мировые рекорды [Guinness World Records] (in Russian). Translated by Andrianov, P.I.; Palova, I.V. (2012 ed.). Moscow: Astrel. p. 211. ISBN 978-5-271-36423-5.
  39. ^ . Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved November 25, 2012. $343,550,770
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  41. ^ a b Cones, John W. (1997). The feature film distribution deal: a critical analysis of the single most important film industry agreement. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-8093-2082-0. Distributor rentals: It is also important to know and recognize the difference between the distributor's gross receipts and the gross rentals. The term "rentals" refers to the aggregate amount of the film distributor's share of monies paid at theatre box offices computed on the basis of negotiated agreements between the distributor and the exhibitor. Note that gross receipts refers to amounts actually received and from all markets and media, whereas gross rentals refers to amounts earned from theatrical exhibition only, regardless of whether received by the distributor. Thus, gross receipts is the much broader term and includes distributor rentals. The issue of film rentals (i.e., what percentage of a film's box office gross comes back to the distributor) is of key importance...More current numbers suggest that distributor rentals for the major studio/distributor released films average in the neighborhood of 43% of box office gross. Again, however, such an average is based on widely divergent distributor rental ratios on individual films.
  42. ^ Marich, Robert (2009) [1st. pub. Focal Press:2005]. Marketing to moviegoers: a handbook of strategies used by major studios and independents (2 ed.). Southern Illinois University Press. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-8093-2884-0. Rentals are the distributors' share of the box office gross and typically set by a complex, two-part contract.
  43. ^ Balio, Tino (2005). The American film industry. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-299-09874-2. Film Rentals as Percent of Volume of Business (1939): 36.4
  44. ^ Balio, Tino (1987). United Artists: the Company that Changed the Film Industry. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 124–125. ISBN 978-0-299-11440-4. To rekindle interest in the movies, Hollywood not only had to compete with television but also with other leisure-time activities...Movies made a comeback by 1955, but audiences had changed. Moviegoing became a special event for most people, creating the phenomenon of the big picture.
  45. ^ Hall & Neale 2010, p. 179. "Later epics proved far more disastrous for the backers. Samuel Bronston's The Fall of the Roman Empire, filmed in Spain, cost $17,816,876 and grossed only $1.9 million in America. George Stevens's long-gestating life of Christ, The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), which had been in planning since 1954 and in production since 1962, earned domestic rentals of $6,962,715 on a $21,481,745 negative cost, the largest amount yet spent on a production made entirely within the United States. The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966) was financed by the Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis from private investors and Swiss banks. He then sold distribution rights outside Italy jointly to Fox and Seven Arts for $15 million (70 percent of which came from Fox), thereby recouping the bulk of his $18 million investment. Although The Bible returned a respectable world rental of $25.3 million, Fox was still left with a net loss of just over $1.5 million. It was the last biblical epic to be released by any major Hollywood studio for nearly twenty years."
  46. ^ Williams, Trey (September 25, 2015). "Ridley Scott's latest 'Alien' announcement drives Hollywood's sequel problem". MarketWatch. Retrieved May 12, 2016.
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  50. ^ "Griffith's 20 Year Record". Variety. September 5, 1928. p. 12. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  51. ^ Schickel, Richard (1996). D. W. Griffith: An American Life. Limelight Series. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-87910-080-3. ...there exists a very precise production accountant's statement, drawn up some time after the picture was finished, previews had been held and release prints struck. This document shows that the negative cost of the picture was precisely $385,906.77...
  52. ^ "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
  53. ^ a b Finler 2003, p. 358
  54. ^ Milwaukee Magazine. Vol. 32. 2007. The year's top–grossing movie, Aloma made $3 million in the first three months and brought Gray back to Milwaukee for its opening at the Wisconsin Theatre.
  55. ^ Parkinson, David (2007). The Rough Guide to Film Musicals. Dorling Kindersley. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-84353-650-5. But they had previously succeeded in showing how musicals could centre on ordinary people with Sunny Side Up (1929), which had grossed $2 million at the box office and demonstrated a new maturity and ingenuity in the staging of story and dance.
  56. ^ a b Hall & Neale 2010, pp. 6–7. "For similar reasons of accountability, Variety has typically used figures for domestic (U.S. and Canadian) rather than worldwide revenue. This became its standard policy in 1940, when the advent of war in Europe persuaded the American film industry (temporarily, as it turned out) that it should be wholly reliant on the home market for profitability. Where specific rentals data are reported in Variety before this (which tended to be only sporadically) they were often for worldwide rather domestic performance. This was also the case with other trade sources, such as Quigley's annual Motion Picture Almanac, which published its own all-time hits lists from the early 1930s onward. The subsequent confusion of domestic and worldwide figures, and of rental and box-office figures, has plagued many published accounts of Hollywood history (sometimes including those in Variety itself), and we have attempted to be diligant in clarifying the differences between them."
  57. ^ McBride, Joseph (2011). Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. University Press of Mississippi. p. 309. ISBN 978-1-60473-838-4. According to the studio's books It Happened One Night brought in $1 million in film rentals during its initial release, but as Joe Walker pointed out, the figure would have been much larger if the film had not been sold to theaters on a block-booking basis in a package with more than two dozen lesser Columbia films, and the total rentals of the package spread among them all, as was customary in that era, since it minimized the risk and allowed the major studios to dominate the marketplace.
  58. ^ Shearer, Lloyd (October 26, 1947). "GWTW: Supercolossal Saga of an Epic". The New York Times. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
  59. ^ . Time. February 2, 1953. Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  60. ^ Block & Wilson 2010, p. 129. "Domestic Rentals: $30,015,000 (61%); Foreign Rentals: $18,964,000 (39%)...Gone with the Wind includes initial release plus four rereleases (1941,1942,1947 and 1954) since foreign rental revenues were available only cumulative through 1956."
  61. ^ McDermott, Christine (2010), Life with Father, p. 307, No matter what the billing, the movie became a worldwide hit with $6.5 million in worldwide rentals, from Pappa och vi in Sweden to Vita col padre in Italy, although it booked a net loss of $350,000. In: Block & Wilson 2010.
  62. ^ Mulligan, Hugh A. (September 23, 1956). "Cinerama Pushing Ahead As Biggest Money-Maker". The Register-Guard. Eugene, Oregon. p. 7B.
  63. ^ Hall & Neale 2010, p. 145. "The commercial success of the five Cinerama travelogues, which earned an aggregate worldwide box-office gross of $120 million by 1962 (including $82 million in the United States and Canada), nevertheless demonstrated to the mainstream industry the market value of special screen formats."
  64. ^ a b c d e f Dirks, Tim. "Top Films of All-Time: Part 1 – Box-Office Blockbusters". Filmsite.org. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  65. ^ a b Wasko, Janet (1986). "D.W. Griffiths and the banks: a case study in film financing". In Kerr, Paul (ed.). The Hollywood Film Industry: A Reader. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-7100-9730-9. Various accounts have cited $15 to $18 million profits during the first few years of release, while in a letter to a potential investor in the proposed sound version, Aitken noted that a $15 to $18 million box-office gross was a 'conservative estimate'. For years Variety has listed The Birth of a Nation's total rental at $50 million. (This reflects the total amount paid to the distributor, not box-office gross.) This 'trade legend' has finally been acknowledged by Variety as a 'whopper myth', and the amount has been revised to $5 million. That figure seems far more feasible, as reports of earnings in the Griffith collection list gross receipts for 1915–1919 at slightly more than $5.2 million (including foreign distribution) and total earnings after deducting general office expenses, but not royalties, at about $2 million.
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  68. ^ Block & Wilson 2010, p. 237. "By the end of 1938, it had grossed more than $8 million in worldwide rentals and was ranked at the time as the second-highest-grossing film after the 1925 epic Ben-Hur".
  69. ^ Finler 2003, p. 47. "Walt Disney took a big risk when he decided to invest $1.5 million in his first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It became the biggest hit of the sound era and the largest-grossing movie since The Birth of a Nation – until the release of independent producer David O. Selznick's Gone with the Wind just two years later."
  70. ^ Barrios, Richard (1995). A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film. Oxford University Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-19-508811-3. Since it's rarely seen today, The Singing Fool is frequently confused with The Jazz Singer; although besides Jolson and a pervasively maudlin air the two have little in common. In the earlier film Jolson was inordinately attached to his mother and sang "Mammy"; here the fixation was on his young son, and "Sonny Boy" became an enormous hit. So did the film, which amassed a stunning world-wide gross of $5.9 million...Some sources give it as the highest gross of any film in its initial release prior to Gone with the Wind. This is probably overstating it—MGM's records show that Ben-Hur and The Big Parade grossed more, and no one knows just how much The Birth of a Nation brought in. Still, by the standards of the time it's an amazing amount.
  71. ^ Everson, William K. (1998) [First published 1978]. American silent film. Da Capo Press. p. 374. ISBN 978-0-306-80876-0. Putting The Birth of a Nation in fifth place is open to question, since it is generally conceded to be the top-grossing film of all time. However, it has always been difficult to obtain reliable box-office figures for this film, and it may have been even more difficult in the mid-1930s. After listing it until the mid-1970s as the top-grosser, though finding it impossible to quote exact figures, Variety, the trade journal, suddenly repudiated the claim but without giving specific details or reasons. On the basis of the number of paid admissions, and continuous exhibition, its number one position seems justified.
  72. ^ Hall & Neale 2010, p. 163. "MGM's silent Ben-Hur, which opened at the end of 1925, had out-grossed all the other pictures released by the company in 1926 combined. With worldwide rentals of $9,386,000 on first release it was, with the sole possible exception of The Birth of a Nation, the highest-earning film of the entire silent era."
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  75. ^ Thomas, Bob (January 18, 1963). "'West Side Story' Earned $19 Million Last Year". Reading Eagle. Associated Press. p. 20.
  76. ^ Klopsch, Louis; Sandison, George Henry; Talmage, Thomas De Witt (1965). "Christian Herald". 88: 68. Yet "The Ten Commandments" has earned 58 million dollars in film rentals and is expected to bring in 10 to 15 million each year it is reissued. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  77. ^ Hall & Neale 2010, pp. 160–161. "General release began at normal prices in 1959 and continued until the end of the following year, when the film was temporarily withdrawn (the first of several reissues came in 1966). The worldwide rental by this time was around $60 million. In the domestic market it dislodged Gone with the Wind from the number one position on Variety's list of All-Time Rentals Champs. GWTW had hitherto maintained its lead through several reissues (and was soon to regain it through another in 1961)."
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Box office sources

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    • 2020 Re-release: "Titanic (2020 Re-release)". Box Office Mojo. 2020 Re-release: $71,352
    • 2023 Re-release: "Titanic (25 Year Anniversary)". Box Office Mojo. 2023 Re-release: $68,705,727
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    Total as of August 31, 2014: $249,036,646
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    Total as of November 2, 2014: $22,492,845
    • "Frozen (2013) – International Box Office Results: United Kingdom". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
    Total as of June 8, 2014: £39,090,985
    Total as of November 30, 2014: £40,960,083 ($1 = £0.63866)
    Total as of December 7, 2014: £41,087,765 ($1 = £0.64136)
    Total as of December 14, 2014: £41,170,608 ($1 = £0.636)
    Total as of November 26, 2017: £42,840,559 ($1 = £0.7497)
    Total as of December 3, 2017: £42,976,318 ($1 = £0.742)
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    Total as of March 30, 2014: €35,098,170
    Total as of October 18, 2015: €42,526,744
    nb. the exact euro to dollar conversion rate is unknown for earnings since April 2014, but the euro never fell below parity with the dollar during 2014 and 2015 (as can be verified by comparing the exchange rate on the individual date entries at the provided reference) so an approximate conversion rate of €1: $1 is used here to give a lower-bound.
