These days, more and more movies are turning into big Billion Dollar Movie Franchises, and still, they are not stopping as more and more movies keep coming in as time passes. Well, it is actually good for the fans as well as the studios as they keep on getting what they want. Fans get more and more movies of their favorite franchises and the studios keep making the big bucks.
Here are the biggest movie franchises according to their total box office earnings ranked.
10. The DC Extended Universe
The DCEU as it was called has brought in 5 movies until now, and while the movies have a lot of potentials, they still haven’t managed to have a huge impact on the box office. All these movies started big, but the earnings dropped within the second week with most movies. It all started with Man of Steel, followed by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and the latest edition was Justice League. The DCEU has earned a sum of $3.76 Billion Worldwide.
Although, it is nowhere close to MCU but DC will need more time to understand the game and then compete effectively with Marvel. Many of the DC movies have significantly underperformed given the gigantic expectations that fans had, the only movie that broke the losing streak was Wonder Woman which is the highest grossing DCEU movie.
The movie offered a template to DC on how to make a superhero movie but the studio does not seem to have taken a cue from it. Given the box office performance of Wonder Woman, the sequel was announced right after without much ado. Patty Jenkins is coming back at the helm while Gal Gadot will reprise her role as Wonder Woman.
9. Transformers
Paramount Studios’ biggest gun has always been the Transformers franchise. Similar to the DCEU, they have also brought in 5 movies, but they did manage to make a big impact on the box office. This entire franchise helmed by Michael Bay has managed to gross over $4.38 Billion worldwide.
Despite huge potential of Transformers movies, they have failed to set the cash registers ringing time and again and have settled for less. Due to lack of imagination, bad direction, choppy editing, poor scripts, low marketing acumen etc., time and again Transformers movies failed to ignite magic that it created when it first came onto the big screen.
8. Pirates of the Caribbean
Disney’s Pirates Franchise has surprisingly been able to out-gross many other big franchises and similar to the above two franchises, they have also made big money in 5 of their movies. This Johnny Depp centric franchise has managed to bring in $4.52 Billion at the worldwide Box Office.
The Pirates franchise now seems stretched and have run out of ideas. It is a classic case of a popular franchise that has outlived its utility but is still exploited by the studio as a cash grab.
7. X-Men
20th Century Fox’s biggest gun in Hollywood has always been the X-Men Universe which they have established in Hollywood during the last 18 years. They have 3 more big movies coming till early 2019 namely Deadpool 2, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, The New Mutants.
Until now, they have released 10 movies in total, which have managed to gross $4.99 Billion at the worldwide Box office. Deadpool and X-Men Days of Future Past have been the highest earning movies of this franchise. The most disappointing X-Men movies include X3, Wolverine: Origins, X-Men: Apocalypse.
6. The Fast and Furious
The Fast & the Furious is one of the most thrilling, fast paced, adrenaline filled, and entertaining as hell action franchise. Over the period of 17 years and 8 films, the action franchise has created a vast pool of characters who have worked with each other in a high-stakes street-race cum heist stories.
The franchise had to be rebooted after four movies as the story was going nowhere, also it was more a collection of stand-alone movies rather than a single binding plot spread across the films. Once Justin Lin came on board Fast 5 with the introduction of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the franchise entered into high-octane action that is irresistibly crazy and stylistically bang on.
All this started with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker’s team up in the movie The Fast and The Furious. With every new movie, the franchise kept on adding bigger characters into the mix. It converted itself from a high-speed racing franchise into a big action blockbuster franchise and made Vin Diesel and the Rock one of the biggest action movie stars in the business. It earned a total of $5.13 Billion at the Box Office.
5. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
Both these Novel adaptation series have been big for Warner Bros studios as they have brought out 6 movies in total. The first trilogy was the Lord of the Rings series, and then came in the prequels called The Hobbit Trilogy. These six movies managed to bag $5.88 Billion in total. Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the greatest franchise ever being brought to the big screen, it is surely the best work done by Peter Jackson.
4. James Bond
This has been the longest-running movie franchise of all time, running from 1962. They also have the most number of movies released, as the latest Spectre was the 24th installment of this franchise. Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan have been the last two iterations of the titular character and the franchise has made a total of $7.04 Billion at the Box Office.
3. Harry Potter Franchise
The biggest gun of WB has certainly been JK Rowling’s novel adaptation of Harry Potter. WB launched 8 movies related to the Harry Potter series, and they have now re-launched a prequel series with Fantastic Beasts and where to find them. These 9 movies have earned $8.53 Billion in total for WB, making this franchise the third biggest movie franchise of all time.
2. Star Wars
The Star Wars franchise has been huge ever since it began in the 80s. First came the original trilogy during the late 20th Century, then came in the Prequel Trilogy in the early 2000s, and 3 more movies have come out since 2015 getting the total of movies released to 9. It has been the second most successful movie franchise as it grossed $8.84 Billion.
Star Wars franchise was rebooted by Lucas Films and a new trilogy was launched. The first movie was titled Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the sequel was Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Both movies have done incredibly well at the box office and now the conclusive installment of the trilogy or episode 9 is coming next year and is directed by none other than J.J. Abrams. He has promised fans to provide a spectacle that they have never seen before, truly different and satisfying conclusion to the epic sci-fi saga. He wishes to bring closure to all the three trilogies- the originals, the prequels and present one; if he could pull this off then it would be nothing short of a milestone.
1. Marvel Cinematic Universe
The MCU has become the biggest brand in Hollywood as it has been making movies continuously since the last 10 years, and has brought in 19 movies till now, with 4 more to come till the next year. The latest Avengers: Infinity War movie pushed the total earning of the franchise to over $16 Billion.
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