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    • Pre-2022 releases: . Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved March 7, 2022. Worldwide: $1,033,928,303; Original Release: $912,667,947; Production Budget: $63 million
April 18, 2023
list, highest, grossing, films, films, generate, income, from, several, revenue, streams, including, theatrical, exhibition, home, video, television, broadcast, rights, merchandising, however, theatrical, office, earnings, primary, metric, trade, publications,. Films generate income from several revenue streams including theatrical exhibition home video television broadcast rights and merchandising However theatrical box office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assessing the success of a film mostly because of the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights but also because of historical practice Included on the list are charts of the top box office earners ranked by both the nominal and real value of their revenue a chart of high grossing films by calendar year a timeline showing the transition of the highest grossing film record and a chart of the highest grossing film franchises and series All charts are ranked by international theatrical box office performance where possible excluding income derived from home video broadcasting rights and merchandise Gone with the Wind held the record of highest grossing film for twenty five years and adjusted for inflation has earned more than any other film Traditionally war films musicals and historical dramas have been the most popular genres but franchise films have been among the best performers of the 21st century There is strong interest in the superhero genre with ten films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring among the nominal top earners The most successful superhero film Avengers Endgame is also the second highest grossing film on the nominal earnings chart and there are four films in total based on the Avengers comic books charting in the top twenty Other Marvel Comics adaptations have also had success with the Spider Man and X Men properties while films based on Batman and Superman from DC Comics have generally performed well Star Wars is also represented in the nominal earnings chart with five films while the Harry Potter Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises feature prominently Although the nominal earnings chart is dominated by films adapted from pre existing properties and sequels it is headed by Avatar which is an original work Animated family films have performed consistently well with Disney films enjoying lucrative re releases prior to the home video era Disney also enjoyed later success with films such as Frozen and Frozen II Zootopia and The Lion King with its computer animated remake as the highest grossing animated film as well as its Pixar brand of which Incredibles 2 Toy Story 3 and 4 and Finding Dory have been the best performers Beyond Disney and Pixar animation the Despicable Me Shrek and Ice Age series have met with the most success While inflation has eroded the achievements of most films from the 1950s 1960s and 1970s there are franchises originating from that period that are still active Besides the Star Wars and Superman franchises James Bond and Godzilla films are still being released periodically all four are among the highest grossing franchises Some of the older films that held the record of highest grossing film still have respectable grosses by today s standards but no longer compete numerically against today s top earners in an era of much higher individual ticket prices When those prices are adjusted for inflation however then Gone with the Wind which was the highest grossing film outright for twenty five years is still the highest grossing film of all time All grosses on the list are expressed in U S dollars at their nominal value except where stated otherwise Contents 1 Highest grossing films 2 Highest grossing films adjusted for inflation 3 High grossing films by year 4 Timeline of highest grossing films 5 Highest grossing franchises and film series 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 8 1 Box office sources 8 2 Franchise and series sources 8 3 Bibliography 9 External linksHighest grossing films Three of the four highest grossing films including Avatar at the top were written and directed by James Cameron With a worldwide box office gross of over 2 9 billion Avatar is proclaimed to be the highest grossing film but such claims usually refer to theatrical revenues only and do not take into account home video and television income which can form a significant portion of a film s earnings Once revenue from home entertainment is factored in it is not immediately clear which film is the most successful Titanic earned 1 2 billion from video and DVD sales and rentals 1 in addition to the 2 2 billion it grossed in theatres While complete sales data are not available for Avatar it earned 345 million from the sale of sixteen million DVD and Blu ray units in North America 2 and ultimately sold a total of thirty million DVD and Blu ray units worldwide 3 After home video income is accounted for both films have earned over 3 billion each Television broadcast rights will also substantially add to a film s earnings with a film often earning as much as 20 25 of its theatrical box office for a couple of television runs on top of pay per view revenues 4 Titanic earned a further 55 million from the NBC and HBO broadcast rights 1 equating to about 9 of its North American gross When a film is highly exploitable as a commercial property its ancillary revenues can dwarf its income from direct film sales 5 The Lion King 1994 earned over 2 billion in box office and home video sales 1 but this pales in comparison to the 8 billion earned at box offices around the world by the stage adaptation 6 Merchandising can be extremely lucrative too The Lion King also sold 3 billion of merchandise 7 while Pixar s Cars which earned 462 million in theatrical revenues and was only a modest hit by comparison to other Pixar films 8 generated global merchandise sales of over 8 billion in the five years after its 2006 release 9 10 Pixar had another huge hit with Toy Story 3 which generated almost 10 billion in merchandise retail sales in addition to the 1 billion it earned at the box office 11 On this chart films are ranked by the revenues from theatrical exhibition at their nominal value along with the highest positions they attained Six films in total have grossed in excess of 2 billion worldwide with Avatar ranked in the top position All of the films have had a theatrical run including re releases in the 21st century and films that have not played during this period do not appear on the chart because of ticket price inflation population size and ticket purchasing trends not being considered Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world Highest grossing films 12 Rank Peak Title Worldwide gross Year Reference s 1 1 Avatar 2 923 706 026 2009 1 2 2 1 Avengers Endgame 2 797 501 328 2019 3 4 3 3 Avatar The Way of Water 2 316 758 414 2022 5 4 1 Titanic T 2 256 392 809 1997 6 7 5 3 Star Wars The Force Awakens 2 068 223 624 2015 8 9 6 4 Avengers Infinity War 2 048 359 754 2018 10 11 7 6 Spider Man No Way Home 1 921 847 111 2021 12 13 8 3 Jurassic World 1 671 537 444 2015 14 15 9 7 The Lion King 1 656 943 394 2019 16 4 10 3 The Avengers 1 518 815 515 2012 17 18 11 4 Furious 7 1 515 341 399 2015 19 20 12 11 Top Gun Maverick 1 493 491 858 2022 21 22 13 10 Frozen II 1 450 026 933 2019 23 24 14 5 Avengers Age of Ultron 1 402 809 540 2015 25 20 15 9 Black Panther 1 347 280 838 2018 26 27 16 3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 1 342 139 727 2011 28 29 17 9 Star Wars The Last Jedi 1 332 539 889 2017 30 31 18 12 Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom 1 308 473 425 2018 32 11 19 5 Frozen F 1 290 000 000 2013 33 34 20 10 Beauty and the Beast 1 263 521 126 2017 35 36 21 15 Incredibles 2 1 242 805 359 2018 37 11 22 11 The Fate of the Furious F8 1 238 764 765 2017 38 36 23 5 Iron Man 3 1 214 811 252 2013 39 40 24 10 Minions 1 159 444 662 2015 41 15 25 12 Captain America Civil War 1 153 337 496 2016 42 43 26 20 Aquaman 1 148 528 393 2018 44 11 27 2 The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King 1 147 633 833 2003 45 46 28 24RK Spider Man Far From Home 1 131 927 996 2019 47 4 29 23RK Captain Marvel 1 128 274 794 2019 48 49 30 5RK Transformers Dark of the Moon 1 123 794 079 2011 50 29 31 7 Skyfall 1 108 569 499 2012 51 52 32 10 Transformers Age of Extinction 1 104 054 072 2014 53 54 33 7 The Dark Knight Rises 1 081 169 825 2012 55 56 34 31 Joker 1 074 458 282 2019 57 24 35 32 Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker 1 074 144 248 2019 58 24 36 30 Toy Story 4 1 073 394 593 2019 59 4 37 4TS3 Toy Story 3 1 066 970 811 2010 60 61 38 3 Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man s Chest 1 066 179 747 2006 62 63 39 20 Rogue One A Star Wars Story 1 057 420 387 2016 64 65 40 34 Aladdin 1 050 693 953 2019 66 4 41 6 Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides 1 045 713 802 2011 67 61 42 24 Despicable Me 3 1 034 800 131 2017 68 36 43 1 Jurassic Park 1 034 199 003 1993 69 70 44 22 Finding Dory 1 028 570 942 2016 71 72 45 2 Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace 1 027 082 707 1999 73 7 46 5 Alice in Wonderland 1 025 468 216 2010 74 75 47 24 Zootopia 1 023 784 195 2016 76 43 48 14 The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey 1 017 030 651 2012 77 78 49 2 Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone HP1 1 009 046 830 2001 79 80 50 4 The Dark Knight 1 006 234 167 2008 81 82 TThe totals given for Titanic at Box Office Mojo and The Numbers are both incorrect Prior to the 2023 re release the totals at both trackers were inflated above the true figure As of 2019 Box Office Mojo correctly recorded that Titanic had grossed 1 843 billion on its original release 344 million from its 3D reissue in 2012 and a further 692 000 from a limited release in 2017 for a lifetime total of 2 187 billion 13 Following a limited re release in 2020 Box Office Mojo incorrectly added 7 million to the original release total 14 By the end of 2021 Box Office Mojo had corrected the original release total but added the 7 million figure to both the 2012 and 2017 reissue totals incorrectly increasing the lifetime total by 14 million to 2 202 billion 15 At the beginning of 2023 Box Office Mojo corrected the total for the 2017 reissue bringing the lifetime gross down to 2 195 billion but retained the error in the 2012 reissue 16 The Numbers does not log individual releases but had the lifetime total recorded as 2 186 billion in September 2014 roughly equating to 1 843 billion for the original release and 343 6 million for the 3D reissue 17 A couple of weeks later The Numbers increased the lifetime gross to 2 208 billion without explanation 18 FBox Office Mojo stopped updating its main total for Frozen in August 2014 while it was still in release The total listed here incorporates subsequent earnings in Japan Nigeria Spain the United Kingdom and Germany up to the end of 2015 but omits earnings in Turkey Iceland Brazil and Australia 2016 which amount to a few hundred thousand dollars The total is rounded to 1 million to compensate for the numerical inaccuracy It was re released in the United Kingdom in December 2017 with Olaf s Frozen Adventure earning an additional 2 3 million F8In the case of The Fate of the Furious the gross is from an archived version of Box Office Mojo after irregularities were discovered in the current figure Ongoing weekly drops in the totals for several countries Argentina being the worst affected led to a drop in the overall worldwide total 19 In view of what appears to be an aberration in the source a previous figure is provided RKThe Lord of the Rings The Return of the King saw its original gross corrected in early 2020 The result of this correction is that Spider Man Far From Home Captain Marvel and Transformers Dark of the Moon all peaked one place lower than shown in the accompanying source TS3Box Office Mojo revised the grosses for Pixar films in August 2016 resulting in the gross for Toy Story 3 being corrected from 1 063 billion to 1 067 billion 20 21 This means that it peaked at number 4 at the end of its run ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man s Chest rather than at number 5 as indicated by the source HP1The Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone reissue totals recorded by Box Office Mojo for Brazil 2020 Italy 2021 Netherlands 2021 and South Korea 2021 have been deducted from the lifetime gross due to Box Office Mojo double counting the original release grosses in those countries Highest grossing films adjusted for inflationSee also List of highest grossing films in the United States and Canada Adjusted for ticket price inflation and List of films by box office admissions Inflation rates around the world vary complicating inflation adjustment Because of the long term effects of inflation notably the significant increase of movie theater ticket prices the list unadjusted for inflation gives far more weight to later films 22 The unadjusted list while commonly found in the press is therefore largely meaningless for comparing films widely separated in time as many films from earlier eras will never appear on a modern unadjusted list despite achieving higher commercial success when adjusted for price increases 23 To compensate for the devaluation of the currency some charts make adjustments for inflation but not even this practice fully addresses the issue since ticket prices and inflation do not necessarily parallel one another For example in 1970 tickets cost 1 55 or about 6 68 in inflation adjusted 2004 dollars by 1980 prices had risen to about 2 69 a drop to 5 50 in inflation adjusted 2004 dollars 24 Ticket prices have also risen at different rates of inflation around the world further complicating the process of adjusting worldwide grosses 22 Another complication is release in multiple formats for which different ticket prices are charged One notable example of this phenomenon is Avatar which was also released in 3D and IMAX almost two thirds of tickets for that film were for 3D showings with an average price of 10 and about one sixth were for IMAX showings with an average price over 14 50 compared to a 2010 average price of 7 61 for 2D films 25 Social and economic factors such as population change 26 and the growth of international markets 27 28 29 also have an effect on the number of people purchasing theater tickets along with audience demographics where some films sell a much higher proportion of discounted children s tickets or perform better in big cities where tickets cost more 23 The measuring system for gauging a film s success is based on unadjusted grosses mainly because historically this is the way it has always been done because of the practices of the film industry the box office receipts are compiled by theaters and relayed to the distributor which in turn releases them to the media 30 Converting to a more representative system that counts ticket sales rather than gross is also fraught with problems because the only data available for older films are the sale totals 26 As the motion picture industry is highly oriented towards marketing currently released films unadjusted figures are always used in marketing campaigns so that new blockbuster films can much more easily achieve a high sales ranking and thus be promoted as a top film of all time 24 31 so there is little incentive to switch to a more robust analysis from a marketing or even newsworthy point of view 30 Despite the inherent difficulties in accounting for inflation several attempts have been made Estimates depend on the price index used to adjust the grosses 31 and the exchange rates used to convert between currencies can also affect the calculations both of which can have an effect on the ultimate rankings of an inflation adjusted list Gone with the Wind first released in 1939 is generally considered to be the most successful film with Guinness World Records in 2014 estimating its adjusted global gross at 3 4 billion Estimates for Gone with the Wind s adjusted gross have varied substantially its owner Turner Entertainment estimated its adjusted earnings at 3 3 billion in 2007 a few years earlier than the Guinness estimate 32 other estimates fall either side of this amount with one putting its gross just under 3 billion in 2010 33 while another provided an alternative figure of 3 8 billion in 2006 34 Which film is Gone with the Wind s nearest rival depends on the set of figures used Guinness had Avatar in second place with 3 billion while other estimates saw Titanic in the runner up spot with first run worldwide earnings of almost 2 9 billion at 2010 prices 33 Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world Highest grossing films as of 2022 update adjusted for inflation 35 Inf Rank Title Worldwide gross 2022 Year1 Gone with the Wind 4 192 000 000 19392 Avatar A1 3 824 000 000 20093 Titanic 2 516 000 000 T 3 485 000 000 19974 Star Wars 3 443 000 000 19775 Avengers Endgame AE 3 165 000 000 20196 The Sound of Music 2 884 000 000 19657 E T the Extra Terrestrial 2 815 000 000 19828 The Ten Commandments 2 665 000 000 19569 Doctor Zhivago 2 526 000 000 196510 Star Wars The Force Awakens TFA 2 491 000 000 2015InfInflation adjustment is carried out using the Consumer price index for advanced economies published by the International Monetary Fund 36 The index is uniformly applied to the grosses in the chart published by Guinness World Records in 2014 beginning with the 2014 index The figures in the above chart take into account inflation that occurred in 2014 and in every available year since then through 2022 A1The adjusted gross for Avatar includes revenue from the original release and all four reissues The original release and 2010 Special Edition grosses are adjusted from the Guinness base year whilst the 2020 and 2021 grosses are adjusted from the 2021 index and the 2022 gross from 2022 37 TGuinness adjusted total for Titanic only increased by 102 000 000 between the 2012 published in 2011 and 2015 editions a rise of 4 2 shared by the other adjusted totals in the chart and omitted the gross from a 3D re release in 2012 35 38 This chart incorporates the gross of 343 550 770 from the reissue and adjusts it from the 2013 index 39 Titanic grossed a further 762 994 during limited re releases in 2017 and 2020 but this sum is not represented in the adjusted total 40 AEThe gross for Avengers Endgame is adjusted from the 2020 index TFAThe gross for Star Wars The Force Awakens is adjusted from the 2016 index High grossing films by yearGlossary Distributor rentals Box office figures are reported in either gross revenue or distributor rentals the latter being especially true of older films Commonly mistaken for home video revenue distributor rentals are the distributor s share of the film s theatrical revenue i e the box office gross less the exhibitor s cut 41 42 Historically the rental price averaged at 30 40 when the distributors owned the theater chains equating to just over a third of the gross being paid to the distributor of the film 43 In the modern marketplace rental fees can vary greatly depending on a number of factors although the films from the major studios average out at 43 41 Audience tastes were fairly eclectic during the 20th century but several trends did emerge During the silent era films with war themes were popular with audiences with The Birth of a Nation American Civil War The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse The Big Parade and Wings all World War I becoming the most successful films in their respective years of release with the trend coming to an end with All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930 With the advent of sound in 1927 the musical the genre best placed to showcase the new technology took over as the most popular type of film with audiences with 1928 and 1929 both being topped by musical films The genre continued to perform strongly in the 1930s but the outbreak of World War II saw war themed films dominate again during this period starting with Gone with the Wind American Civil War in 1939 and finishing with The Best Years of Our Lives World War II in 1946 Samson and Delilah 1949 saw the beginning of a trend of increasingly expensive historical dramas set during Ancient Rome biblical times throughout the 1950s as cinema competed with television for audiences 44 with Quo Vadis The Robe The Ten Commandments Ben Hur and Spartacus all becoming the highest grossing film of the year during initial release before the genre started to wane after several high profile failures 45 The success of White Christmas and South Pacific in the 1950s foreshadowed the comeback of the musical in the 1960s with West Side Story Mary Poppins My Fair Lady The Sound of Music and Funny Girl all among the top films of the decade The 1970s saw a shift in audience tastes to high concept films with six such films made by either George Lucas or Steven Spielberg topping the chart during the 1980s The 21st century has seen an increasing dependence on franchises and adaptations with the box office dominance of films based on pre existing intellectual property at record levels 46 Films directed by Steven Spielberg have been the highest grossing film of the year on six occasions and on three occasions have been the highest grossing film of all time Steven Spielberg is the most represented director on the chart with six films to his credit occupying the top spot in 1975 1981 1982 1984 1989 and 1993 Cecil B DeMille 1932 1947 1949 1952 and 1956 is in second place with five films and William Wyler 1942 1946 1959 and 1968 and James Cameron 1991 1997 2009 and 2022 are tied for third place with four films D W Griffith 1915 1916 and 1920 George Roy Hill 1966 1969 and 1973 and the Russo brothers 2016 2018 and 2019 all feature heavily with three films apiece George Lucas directed two chart toppers in 1977 and 1999 but also served in a strong creative capacity as a producer and writer in 1980 1981 1983 1984 and 1989 as well The following directors have also all directed two films on the chart Frank Lloyd King Vidor Frank Capra Michael Curtiz Leo McCarey Alfred Hitchcock David Lean Stanley Kubrick Guy Hamilton Mike Nichols William Friedkin Peter Jackson Gore Verbinski and Michael Bay Mervyn LeRoy Ken Annakin and Robert Wise are each represented by one solo credit and one shared credit and John Ford co directed two films Disney films are usually co directed and some directors have served on several winning teams Wilfred Jackson Hamilton Luske Clyde Geronimi David Hand Ben Sharpsteen Wolfgang Reitherman and Bill Roberts have all co directed at least two films on the list Only seven directors have topped the chart in consecutive years McCarey 1944 and 1945 Nichols 1966 and 1967 Spielberg 1981 and 1982 Jackson 2002 and 2003 Verbinski 2006 and 2007 and the Russo brothers 2018 and 2019 Because of release schedules especially in the case of films released towards the end of the year and different release patterns across the world many films can do business in two or more calendar years therefore the grosses documented here are not confined to just the year of release Grosses are not limited to original theatrical runs either with many older films often being re released periodically so the figures represent all the business a film has done since its original release a film s first run gross is included in brackets after the total if known Because of incomplete data it cannot be known for sure how much money some films have made and when they made it but generally the chart chronicles the films from each year that went on to earn the most In the cases where estimates conflict both films are recorded and in cases where a film has moved into first place because of being re released the previous record holder is also retained Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world High grossing films by year of release 47 48 49 Year Title Worldwide gross Budget Reference s 1915 The Birth of a Nation 50 000 000 100 000 000 20 000 000 R 5 200 000 R 110 000 83 84 85 1916 Intolerance 1 750 000 R IN 385 907 50 51 1917 Cleopatra 500 000 R 300 000 86 87 1918 Mickey 8 000 000 250 000 88 1919 The Miracle Man 3 000 000 R 120 000 89 1920 Way Down East 5 000 000 R 4 000 000 R 800 000 90 91 1921 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 5 000 000 R 4 000 000 R 600 000 800 000 92 1922 Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood 2 500 000 R 930 042 78 93 94 1923 The Covered Wagon 5 000 000 R 800 000 95 96 1924 The Sea Hawk 3 000 000 R 700 000 95 1925 The Big Parade 18 000 000 22 000 000 R 6 131 000 R 382 000 97 98 99 Ben Hur 10 738 000 R 9 386 000 R 3 967 000 100 101 1926 For Heaven s Sake 2 600 000 R FH 150 000 90 102 1927 Wings 3 600 000 R 2 000 000 90 103 104 1928 The Singing Fool 5 900 000 R 388 000 104 105 1929 The Broadway Melody 4 400 000 4 800 000 R 379 000 106 107 Sunny Side Up 3 500 000 R SS 600 000 108 109 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front 3 000 000 R 1 250 000 90 110 111 112 1931 Frankenstein 12 000 000 R 1 400 000 R 250 000 113 114 City Lights 5 000 000 R 1 607 351 115 1932 The Sign of the Cross 2 738 993 R 694 065 96 116 117 118 1933 King Kong 5 347 000 R 1 856 000 R 672 255 75 119 I m No Angel 3 250 000 R 200 000 120 121 Cavalcade 3 000 000 4 000 000 R 1 116 000 91 111 She Done Him Wrong 3 000 000 R 274 076 122 123 124 1934 The Merry Widow 2 608 000 R 1 605 000 125 117 It Happened One Night 2 500 000 R ON 325 000 126 127 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty 4 460 000 R 1 905 000 117 1936 San Francisco 6 044 000 R 5 273 000 R 1 300 000 125 117 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 418 000 000 S7 8 500 000 R 1 488 423 128 129 1938 You Can t Take It with You 5 000 000 R 1 200 000 130 131 1939 Gone with the Wind 390 525 192 402 352 579 32 000 000 R GW 3 900 000 4 250 000 132 133 134 135 136 1940 Pinocchio 87 000 862 3 500 000 R 2 600 000 137 129 138 Boom Town 4 600 000 R 2 100 000 139 140 1941 Sergeant York 7 800 000 R 1 600 000 141 142 1942 Bambi 267 997 843 3 449 353 R 1 700 000 2 000 000 143 144 145 Mrs Miniver 8 878 000 R 1 344 000 146 147 1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls 11 000 000 R 2 681 298 148 149 150 This Is the Army 9 555 586 44 R 1 400 000 151 152 150 1944 Going My Way 6 500 000 R 1 000 000 153 154 155 1945 Mom and Dad 80 000 000 MD 22 000 000 R 65 000 156 The Bells of St Mary s 11 200 000 R 1 600 000 157 1946 Song of the South 65 000 000 3 300 000 R 2 125 000 158 159 160 The Best Years of Our Lives 14 750 000 R 2 100 000 161 162 Duel in the Sun 10 000 000 R 5 255 000 153 163 1947 Forever Amber 8 000 000 R 6 375 000 108 163 Unconquered 7 500 000 R UN 4 200 000 164 165 1948 Easter Parade 5 918 134 R 2 500 000 155 166 The Red Shoes 5 000 000 R 505 581 2 000 000 153 167 168 The Snake Pit 4 100 000 R 3 800 000 169 170 1949 Samson and Delilah 14 209 250 R 3 097 563 171 96 1950 Cinderella 263 591 415 20 000 000 7 800 000 R 2 200 000 172 173 174 King Solomon s Mines 10 050 000 R 2 258 000 175 1951 Quo Vadis 21 037 000 26 700 000 R 7 623 000 171 176 177 1952 This Is Cinerama 50 000 000 CI 1 000 000 178 179 The Greatest Show on Earth 18 350 000 R GS 3 873 946 180 181 96 1953 Peter Pan 145 000 000 7 000 000 R 3 000 000 4 000 000 182 183 The Robe 25 000 000 26 100 000 R 4 100 000 184 185 177 1954 Rear Window 24 500 000 5 300 000 R 1 000 000 186 176 White Christmas 26 000 050 12 000 000 R 3 800 000 187 188 189 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea 25 000 134 6 800 000 8 000 000 R 4 500 000 9 000 000 190 191 153 192 1955 Lady and the Tramp 187 000 000 6 500 000 R 4 000 000 193 153 194 Cinerama Holiday 21 000 000 CI 2 000 000 195 196 Mister Roberts 9 900 000 R 2 400 000 197 1956 The Ten Commandments 90 066 230 R 122 700 000 55 200 000 R 13 270 000 96 198 199 1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai 30 600 000 R 2 840 000 199 1958 South Pacific 30 000 000 R 5 610 000 200 1959 Ben Hur 90 000 000 R 146 900 000 66 100 000 R 15 900 000 201 202 1960 Swiss Family Robinson 30 000 000 R 4 000 000 203 Spartacus 60 000 000 22 105 225 R 10 284 014 204 205 Psycho 50 000 000 14 000 000 R 800 000 206 1961 One Hundred and One Dalmatians 303 000 000 3 600 000 4 000 000 193 207 145 West Side Story 105 000 000 31 800 000 R 7 000 000 208 209 1962 Lawrence of Arabia 77 324 852 69 995 385 13 800 000 210 211 How the West Was Won 35 000 000 R 14 483 000 212 The Longest Day 33 200 000 R 8 600 000 209 211 1963 Cleopatra 40 300 000 R 31 115 000 209 211 From Russia with Love 78 900 000 29 400 000 R 12 500 000 R 2 000 000 213 214 215 1964 My Fair Lady 55 000 000 R 17 000 000 216 Goldfinger 124 900 000 46 000 000 R 3 000 000 213 215 Mary Poppins 44 000 000 50 000 000 R 5 200 000 217 216 1965 The Sound of Music 286 214 076 114 600 000 R 8 000 000 218 209 1966 The Bible In the Beginning 25 325 000 R 18 000 000 205 219 Hawaii 34 562 222 15 600 000 R 15 000 000 220 153 Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf 33 736 689 14 500 000 R 7 613 000 221 153 222 1967 The Jungle Book 378 000 000 23 800 000 R 3 900 000 4 000 000 193 223 224 145 The Graduate 85 000 000 R 3 100 000 225 226 1968 2001 A Space Odyssey 141 000 000 190 000 000 21 900 000 R 10 300 000 227 209 Funny Girl 80 000 000 100 000 000 8 800 000 228 229 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 152 308 525 37 100 000 R 6 600 000 230 209 226 1970 Love Story 173 400 000 80 000 000 R 2 260 000 231 232 233 1971 The French Connection 75 000 000 R 3 300 000 108 Fiddler on the Roof 49 400 000 R 100 000 000 45 100 000 R 9 000 000 234 235 Diamonds Are Forever 116 000 000 45 700 000 R 7 200 000 213 214 1972 The Godfather 246 120 974 287 000 000 127 600 000 142 000 000 R 6 000 000 7 200 000 236 235 237 238 1973 The Exorcist 413 071 948 112 300 000 R 10 000 000 239 240 241 242 The Sting 115 000 000 R 5 500 000 243 244 1974 The Towering Inferno 203 336 412 104 838 000 R 14 300 000 245 246 247 242 248 1975 Jaws 476 512 065 193 700 000 R 9 000 000 249 250 251 1976 Rocky 225 000 000 77 100 000 R 1 075 000 252 235 253 1977 Star Wars 775 398 007 530 000 000 SW 268 500 000 R 11 293 151 254 255 235 256 1978 Grease 395 452 066 341 000 000 6 000 000 257 258 225 259 1979 Moonraker 210 300 000 31 000 000 213 260 Rocky II 200 182 289 7 000 000 261 262 260 1980 The Empire Strikes Back 547 969 004 413 562 607 SW 23 000 000 32 000 000 263 264 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark 389 925 971 321 866 000 353 988 025 18 000 000 22 800 000 265 1982 E T the Extra Terrestrial 797 103 542 619 000 000 664 000 000 10 500 000 12 200 000 266 267 255 268 269 1983 Return of the Jedi 475 106 177 385 845 197 SW 32 500 000 42 700 000 270 264 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 333 107 271 27 000 000 28 200 000 271 272 273 1985 Back to the Future 389 053 797 381 109 762 19 000 000 22 000 000 274 275 1986 Top Gun 356 830 601 345 000 000 14 000 000 19 000 000 276 277 272 1987 Fatal Attraction 320 145 905 14 000 000 278 272 1988 Rain Man 354 825 476 30 000 000 279 280 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 474 171 806 494 000 000 36 000 000 55 400 000 281 272 282 1990 Ghost 505 870 681 505 702 588 22 000 000 283 272 1991 Terminator 2 Judgment Day 523 774 456 519 843 345 94 000 000 284 285 1992 Aladdin 504 050 045 28 000 000 286 145 1993 Jurassic Park 1 034 199 003 912 667 947 63 000 000 70 000 000 69 1994 The Lion King 968 511 805 763 455 561 45 000 000 79 300 000 287 1995 Toy Story 373 554 033 364 873 776 30 000 000 288 289 Die Hard with a Vengeance 366 101 666 70 000 000 290 291 1996 Independence Day 817 400 891 75 000 000 292 1997 Titanic 2 256 392 809 1 843 373 318 200 000 000 6 1998 Armageddon 553 709 788 140 000 000 293 294 1999 Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace 1 027 082 707 924 317 558 115 000 000 127 500 000 73 264 2000 Mission Impossible 2 546 388 105 100 000 000 125 000 000 295 272 2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone 1 009 046 830HP1 974 755 371 125 000 000 79 2002 The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers 947 944 270 936 689 735 94 000 000 296 2003 The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King 1 147 633 833 1 140 682 011 94 000 000 45 2004 Shrek 2 928 760 770 150 000 000 297 2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 896 346 413 895 921 036 150 000 000 298 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man s Chest 1 066 179 747 225 000 000 62 2007 Pirates of the Caribbean At World s End 960 996 492 300 000 000 299 2008 The Dark Knight 1 006 234 167 997 039 412 185 000 000 81 2009 Avatar 2 923 706 026 2 743 577 587 237 000 000 1 2010 Toy Story 3 1 066 970 811 200 000 000 60 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 1 342 139 727 1 341 511 219 250 000 000 HP8 28 2012 The Avengers 1 518 815 515 220 000 000 17 2013 Frozen 1 290 000 000 1 287 000 000 150 000 000 33 2014 Transformers Age of Extinction 1 104 039 076 210 000 000 53 2015 Star Wars The Force Awakens 2 068 223 624 245 000 000 8 2016 Captain America Civil War 1 153 337 496 1 153 296 293 250 000 000 42 2017 Star Wars The Last Jedi 1 332 539 889 200 000 000 30 2018 Avengers Infinity War 2 048 359 754 316 000 000 400 000 000 10 300 2019 Avengers Endgame 2 797 501 328 356 000 000 3 2020 Demon Slayer Mugen Train 507 127 293 15 750 000 301 2021 Spider Man No Way Home 1 921 847 111 1 912 233 593 200 000 000 12 302 2022 Avatar The Way of Water 2 316 758 414 350 000 000 460 000 000 5 303 304 2023 The Super Mario Bros Movie 692 968 890 100 000 000 305 306 Since grosses are not limited to original theatrical runs a film s first run gross is included in brackets after the total if known Canada and U S gross only RDistributor rental TBATo be ascertained INNo contemporary sources provide figures for 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea although The Numbers provides a figure of 8 000 000 for the North American box office gross 52 However it is possible this figure has been mistaken for the gross of the 1954 remake which also earned 8 000 000 in North American rentals 53 FHSome sources such as The Numbers state that Aloma of the South Seas is the highest grossing film of the year earning 3 million 54 However no contemporary sources provide figures for Aloma of the South Seas so it is unclear what the 3 million figure relates to If it were the rental gross then that would have made it not only the highest grossing film of the year but one of the highest grossing films of the silent era and if that is the case it would be unusual for both International Motion Picture Almanac and Variety to omit it from their lists SSIt is not clear if the figure for Sunny Side Up is for North America or worldwide Other sources put its earnings at 2 million 55 which may suggest the higher figure is the worldwide rental given the confusion over international figures during this period 56 ONThe figure for It Happened One Night is not truly representative of its success it was distributed as a package deal along with more than two dozen other Columbia films and the total earnings were averaged out the true gross would have been much higher 57 S7Snow White s 418 million global cume omits earnings outside of North America from 1987 onwards GWIt is not absolutely clear how much Gone with the Wind earned from its initial release Contemporary accounts often list it as earning 32 million in North American rentals and retrospective charts have often duplicated this claim however it is likely this was the worldwide rental figure Trade journals would collate the data by either obtaining it from the distributors themselves who were keen to promote a successful film or by surveying theaters and constructing an estimate Distributors would often report the worldwide rental since the higher figure made the film appear more successful while estimates were limited to performance in North America therefore it was not unusual for worldwide and North American rentals to be mixed up Following the outbreak of World War II many of the foreign markets were unavailable to Hollywood so it became standard practice to just report on North American box office performance 56 In keeping with this new approach the North American rental for Gone with the Wind was revised to 21 million in 1947 11 million lower than the previous figure 58 and as of 1953 following the 1947 re release Variety was reporting earnings of 26 million 59 Through 1956 MGM reported cumulative North American earnings of 30 015 000 and foreign earnings of 18 964 000 from three releases 60 Worldwide rentals of 32 million from the initial release is consistent with the revised figures and later reported worldwide figures they indicate that the film earned 21 million in North America and 11 million overseas from the initial release and added a further 9 million in North America and 8 million overseas from subsequent re releases up to 1956 MDMom and Dad does not generally feature in high gross lists such as those published by Variety due to its independent distribution Essentially belonging to the exploitation genre it was marketed as an educational sex hygiene film in an effort to circumvent censorship laws Falling foul of the Motion Picture Production Code Mom and Dad was prevented from obtaining mainstream distribution and restricted to independent and drive in theaters It was the biggest hit of its kind and remained in continual distribution until the 1970s when hardcore pornography eventually took over At the end of 1947 it had earned 2 million and by 1949 8 million by 1956 it had earned 22 million in rentals representing a gross of 80 million and would have easily placed in the top ten films in the late 1940s and early 1950s Estimates of its total earnings are as high as 100 million UNChopra Gant stipulates that the figure given for Unconquered is for North American box office but as was common at the time the chart confuses worldwide and North American grosses Other sources state that the takings for Forever Amber 8 million and Life with Father 6 5 million 61 were in fact worldwide rental grosses so it is possible this is also true of Unconquered CIThe Cinerama figures represent gross amounts Since the Cinerama corporation owned the theaters there were no rental fees for the films meaning the studio received 100 of the box office gross unlike the case with most other films where the distributor typically receives less than half the gross Since Variety at the time ranked films by their U S and Canadian rental they constructed a hypothetical rental figure for the Cinerama films to provide a basis for comparison to other films in their chart in the case of This Is Cinerama the 50 million worldwide gross was reconfigured as a 12 5 million U S rental gross this is exactly 25 of the amount reported by Cinerama so Variety s formula seemingly halved the gross to obtain an estimate for the U S share and halved it again to simulate a rental fee 62 All five Cinerama features collectively generated 120 million in worldwide box office receipts 63 GSVariety put the worldwide rental for The Greatest Show on Earth at around 18 35 million with 12 8 million coming from the United States 53 a year after its release however Birchard puts its earnings at just over 15 million up to 1962 It is likely that Birchard s figure is just the North American gross rental and includes revenue from the 1954 and 1960 reissues SWThe first run Star Wars grosses do not include revenue from the 1997 special edition releases however the figure does include revenue from the re releases prior to the special editions HP1The Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone reissue totals recorded by Box Office Mojo for Brazil 2020 Italy 2021 Netherlands 2021 and South Korea 2021 have been deducted from the lifetime gross due to Box Office Mojo double counting the original release grosses in those countries HP8Production costs were shared with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Timeline of highest grossing films The Birth of a Nation pioneered many of the techniques used in filmmaking today becoming the most successful film ever made at the time of its release At least eleven films have held the record of highest grossing film since The Birth of a Nation assumed the top spot in 1915 Both The Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind spent twenty five consecutive years apiece as the highest grosser with films directed by Steven Spielberg and James Cameron holding the record on three occasions each Spielberg became the first director to break his own record when Jurassic Park overtook E T and Cameron emulated the feat when Avatar broke the record set by Titanic When it took over the top spot in 2019 Avengers Endgame became the first sequel to hold the record of highest grossing film and in doing so interrupted thirty six years of Spielberg Cameron dominance before Avatar reclaimed the top spot two years later in 2021 upon a re release Some sources claim that The Big Parade superseded The Birth of a Nation as highest grossing film eventually being replaced by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which in turn was quickly usurped by Gone with the Wind 64 Exact figures are not known for The Birth of a Nation but contemporary records put its worldwide earnings at 5 2 million as of 1919 65 Its international release was delayed by World War I and it was not released in many foreign territories until the 1920s coupled with further re releases in the United States its 10 million earnings as reported by Variety in 1932 are consistent with the earlier figure 66 At this time Variety still had The Birth of a Nation ahead of The Big Parade 6 400 000 on distributor rentals and if its estimate is correct Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 8 500 000 67 would not have earned enough on its first theatrical run to take the record 68 although it would have been the highest grossing talkie 69 displacing The Singing Fool 5 900 000 70 Although received wisdom holds that it is unlikely The Birth of a Nation was ever overtaken by a silent era film 71 the record would fall to 1925 s Ben Hur 9 386 000 if The Birth of a Nation earned significantly less than its estimated gross 72 In addition to its gross rental earnings through public exhibition The Birth of a Nation played at a large number of private club and organizational engagements which figures are unavailable for 73 It was hugely popular with the Ku Klux Klan who used it to drive recruitment 74 and at one point Variety estimated its total earnings to stand at around 50 million 75 Despite later retracting the claim the sum has been widely reported even though it has never been substantiated 65 While it is generally accepted that Gone with the Wind took over the record of highest grossing film on its initial release which is true in terms of public exhibition it is likely it did not overtake The Birth of a Nation in total revenue until a much later date with it still being reported as the highest earner up until the 1960s 73 Gone with the Wind itself may have been briefly overtaken by The Ten Commandments 1956 which closed at the end of 1960 with worldwide rentals of 58 60 million 76 77 compared to Gone with the Wind s 59 million 78 if it did claim the top spot its tenure there was short lived since Gone with the Wind was re released the following year and increased its earnings to 67 million Depending on how accurate the estimates are the 1959 remake of Ben Hur may also have captured the record from Gone with the Wind as of the end of 1961 it had earned 47 million worldwide 79 and by 1963 it was trailing Gone with the Wind by just 2 million with international takings of 65 million 80 ultimately earning 66 million from its initial release 81 The 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat reportedly earned as much as 600 million a figure that may have been inflated by gangsters in money laundering schemes Another film purported to have been the highest grosser is the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat In 1984 Linda Lovelace testified to a United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on juvenile justice that the film had earned 600 million 82 this figure has been the subject of much speculation since if it is accurate then the film would have made more money than Star Wars and finished the 1970s as the highest grossing film The main argument against this figure is that it simply did not have a wide enough release to sustain the sort of sums that would be required for it to ultimately gross this amount 83 Exact figures are not known but testimony in a federal trial in 1976 about four years into the film s release showed the film had grossed over 25 million 84 Roger Ebert has reasoned it possibly did earn as much as 600 million on paper since mobsters owned most of the adult movie theaters during this period and would launder income from drugs and prostitution through them so probably inflated the box office receipts for the film 85 The Birth of a Nation Gone with the Wind The Godfather Jaws Star Wars E T and Avatar all increased their record grosses with re releases The grosses from their original theatrical runs are included here along with totals from re releases up to the point that they lost the record therefore the total for The Birth of a Nation includes income from its reissues up to 1940 the total for Star Wars includes revenue from the late 1970s and early 1980s reissues but not from the 1997 Special Edition the total for E T incorporates its gross from the 1985 reissue but not from 2002 The total for Avatar s first appearance on the chart includes revenue from the 2010 Special Edition which represents all of its earnings up to the point it relinquished the record whereas its second appearance also incorporates revenue from a 2020 re release in the Asia Pacific region as well as the 2021 re release in China which helped it to reclaim the record Gone with the Wind is likewise represented twice on the chart the 1940 entry includes earnings from its staggered 1939 1942 release roadshow general release second run 86 along with all of its revenue up to the 1961 reissue prior to losing the record to The Sound of Music in 1966 its 1971 entry after it took back the record includes income from the 1967 and 1971 reissues but omitting later releases The Godfather was re released in 1973 after its success at the 45th Academy Awards and Jaws was released again in 1976 and their grosses here most likely include earnings from those releases The Sound of Music The Godfather Jaws Jurassic Park and Titanic increased their earnings with further releases in 1973 1997 1979 2013 and 2012 respectively but they are not included in the totals here because they had already conceded the record prior to being re released Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world Timeline of the highest grossing film record Established Title Record setting gross Reference s 1915 64 The Birth of a Nation 5 200 000R 84 1940 15 000 000R 307 1940 32 Gone with the Wind 32 000 000R 134 1963 67 000 000R 308 1966 64 The Sound of Music 114 600 000R 209 1971 64 Gone with the Wind 116 000 000R 309 1972 64 The Godfather 127 600 000 142 000 000R 235 310 1976 87 88 Jaws 193 700 000R 250 1978 89 90 Star Wars 410 000 000 268 500 000R 311 235 1982 530 000 000 255 1983 91 E T the Extra Terrestrial 619 000 000 664 000 000 255 268 1993 701 000 000 312 1993 64 Jurassic Park 912 667 947 69 1998 92 Titanic 1 843 373 318 6 2010 93 94 Avatar 2 743 577 587 1 2 788 416 135 2019 95 96 Avengers Endgame 2 797 501 328 3 2021 97 Avatar 2 847 397 339 1 2022 2 923 706 026 RDistributor rental Includes revenue from re releases If a film increased its gross through re releases while holding the record the year in which it recorded its highest gross is also noted in italics Highest grossing franchises and film seriesSee also List of highest grossing media franchises Prior to 2000 only seven film series had grossed over 1 billion at the box office James Bond 98 Star Wars 99 Indiana Jones 100 Rocky 101 102 103 Batman 104 Jurassic Park 105 and Star Trek 106 Since the turn of the century that number has increased to over eighty not including one off hits such as Titanic and Zootopia 107 This is partly due to inflation and market growth but it is also due to Hollywood s adoption of the franchise model films that have built in brand recognition such as being based on a well known literary source or an established character The methodology is based on the concept that films associated with things audiences are already familiar with can be more effectively marketed to them and as such are known as pre sold films within the industry 108 A franchise is typically defined to be at least two works derived from a common intellectual property Traditionally the work has a tautological relationship with the property but this is not a prerequisite An enduring staple of the franchise model is the concept of the crossover which can be defined as a story in which characters or concepts from two or more discrete texts or series of texts meet 109 A consequence of a crossover is that an intellectual property may be utilized by more than one franchise For example Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice belongs to not only the Batman and Superman franchises but also to the DC Extended Universe which is a shared universe A shared universe is a particular type of crossover where a number of characters from a wide range of fictional works wind up sharing a fictional world 110 The most successful shared universe in the medium of film is the Marvel Cinematic Universe a crossover between multiple superhero properties owned by Marvel Comics The Marvel Cinematic Universe is also the highest grossing franchise amassing over 28 billion at the box office The Star Wars films are the highest grossing series based on a single property earning over 10 billion at the box office although the Eon James Bond films have earned over 19 billion in total when adjusted to current prices a If ancillary income from merchandise is included then Star Wars is the most lucrative property 112 it holds the Guinness world record for the most successful film merchandising franchise and was valued at 19 51 billion in 2012 approximately 30 billion 113 114 The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had the most films gross over 1 billion with ten The four Avengers films the two Frozen films and the two Avatar films are the only franchises where each installment has grossed over 1 billion although the Jurassic Park and Black Panther series have averaged over 1 billion per film Background shading indicates that at least one film in the series is playing in the week commencing 14 April 2023 in theaters around the world Highest grossing franchises and film series The films in each franchise can be viewed by selecting show Rank Series Total worldwide gross No of films Average of films Highest grossing film1 Marvel Cinematic UniverseS 28 773 952 990 31 928 192 032 Avengers Endgame 2 797 501 328 The Infinity Saga 22 587 759 303 23 982 076 491 Avengers Endgame 2 797 501 328 Phase Three 13 505 059 275 11 1 227 732 661 Avengers Endgame 2 797 501 328 1 Avengers Endgame 2019 2 797 501 3282 Avengers Infinity War 2018 2 048 359 7543 Black Panther 2018 1 347 280 8384 Captain America Civil War 2016 1 153 337 4965 Spider Man Far From Home 2019 1 131 927 9966 Captain Marvel 2019 1 128 274 7947 Spider Man Homecoming 2017 880 166 9248 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 2017 863 756 0519 Thor Ragnarok 2017 853 983 87910 Doctor Strange 2016 677 796 07611 Ant Man and the Wasp 2018 622 674 139Phase Two 5 269 487 547 6 878 247 925 Avengers Age of Ultron 1 402 809 540 1 Avengers Age of Ultron 2015 1 402 809 5402 Iron Man 3 2013 1 214 811 2523 Guardians of the Galaxy 2014 773 350 1474 Captain America The Winter Soldier 2014 714 421 5035 Thor The Dark World 2013 644 783 1406 Ant Man 2015 519 311 965Phase One 3 813 212 481 6 635 535 414 The Avengers 1 518 815 515 1 The Avengers 2012 1 518 815 5152 Iron Man 2 2010 623 933 3313 Iron Man 2008 585 796 2474 Thor 2011 449 326 6185 Captain America The First Avenger 2011 370 569 7746 The Incredible Hulk 2008 264 770 996The Multiverse Saga 6 186 193 687 8 773 274 211 Spider Man No Way Home 1 921 847 111 Phase Four 5 711 807 479 7 815 972 497 Spider Man No Way Home 1 921 847 111 1 Spider Man No Way Home 2021 1 921 847 1112 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 2022 955 775 8043 Black Panther Wakanda Forever 2022 859 196 6374 Thor Love and Thunder 2022 760 928 0815 Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 2021 432 243 2926 Eternals 2021 402 064 8997 Black Widow 2021 379 751 655Phase Five 474 386 208 1 474 386 208 Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania 474 386 208 1 Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania 2023 474 386 2082 Star Wars 10 317 244 790 12 859 770 399 The Force Awakens 2 068 223 624 Skywalker Saga 8 798 616 752 9 977 624 084 The Force Awakens 2 068 223 624 Sequel trilogy 4 474 907 761 3 1 491 635 920 The Force Awakens 2 068 223 624 1 VII The Force Awakens 2015 2 068 223 6242 VIII The Last Jedi 2017 1 332 539 8893 IX The Rise of Skywalker 2019 1 074 144 248Prequel trilogy 2 525 235 803 3 841 745 268 The Phantom Menace 1 027 082 707 1 I The Phantom Menace 1999 1 027 082 7072 III Revenge of the Sith 2005 848 754 7683 II Attack of the Clones 2002 649 398 328Original trilogy 1 798 473 188 3 599 491 063 A New Hope 775 398 007 1 IV A New Hope 1977 775 398 0072 V The Empire Strikes Back 1980 547 969 0043 VI Return of the Jedi 1983 475 106 177Anthology films 1 450 345 194 2 725 172 597 Rogue One 1 057 420 387 1 Rogue One 2016 1 057 420 3872 Solo 2018 392 924 807The Clone Wars 2008 68 282 8443 Spider Man 9 819 106 899 12 818 258 908 No Way Home 1 921 847 111 Marvel Cinematic Universe 3 933 942 031 3 1 311 314 010 No Way Home 1 921 847 111 1 No Way Home 2021 1 921 847 1112 Far From Home 2019 1 131 927 9963 Homecoming 2017 880 166 924Raimi series 2 512 301 347 3 837 433 782 Spider Man 3 894 983 373 1 Spider Man 3 2007 894 983 3732 Spider Man 2002 821 708 5513 Spider Man 2 2004 788 976 4534 Spider Man Men in Black II combo 6 632 970Sony s Spider Man Universe 1 530 409 704 3 510 136 568 Venom 856 085 151 1 Venom 2018 856 085 1512 Venom Let There Be Carnage 2021 506 863 5923 Morbius 2022 167 460 961The Amazing Spider Man series 1 466 912 986 2 733 456 493 The Amazing Spider Man 757 930 663 1 The Amazing Spider Man 2012 757 930 6632 The Amazing Spider Man 2 2014 708 982 323Into the Spider Verse 2018 375 540 8314 Wizarding World 9 656 055 269 11 877 823 206 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 1 342 139 727 Harry Potter series 7 780 010 016 8 972 501 252 Deathly Hallows Part 2 1 342 139 727 1 Deathly Hallows Part 2 2011 1 342 139 7272 Philosopher s Stone 2001 1 009 046 8303 Deathly Hallows Part 1 2010 977 070 3834 Order of the Phoenix 2007 942 201 7105 Half Blood Prince 2009 934 483 0396 Goblet of Fire 2005 896 815 1067 Chamber of Secrets 2002 880 684 6148 Prisoner of Azkaban 2004 797 568 607Fantastic Beasts series 1 876 045 253 3 625 348 418 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 814 038 508 1 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2016 814 038 5082 The Crimes of Grindelwald 2018 654 855 9013 The Secrets of Dumbledore 2022 407 150 8445 James Bond 7 836 485 924 27 290 240 219 Skyfall 1 108 569 499 Eon series 7 634 741 206 25 305 389 648 Skyfall 1 108 569 499 Daniel Craig series 3 969 513 462 5 793 902 692 Skyfall 1 108 569 499 1 Skyfall 2012 1 108 569 4992 Spectre 2015 880 705 3123 No Time to Die 2021 774 153 0074 Casino Royale 2006 616 505 1625 Quantum of Solace 2008 589 580 482Pierce Brosnan series 1 479 008 618 4 369 752 155 Die Another Day 431 971 116 1 Die Another Day 2002 431 971 1162 The World Is Not Enough 1999 361 832 4003 GoldenEye 1995 352 194 0344 Tomorrow Never Dies 1997 333 011 068Roger Moore series 1 151 600 000 7 164 514 286 Moonraker 210 300 000 1 Moonraker 1979 210 300 0002 For Your Eyes Only 1981 194 900 0003 The Spy Who Loved Me 1977 185 400 0004 Octopussy 1983 183 700 0005 A View to a Kill 1985 152 400 0006 Live and Let Die 1973 126 400 0007 The Man with the Golden Gun 1974 98 500 000Sean Connery series 621 500 000 6 103 583 333 Thunderball 141 200 000 1 Thunderball 1965 141 200 0002 Goldfinger 1964 124 900 0003 Diamonds Are Forever 1971 116 000 0004 You Only Live Twice 1967 101 000 0005 From Russia with Love 1963 78 900 0006 Dr No 1962 59 500 000Timothy Dalton series 347 400 000 2 173 700 000 The Living Daylights 191 200 000 1 The Living Daylights 1987 191 200 0002 Licence to Kill 1989 156 200 000George Lazenby series 64 600 000 1 64 600 000 On Her Majesty s Secret Service 64 600 000 1 On Her Majesty s Secret Service 1969 64 600 000Never Say Never Again 1983 160 000 000Casino Royale 1967 41 744 7186 Avengers 7 767 486 137 4 1 941 871 534 Endgame 2 797 501 328 1 Endgame 2019 2 797 501 3282 Infinity War 2018 2 048 359 7543 The Avengers 2012 1 518 815 5154 Age of Ultron 2015 1 402 809 5407 Batman 6 841 439 682 17 402 437 628 The Dark Knight Rises 1 081 169 825 The Dark Knight trilogy 2 461 076 985 3 820 358 995 The Dark Knight Rises 1 081 169 825 1 The Dark Knight Rises 2012 1 081 169 8252 The Dark Knight 2008 1 006 234 1673 Batman Begins 2005 373 672 993Burton Schumacher series 1 253 192 682 4 313 298 171 Batman 411 556 825 1 Batman 1989 411 556 8252 Batman Forever 1995 336 567 5313 Batman Returns 1992 266 832 4114 Batman amp Robin 1997 238 235 915Joker 2019 1 074 458 282DC Extended Universe 873 637 528 1 873 637 528 Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice 873 637 528 1 Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice 2016 873 637 528The Batman 2022 770 945 583The Lego Batman Movie 2017 311 950 384Catwoman 2004 82 102 379Mask of the Phantasm 1993 5 617 391DC Universe Animated Original Movies 4 501 125 2 2 250 563 The Killing Joke 4 462 034 1 The Killing Joke 2016 4 462 0342 Batman and Harley Quinn 2017 39 0911960s TV series 3 957 343 2 1 978 672 Batman The Movie 3 900 000 1 Batman The Movie 1966 R 3 900 0002 Return of the Caped Crusaders 2016 57 3438 Fast amp Furious 6 619 086 884 10 661 908 688 Furious 7 1 515 341 399 The Fast Saga 5 858 353 958 9 650 928 218 Furious 7 1 515 341 399 1 Furious 7 2015 1 515 341 3992 The Fate of the Furious 2017 F8 1 238 764 7653 Fast amp Furious 6 2013 788 680 9684 F9 2021 726 229 5015 Fast Five 2011 626 137 6756 Fast amp Furious 2009 360 366 8707 2 Fast 2 Furious 2003 236 350 6618 The Fast and the Furious 2001 207 517 5099 Tokyo Drift 2006 158 964 610Hobbs amp Shaw 2019 760 732 9269 DC Extended UniverseS 6 352 814 870 12 529 401 239 Aquaman 1 148 528 393 1 Aquaman 2018 1 148 528 3932 Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice 2016 873 637 5283 Wonder Woman 2017 822 854 2864 Suicide Squad 2016 746 846 8945 Man of Steel 2013 668 045 5186 Justice League 2017 657 926 9877 Black Adam 2022 393 252 1118 Shazam 2019 365 971 6569 Birds of Prey 2020 205 358 46110 Wonder Woman 1984 2020 169 601 03611 The Suicide Squad 2021 168 717 42512 Shazam Fury of the Gods 2023 132 074 57510 X Men 6 084 116 741 13 468 008 980 Deadpool 2 785 896 609 Main series 3 059 525 837 7 437 075 120 Days of Future Past 746 045 700 1 Days of Future Past 2014 746 045 7002 Apocalypse 2016 543 934 1053 The Last Stand 2006 460 435 2914 X2 2003 407 711 5495 First Class 2011 352 616 6906 X Men 2000 296 339 5287 Dark Phoenix 2019 252 442 974Deadpool series 1 568 508 764 2 784 254 382 Deadpool 2 785 896 609 1 Deadpool 2 2018 785 896 6092 Deadpool 2016 782 612 155Wolverine series 1 406 912 546 3 468 970 849 Logan 619 021 436 1 Logan 2017 619 021 4362 The Wolverine 2013 414 828 2463 Origins Wolverine 2009 373 062 864The New Mutants 2020 49 169 59411 Jurassic Park 6 003 607 760 6 1 000 601 293 Jurassic World 1 671 537 444 Jurassic Worldtrilogy 3 981 988 949 3 1 327 329 650 Jurassic World 1 671 537 444 1 Jurassic World 2015 1 671 537 4442 Fallen Kingdom 2018 1 308 473 4253 Dominion 2022 1 001 978 080Jurassic Parktrilogy 2 021 618 811 3 673 872 937 Jurassic Park 1 034 199 003 1 Jurassic Park 1993 1 034 199 0032 The Lost World 1997 618 638 9993 Jurassic Park III 2001 368 780 80912 Middle earth 5 956 332 374 7 850 904 625 The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King 1 147 633 833 Jackson series 5 925 860 954 6 987 643 492 The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King 1 147 633 833 The Lord of the Rings 2 993 782 523 3 997 927 508 The Return of the King 1 147 633 833 1 The Return of the King 2003 1 147 633 8332 The Two Towers 2002 947 944 2703 The Fellowship of the Ring 2001 898 204 420The Hobbit 2 932 078 431 3 977 359 477 An Unexpected Journey 1 017 030 651 1 An Unexpected Journey 2012 1 017 030 6512 The Desolation of Smaug 2013 959 027 9923 The Battle of the Five Armies 2014 956 019 788The Lord of the Rings 1978 30 471 42013 Avatar 5 240 464 440 2 2 620 232 220 Avatar 2 923 706 026 1 Avatar 2009 2 923 706 0262 The Way of Water 2022 2 316 758 41414 Transformers 4 853 126 073 7 693 303 725 Dark of the Moon 1 123 794 079 Bay series 4 379 286 781 5 875 857 356 Dark of the Moon 1 123 794 079 1 Dark of the Moon 2011 1 123 794 0792 Age of Extinction 2014 1 104 054 0723 Revenge of the Fallen 2009 836 303 6934 Transformers 2007 709 709 7805 The Last Knight 2017 605 425 157Bumblebee 2018 467 989 645The Transformers The Movie 1986 6 469 24415 Despicable Me 4 647 796 993 5 929 559 399 Minions 1 159 444 662 Main series 2 548 724 121 3 849 574 707 Despicable Me 3 1 034 800 131 1 Despicable Me 3 2017 1 034 800 1312 Despicable Me 2 2013 970 766 0053 Despicable Me 2010 543 157 985Minionsseries 2 099 072 872 2 1 049 536 436 Minions 1 159 444 662 1 Minions 2015 1 159 444 6622 The Rise of Gru 2022 939 628 21016 Pirates of the Caribbean 4 522 015 850 5 904 403 170 Dead Man s Chest 1 066 179 747 1 Dead Man s Chest 2006 1 066 179 7472 On Stranger Tides 2011 1 045 713 8023 At World s End 2007 960 996 4924 Dead Men Tell No Tales 2017 794 861 7945 The Curse of the Black Pearl 2003 654 264 01517 Shrek 4 017 242 931 6 669 540 489 Shrek 2 928 760 770 Main series 2 979 138 235 4 744 784 559 Shrek 2 928 760 770 1 Shrek 2 2004 928 760 7702 Shrek the Third 2007 813 367 3803 Shrek Forever After 2010 752 600 8674 Shrek 2001 484 409 218Puss in Bootsseries 1 038 104 696 2 519 052 348 Puss in Boots 554 987 477 1 Puss in Boots 2011 554 987 4772 The Last Wish 2022 483 117 21918 Mission Impossible 3 571 651 410 6 595 275 235 Fallout 791 657 398 1 Fallout 2018 791 657 3982 Ghost Protocol 2011 694 713 3803 Rogue Nation 2015 682 716 6364 Mission Impossible 2 2000 546 388 1085 Mission Impossible 1996 457 696 3916 Mission Impossible III 2006 398 479 49719 The Twilight Saga 3 359 862 915 5 671 972 583 Breaking Dawn Part 2 829 746 820 1 Breaking Dawn Part 2 2012 829 746 8202 Breaking Dawn Part 1 2011 712 205 8563 New Moon 2009 709 827 4624 Eclipse 2010 698 509 8255 Twilight 2008 407 187 7156 Twilight New Moon Combo 2010 2 385 23720 Toy Story 3 270 004 838 5 654 000 968 Toy Story 4 1 073 394 593 Main series 3 043 579 418 4 760 894 855 Toy Story 4 1 073 394 593 1 Toy Story 4 2019 1 073 394 5932 Toy Story 3 2010 1 066 970 8113 Toy Story 2 1999 497 375 3814 Toy Story 1995 373 554 0335 Toy Story Toy Story 2 3D 2009 32 284 600Lightyear 2022 226 425 420SShared universes for which some properties also have their own entries Canada and U S gross only RDistributor rental See also Film portalLists of highest grossing filmsNotes Prior to the release of Spectre in 2015 the James Bond series had grossed approximately 17 7 billion at 2015 prices 111 after factoring in earnings of over 1 6 billion from Spectre and No Time to Die the series has earned at least 19 3 billion adjusted for inflation References a b c Pincus Roth Zachary January 8 2006 Movies aren t the only B O monsters Variety Retrieved February 2 2014 Avatar Video Sales The Numbers Nash Information Services LLC Retrieved November 12 2013 Unkind unwind The Economist March 17 2011 Retrieved April 6 2022 Vogel Harold L 2010 Entertainment Industry Economics A Guide for Financial Analysis Cambridge University Press p 224 ISBN 978 1 107 00309 5 Most pictures would likely receive 20 to 25 of theatrical box office gross for two prime time network runs Clark Emma November 12 2001 How films make money BBC News Retrieved April 12 2012 Seymour Lee December 18 2017 Over The Last 20 Years Broadway s Lion King Has Made More Money For Disney Than Star Wars Forbes Retrieved July 28 2019 The Entertainment Glut Bloomberg February 15 1998 Retrieved April 6 2022 Pixar Worldwide Unadjusted Box Office Mojo Retrieved April 12 2012 Szalai Georg February 14 2011 Disney Cars Has Crossed 8 Billion in Global Retail Sales The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on March 19 2011 Retrieved April 6 2022 Chmielewski Dawn C Keegan Rebecca June 21 2011 Merchandise sales drive Pixar s Cars franchise Los Angeles Times Retrieved April 12 2012 Palmeri Christopher Sakoui Anousha November 7 2014 More Disney Fun and Games With Toy Story 4 in 2017 Bloomberg News Retrieved June 30 2015 All Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses Box Office Mojo Retrieved April 6 2022 Titanic 1997 Box Office Mojo Retrieved October 27 2019 via Wayback Machine Titanic 1997 Box Office Mojo Retrieved October 30 2020 via Wayback Machine Titanic 1997 Box Office Mojo Retrieved October 26 2021 via Wayback Machine Titanic 1997 Box Office Mojo Retrieved February 5 2023 via Wayback Machine Titanic The Numbers Retrieved September 2 2014 via Wayback Machine Titanic The Numbers Retrieved September 13 2014 via Wayback Machine The Fate of the Furious 2017 International Box Office Results Argentina Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 11 2018 Pixar Movies at the Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on August 16 2016 Pixar Movies at the Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on August 20 2016 a b Bialik Carl January 29 2010 How Hollywood Box Office Records Are Made The Wall Street Journal Retrieved August 9 2011 a b Pincus Roth Zachary July 6 2009 Best Weekend Never Slate Retrieved April 6 2022 a b Anderson S Eric Albertson Stewart Shavlick David March 2004 How the motion picture industry miscalculates box office receipts Proceedings of the Midwest Business Economics Association Loma Linda University Archived from the original DOC on October 29 2013 Retrieved April 8 2013 Gray Brandon Avatar Claims Highest Gross of All Time Box Office Mojo Retrieved April 6 2022 a b Bialik Carl January 30 2010 What It Takes for a Movie to Be No 1 The Wall Street Journal Retrieved August 9 2011 Kolesnikov Jessop Sonia May 22 2011 Hollywood Presses Its Global Agenda The New York Times Retrieved January 4 2012 Hoad Phil August 11 2011 The rise of the international box office The Guardian Retrieved January 4 2012 Frankel Daniel May 1 2011 Why the Foreign Box Office Leads Fast Five Thor Open Overseas First The Wrap Retrieved April 6 2022 a b Bialik Carl December 17 2007 Box Office Records Are the Stuff of Legend The Wall Street Journal Retrieved August 10 2011 a b Leonhardt David March 1 2010 Why Avatar Is Not the Top Grossing Film The New York Times Retrieved April 7 2013 a b Miller Frank Stafford Jeff January 5 2007 Gone With the Wind 1939 Articles Turner Classic Movies Archived from the original on September 26 2013 a b Shone Tom February 3 2010 Oscars 2010 How James Cameron took on the world The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on January 10 2022 Retrieved March 22 2012 Hill George F June 25 2006 Gone With The Wind Indeed The Washington Post Archived from the original on December 27 2018 a b Records Guinness World 2014 Guinness World Records Vol 60 2015 ed pp 160 161 ISBN 978 1 908843 70 8 World Economic Outlook Inflation rate end of period consumer prices International Monetary Fund Retrieved February 4 2023 Avatar 2009 Box Office Mojo Retrieved September 10 2022 2020 Re release 1 281 204 2021 Re release 57 995 770 2022 Re release 76 012 917 Glenday Craig ed 2011 Ginness Mirovye rekordy Guinness World Records in Russian Translated by Andrianov P I Palova I V 2012 ed Moscow Astrel p 211 ISBN 978 5 271 36423 5 Titanic 3D 2012 International Box Office results Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on October 27 2019 Retrieved November 25 2012 343 550 770 Titanic 1997 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on February 4 2023 Retrieved November 25 2012 2017 Re release 691 642 2020 Re release 71 352 a b Cones John W 1997 The feature film distribution deal a critical analysis of the single most important film industry agreement Southern Illinois University Press p 41 ISBN 978 0 8093 2082 0 Distributor rentals It is also important to know and recognize the difference between the distributor s gross receipts and the gross rentals The term rentals refers to the aggregate amount of the film distributor s share of monies paid at theatre box offices computed on the basis of negotiated agreements between the distributor and the exhibitor Note that gross receipts refers to amounts actually received and from all markets and media whereas gross rentals refers to amounts earned from theatrical exhibition only regardless of whether received by the distributor Thus gross receipts is the much broader term and includes distributor rentals The issue of film rentals i e what percentage of a film s box office gross comes back to the distributor is of key importance More current numbers suggest that distributor rentals for the major studio distributor released films average in the neighborhood of 43 of box office gross Again however such an average is based on widely divergent distributor rental ratios on individual films Marich Robert 2009 1st pub Focal Press 2005 Marketing to moviegoers a handbook of strategies used by major studios and independents 2 ed Southern Illinois University Press p 252 ISBN 978 0 8093 2884 0 Rentals are the distributors share of the box office gross and typically set by a complex two part contract Balio Tino 2005 The American film industry University of Wisconsin Press p 296 ISBN 978 0 299 09874 2 Film Rentals as Percent of Volume of Business 1939 36 4 Balio Tino 1987 United Artists the Company that Changed the Film Industry University of Wisconsin Press p 124 125 ISBN 978 0 299 11440 4 To rekindle interest in the movies Hollywood not only had to compete with television but also with other leisure time activities Movies made a comeback by 1955 but audiences had changed Moviegoing became a special event for most people creating the phenomenon of the big picture Hall amp Neale 2010 p 179 Later epics proved far more disastrous for the backers Samuel Bronston s The Fall of the Roman Empire filmed in Spain cost 17 816 876 and grossed only 1 9 million in America George Stevens s long gestating life of Christ The Greatest Story Ever Told 1965 which had been in planning since 1954 and in production since 1962 earned domestic rentals of 6 962 715 on a 21 481 745 negative cost the largest amount yet spent on a production made entirely within the United States The Bible In the Beginning 1966 was financed by the Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis from private investors and Swiss banks He then sold distribution rights outside Italy jointly to Fox and Seven Arts for 15 million 70 percent of which came from Fox thereby recouping the bulk of his 18 million investment Although The Bible returned a respectable world rental of 25 3 million Fox was still left with a net loss of just over 1 5 million It was the last biblical epic to be released by any major Hollywood studio for nearly twenty years Williams Trey September 25 2015 Ridley Scott s latest Alien announcement drives Hollywood s sequel problem MarketWatch Retrieved May 12 2016 Yearly Box Office Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 6 2012 Movie Index By Year The Numbers Nash Information Services LLC Retrieved January 6 2012 Dirks Tim All Time Box Office Hits By Decade and Year Filmsite org American Movie Classics Retrieved January 5 2012 Griffith s 20 Year Record Variety September 5 1928 p 12 Retrieved March 21 2023 Schickel Richard 1996 D W Griffith An American Life Limelight Series Hal Leonard Corporation p 326 ISBN 978 0 87910 080 3 there exists a very precise production accountant s statement drawn up some time after the picture was finished previews had been held and release prints struck This document shows that the negative cost of the picture was precisely 385 906 77 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea The Numbers Nash Information Services LLC Retrieved January 5 2012 a b Finler 2003 p 358 Milwaukee Magazine Vol 32 2007 The year s top grossing movie Aloma made 3 million in the first three months and brought Gray back to Milwaukee for its opening at the Wisconsin Theatre Parkinson David 2007 The Rough Guide to Film Musicals Dorling Kindersley p 28 ISBN 978 1 84353 650 5 But they had previously succeeded in showing how musicals could centre on ordinary people with Sunny Side Up 1929 which had grossed 2 million at the box office and demonstrated a new maturity and ingenuity in the staging of story and dance a b Hall amp Neale 2010 pp 6 7 For similar reasons of accountability Variety has typically used figures for domestic U S and Canadian rather than worldwide revenue This became its standard policy in 1940 when the advent of war in Europe persuaded the American film industry temporarily as it turned out that it should be wholly reliant on the home market for profitability Where specific rentals data are reported in Variety before this which tended to be only sporadically they were often for worldwide rather domestic performance This was also the case with other trade sources such as Quigley s annual Motion Picture Almanac which published its own all time hits lists from the early 1930s onward The subsequent confusion of domestic and worldwide figures and of rental and box office figures has plagued many published accounts of Hollywood history sometimes including those in Variety itself and we have attempted to be diligant in clarifying the differences between them McBride Joseph 2011 Frank Capra The Catastrophe of Success University Press of Mississippi p 309 ISBN 978 1 60473 838 4 According to the studio s books It Happened One Night brought in 1 million in film rentals during its initial release but as Joe Walker pointed out the figure would have been much larger if the film had not been sold to theaters on a block booking basis in a package with more than two dozen lesser Columbia films and the total rentals of the package spread among them all as was customary in that era since it minimized the risk and allowed the major studios to dominate the marketplace Shearer Lloyd October 26 1947 GWTW Supercolossal Saga of an Epic The New York Times Retrieved July 14 2012 Cinema The Big Grossers Time February 2 1953 Archived from the original on December 22 2008 Retrieved September 15 2012 Block amp Wilson 2010 p 129 Domestic Rentals 30 015 000 61 Foreign Rentals 18 964 000 39 Gone with the Wind includes initial release plus four rereleases 1941 1942 1947 and 1954 since foreign rental revenues were available only cumulative through 1956 McDermott Christine 2010 Life with Father p 307 No matter what the billing the movie became a worldwide hit with 6 5 million in worldwide rentals from Pappa och vi in Sweden to Vita col padre in Italy although it booked a net loss of 350 000 In Block amp Wilson 2010 Mulligan Hugh A September 23 1956 Cinerama Pushing Ahead As Biggest Money Maker The Register Guard Eugene Oregon p 7B Hall amp Neale 2010 p 145 The commercial success of the five Cinerama travelogues which earned an aggregate worldwide box office gross of 120 million by 1962 including 82 million in the United States and Canada nevertheless demonstrated to the mainstream industry the market value of special screen formats a b c d e f Dirks Tim Top Films of All Time Part 1 Box Office Blockbusters Filmsite org Retrieved August 11 2010 a b Wasko Janet 1986 D W Griffiths and the banks a case study in film financing In Kerr Paul ed The Hollywood Film Industry A Reader Routledge p 34 ISBN 978 0 7100 9730 9 Various accounts have cited 15 to 18 million profits during the first few years of release while in a letter to a potential investor in the proposed sound version Aitken noted that a 15 to 18 million box office gross was a conservative estimate For years Variety has listed The Birth of a Nation s total rental at 50 million This reflects the total amount paid to the distributor not box office gross This trade legend has finally been acknowledged by Variety as a whopper myth and the amount has been revised to 5 million That figure seems far more feasible as reports of earnings in the Griffith collection list gross receipts for 1915 1919 at slightly more than 5 2 million including foreign distribution and total earnings after deducting general office expenses but not royalties at about 2 million Biggest Money Pictures Variety June 21 1932 p 1 via Archive org Cited in Biggest Money Pictures Cinemaweb Archived from the original on November 5 2011 Retrieved June 25 2015 Peter Pan flies again Daily Record Ellensburg Washington United Press International July 21 1989 p 16 Block amp Wilson 2010 p 237 By the end of 1938 it had grossed more than 8 million in worldwide rentals and was ranked at the time as the second highest grossing film after the 1925 epic Ben Hur Finler 2003 p 47 Walt Disney took a big risk when he decided to invest 1 5 million in his first feature length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs It became the biggest hit of the sound era and the largest grossing movie since The Birth of a Nation until the release of independent producer David O Selznick s Gone with the Wind just two years later Barrios Richard 1995 A Song in the Dark The Birth of the Musical Film Oxford University Press p 49 ISBN 978 0 19 508811 3 Since it s rarely seen today The Singing Fool is frequently confused with The Jazz Singer although besides Jolson and a pervasively maudlin air the two have little in common In the earlier film Jolson was inordinately attached to his mother and sang Mammy here the fixation was on his young son and Sonny Boy became an enormous hit So did the film which amassed a stunning world wide gross of 5 9 million Some sources give it as the highest gross of any film in its initial release prior to Gone with the Wind This is probably overstating it MGM s records show that Ben Hur and The Big Parade grossed more and no one knows just how much The Birth of a Nation brought in Still by the standards of the time it s an amazing amount Everson William K 1998 First published 1978 American silent film Da Capo Press p 374 ISBN 978 0 306 80876 0 Putting The Birth of a Nation in fifth place is open to question since it is generally conceded to be the top grossing film of all time However it has always been difficult to obtain reliable box office figures for this film and it may have been even more difficult in the mid 1930s After listing it until the mid 1970s as the top grosser though finding it impossible to quote exact figures Variety the trade journal suddenly repudiated the claim but without giving specific details or reasons On the basis of the number of paid admissions and continuous exhibition its number one position seems justified Hall amp Neale 2010 p 163 MGM s silent Ben Hur which opened at the end of 1925 had out grossed all the other pictures released by the company in 1926 combined With worldwide rentals of 9 386 000 on first release it was with the sole possible exception of The Birth of a Nation the highest earning film of the entire silent era a b du Brow Rick September 22 1965 Documentary On The Klan Made Quite An Impact On Du Brow The Columbus Dispatch p 12 Hodgkinson Will April 12 2004 Culture quake The Birth of a Nation The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on January 10 2022 Retrieved January 31 2012 Thomas Bob January 18 1963 West Side Story Earned 19 Million Last Year Reading Eagle Associated Press p 20 Klopsch Louis Sandison George Henry Talmage Thomas De Witt 1965 Christian Herald 88 68 Yet The Ten Commandments has earned 58 million dollars in film rentals and is expected to bring in 10 to 15 million each year it is reissued a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Hall amp Neale 2010 pp 160 161 General release began at normal prices in 1959 and continued until the end of the following year when the film was temporarily withdrawn the first of several reissues came in 1966 The worldwide rental by this time was around 60 million In the domestic market it dislodged Gone with the Wind from the number one position on Variety s list of All Time Rentals Champs GWTW had hitherto maintained its lead through several reissues and was soon to regain it through another in 1961 Oviatt Ray April 16 1961 The Memory Isn t Gone With The Wind Toledo Blade p 67 68 Ben Hur 1959 Notes Turner Classic Movies Retrieved November 17 2012 Thomas Bob August 1 1963 Movie Finances Are No Longer Hidden From Scrutiny The Robesonian Associated Press p 10 Block amp Wilson 2010 p 324 Worldwide rentals 66 1 million initial release Washington AP September 13 1984 Deep Throat star against pornography The Free Lance Star p 12 Hiltzik Michael February 24 2005 Deep Throat Numbers Just Don t Add Up Los Angeles Times Retrieved February 2 2012 Memphis UPI May 1 1976 Deep Throat Defendant Found Guilty of Conspiring The Palm Beach Post p A2 Ebert Roger February 11 2005 Inside Deep Throat rogerebert com Chicago Sun Times Archived from the original on June 6 2011 Retrieved February 2 2012 Bartel Pauline 1989 The Complete Gone with the Wind Trivia Book The Movie and More Taylor Trade Publishing p 127 ISBN 978 0 87833 619 7 At the end of the 1941 general release MGM decided to withdraw GWTW again The prints were battered but the studio believed one final fling for GWTW was possible The film returned to movie theaters for the third time in the spring of 1942 and stayed in release until late 1943 When MGM finally pulled the film from exhibition all worn out prints were destroyed and GWTW was at last declared out of circulation MGM which by then had sole ownership of the film announced that GWTW had grossed over 32 million Dick Bernard F 1997 City of Dreams The Making and Remaking of Universal Pictures University Press of Kentucky p 168 ISBN 978 0 8131 2016 4 Jaws 1975 saved the day grossing 104 million domestically and 132 million worldwide by January 1976 Kilday Gregg July 5 1977 Director of Jaws II Abandons His Ship The Victoria Advocate p 6B New York AP May 26 1978 Scariness of Jaws 2 unknown quantity The StarPhoenix p 21 Fenner Pat C January 16 1978 Independent Action Evening Independent p 11 A Cook David A 2002 Lost Illusions American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam 1970 1979 Vol 9 of History of the American Cinema Charles Harpole University of California Press p 50 ISBN 978 0 520 23265 5 The industry was stunned when Star Wars earned nearly 3 million in its first week and by the end of August had grossed 100 million it played continuously throughout 1977 1978 and was officially re released in 1978 and 1979 by the end of which it had earned 262 million in rentals worldwide to become the top grossing film of all time a position it would maintain until surpassed by Universal s E T The Extra Terrestrial in January 1983 Titanic sinks competitors without a trace BBC News BBC February 25 1998 Retrieved August 13 2010 Cieply Michael January 26 2010 He Doth Surpass Himself Avatar Outperforms Titanic The New York Times Retrieved January 27 2010 Segers Frank January 25 2010 Avatar breaks Titanic worldwide record The Hollywood Reporter Retrieved December 4 2010 Whitten Sarah July 21 2019 Avengers Endgame is now the highest grossing film of all time dethroning Avatar CNBC Archived from the original on July 21 2019 Retrieved July 21 2019 Robbins Shawn July 20 2019 Avengers Endgame Surpasses Avatar As 1 Global Release of All Time on Saturday BoxOffice Archived from the original on July 24 2019 Retrieved July 24 2019 Tartaglione Nancy March 13 2021 Avatar Overtakes Avengers Endgame As All Time Highest Grossing Film At Global Box Office China Reissue Growing Deadline Hollywood Retrieved March 13 2021 Box Office History for James Bond Movies The Numbers Nash Information Services LLC Retrieved January 4 2012 Box Office History for Star Wars Movies The Numbers Nash Information Services LLC Retrieved January 4 2012 Indiana Jones Worldwide Unadjusted Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 6 2012 Anderson Dave November 16 2003 Bayonne Bleeder Throws a Punch at the Italian Stallion The New York Times Retrieved January 4 2012 Schneiderman R M August 10 2006 Stallone Settles With The Real Rocky Forbes Retrieved January 4 2012 Poller Kenneth G November 12 2003 Charles Wepner v Sylvester Stallone PDF Mango amp Iacoviello Retrieved January 4 2012 Batman Worldwide Unadjusted amp Batman Mask of the Phantasm Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 6 2012 Jurassic Park Worldwide Unadjusted Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 6 2012 Box Office History for Star Trek Movies The Numbers Nash Information Services LLC Retrieved January 4 2012 Movie Franchises The Numbers Nash Information Services LLC Retrieved July 7 2022 The Economist online July 11 2011 Pottering on and on The Economist Archived from the original on July 11 2011 Nevins Jess August 23 2011 A Brief History of the Crossover io9 Retrieved July 19 2018 Nevins Jess September 9 2011 The First Shared Universes io9 Retrieved July 19 2018 How Spectre May Stack Up With Thunderball as a James Bond Blockbuster The New York Times November 6 2015 Retrieved January 7 2018 Harrod Horatia May 17 2011 Pixar s 6 billion playthings The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on January 10 2022 Retrieved April 12 2012 Swatman Rachel June 16 2015 Star Wars The Force Awakens second trailer sets YouTube world record Guinness World Records Retrieved June 17 2015 Field Listings Exchange Rates The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency Archived from the original on February 15 2015 Retrieved June 17 2015 Box office sources a b c d Avatar 2009 Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 21 2023 Worldwide 2 923 706 026 Original Release 2 743 577 587 2010 Special Edition 44 838 548 2020 Re release 1 281 204 2021 Re release 57 995 770 2022 Re release 76 012 917 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on November 3 2010 a b c Avengers Endgame 2019 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on January 7 2023 Retrieved March 13 2021 a b c d e All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on October 23 2019 a b Avatar The Way of Water 2022 Box Office Mojo Retrieved April 17 2023 a b c Titanic Pre 2020 releases Titanic 1997 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on October 27 2019 Worldwide 2 187 615 730 Original release 1 843 373 318 2012 3D Release 343 550 770 2017 Re release 691 642 2020 Re release Titanic 2020 Re release Box Office Mojo 2020 Re release 71 352 2023 Re release Titanic 25 Year Anniversary Box Office Mojo 2023 Re release 68 705 727 a b All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on July 16 2001 a b Star Wars The Force Awakens 2015 Box Office Mojo Retrieved August 15 2016 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on April 5 2016 a b Avengers Infinity War 2018 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 13 2019 a b c d All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on April 1 2019 a b Spider Man No Way Home 2021 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 18 2023 All Releases 1 921 847 111 Original Release 1 912 233 593 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on July 29 2022 Jurassic World 2015 Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 7 2022 a b All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on November 26 2015 The Lion King Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 8 2020 a b The Avengers 2012 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on January 6 2023 Retrieved January 18 2023 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on October 1 2012 Furious 7 2015 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 9 2023 a b All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on June 26 2015 Top Gun Maverick 2022 Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 1 2023 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on December 29 2022 Frozen II Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 26 2020 a b c Top Lifetime Grosses Worldwide Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on August 1 2020 Avengers Age of Ultron 2015 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on December 18 2022 Retrieved January 8 2022 Black Panther 2018 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on August 30 2020 Retrieved October 29 2018 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on July 1 2018 a b Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Total Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 2011 Box Office Mojo Retrieved June 15 2020 Production cost Frankel Daniel November 17 2010 Get Ready for the Biggest Potter Opening Yet The Wrap Retrieved August 27 2011 a b All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on October 31 2011 a b Star Wars The Last Jedi Box Office Mojo Retrieved May 21 2018 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on April 27 2018 Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom 2018 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 12 2019 a b Frozen Frozen 2013 International Box Office Results Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on August 9 2014 Worldwide 1 274 219 009 total as of August 8 2014 including Japanese gross up to August 3 Spanish gross up to July 27 UK gross up to June 8 German gross up to March 30 and omitting Nigerian gross Frozen 2013 International Box Office Results Japan Box Office Mojo Retrieved September 3 2014 Total as of August 3 2014 247 650 477 Total as of August 31 2014 249 036 646 dd Frozen 2013 International Box Office Results Nigeria Box Office Mojo Retrieved September 3 2014 Total as of August 17 2014 167 333 dd Frozen 2013 International Box Office Results Spain Box Office Mojo Retrieved November 6 2014 Total as of July 27 2014 21 668 593 Total as of November 2 2014 22 492 845 dd Frozen 2013 International Box Office Results United Kingdom Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 30 2016 Total as of June 8 2014 39 090 985 Total as of November 30 2014 40 960 083 1 0 63866 Total as of December 7 2014 41 087 765 1 0 64136 Total as of December 14 2014 41 170 608 1 0 636 Total as of November 26 2017 42 840 559 1 0 7497 Total as of December 3 2017 42 976 318 1 0 742 dd Frozen 2013 International Box Office Results Germany Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 30 2016 Total as of March 30 2014 35 098 170 Total as of October 18 2015 42 526 744nb the exact euro to dollar conversion rate is unknown for earnings since April 2014 but the euro never fell below parity with the dollar during 2014 and 2015 as can be verified by comparing the exchange rate on the individual date entries at the provided reference so an approximate conversion rate of 1 1 is used here to give a lower bound dd dd All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on July 2 2014 Beauty and the Beast 2017 Box Office Mojo Retrieved September 5 2017 a b c All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on December 11 2017 Incredibles 2 2018 Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 25 2019 The Fate of the Furious 2017 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on August 22 2017 Iron Man 3 2013 Box Office Mojo Retrieved October 28 2013 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on February 21 2014 Minions 2015 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 18 2023 a b Captain America Civil War 2016 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on January 6 2023 Retrieved January 18 2023 a b All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on August 1 2016 Aquaman 2018 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 18 2023 a b The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King Box Office Mojo Retrieved April 14 2023 Worldwide 1 147 633 833 original release 1 140 682 011 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on June 5 2004 Spider Man Far From Home Box Office Mojo Retrieved November 27 2019 Captain Marvel 2019 Box Office Mojo Retrieved July 21 2019 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on July 23 2019 Transformers Dark of the Moon 2011 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 18 2014 Skyfall 2012 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on October 17 2022 Retrieved January 18 2023 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on March 3 2013 a b Transformers Age of Extinction Box Office Mojo Retrieved May 17 2015 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on November 2 2014 The Dark Knight Rises 2012 Box Office Mojo Retrieved November 4 2022 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on December 3 2012 Joker 2019 Box Office Mojo Retrieved November 30 2022 Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker Box Office Mojo Retrieved March 21 2020 Toy Story 4 Box Office Mojo Retrieved December 7 2019 a b Toy Story 3 2010 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on January 6 2023 Retrieved January 18 2023 a b All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on July 18 2011 a b Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man s Chest 2006 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 18 2023 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on December 1 2006 Rogue One A Star Wars Story 2016 Box Office Mojo Retrieved September 2 2022 All Time Worldwide Box Office Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on April 19 2017 Aladdin 2019 Box Office Mojo Retrieved November 2 2019 Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides Box Office Mojo Retrieved August 22 2011 Despicable Me 3 2017 Box Office Mojo Retrieved January 18 2023 a b c Jurassic Park Pre 2022 releases Jurassic Park 1993 Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on January 26 2021 Retrieved March 7 2022 Worldwide 1 033 928 303 Original Release 912 667 947 Production Budget 63 million span, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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