List of highest-grossing films

A screencap of the title card from the trailer of Gone with the Wind.

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

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.

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 eleven 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. Beyond the superhero genre, Star Wars is the most represented franchise in the nominal earnings chart with five films. 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 its sequel, Zootopia and its sequel, and The Lion King (along with its computer-animated remake), as well as its Pixar division, of which Inside Out 2, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 3 and 4 have been the best performers. Beyond Disney and Pixar animation, China's Ne Zha 2 (the highest-grossing animated film), and the Despicable Me and Shrek series have met with the most success.

While inflation has eroded the achievements of most films from the 1960s and 1970s, there are franchises originating from that period that are still active. Besides the Star Wars franchise, James Bond films are still being released periodically; both 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

A portrait of a middle aged man with greying hair.

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, in addition to the $2.2 billion it grossed in theaters. 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, and ultimately sold a total of thirty million DVD and Blu-ray units worldwide. After home video income is accounted for, both films have earned over $3 billion each. Television broadcast rights also substantially add to a film's earnings and, as of 2010, a film often earned the equivalent of as much as 20–25% of its theatrical box office for two television runs, on top of pay-per-view revenues; Titanic earned a further $55 million from the NBC and HBO broadcast rights, 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. The Lion King (1994) earned over $2 billion in box-office and home video sales, but this pales in comparison to the $8 billion earned at box offices around the world by the stage adaptation. Merchandising can be extremely lucrative too: The Lion King also sold $3 billion of merchandise, while Pixar's Cars—which earned $462 million in theatrical revenues and was only a modest hit by comparison to other Pixar films—generated global merchandise sales of over $8 billion in the five years after its 2006 release. 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.

On this chart, films are ranked by the revenues from theatrical exhibition at their nominal value, along with the highest positions they attained. Seven 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.

Template:Box office table legend

Highest-grossing films

Rank	Peak	Title	Worldwide gross	Year	Ref
1	1	Avatar	$2,923,710,708	2009
2	1	Avengers: Endgame	$2,797,501,328	2019
3	3	Avatar: The Way of Water	$2,343,477,301	2022
4	1	Titanic	T$2,257,906,828	1997
5	5	Ne Zha 2	$2,215,690,000	2025
6	3	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$2,068,223,624	2015
7	4	Avengers: Infinity War	$2,048,359,754	2018
8	6	Spider-Man: No Way Home	SM$1,922,598,800	2021
9	8	Inside Out 2	$1,698,863,816	2024
10	3	Jurassic World	$1,671,537,444	2015
11	7		$1,656,943,394	2019
12	3		$1,518,815,515	2012
13	4	Furious 7	$1,515,341,399	2015
14	11	Top Gun: Maverick	$1,495,696,292	2022
15	15	Zootopia 2 †	$1,464,212,160	2025
16	10	Frozen 2	$1,450,026,933	2019
17	14	Barbie	$1,447,138,421	2023
18	5	Avengers: Age of Ultron	$1,402,809,540	2015
19	15	The Super Mario Bros. Movie	$1,360,879,735	2023
20	9	Black Panther	$1,347,280,838	2018
21	3	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	$1,342,139,727	2011
22	20	Deadpool & Wolverine	$1,338,073,645	2024
23	9	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	$1,332,539,889	2017
24	12	Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom	$1,308,476,166	2018
25	5	Frozen	F$1,290,000,000	2013
26	10	Beauty and the Beast	$1,263,521,126	2017
27	15	Incredibles 2	$1,242,805,359	2018
28	11		F8$1,238,764,765	2017
29	5	Iron Man 3	$1,214,811,252	2013
30	10	Minions	$1,159,444,662	2015
31	12	Captain America: Civil War	$1,153,337,496	2016
32	20	Aquaman	$1,148,528,393	2018
33	2		$1,147,997,407	2003
34	24RK	Spider-Man: Far From Home	$1,132,679,685	2019
35	23RK	Captain Marvel	$1,128,274,794	2019
36	5RK	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	$1,123,794,079	2011
37	7	Skyfall	$1,108,594,137	2012
38	10	Transformers: Age of Extinction	$1,104,054,072	2014
39	7		DKR$1,081,169,825	2012
40	31	Joker	$1,074,458,282	2019
41	32	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker	$1,074,144,248	2019
42	30	Toy Story 4	$1,073,394,593	2019
43	4TS3	Toy Story 3	$1,066,970,811	2010
44	3	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	$1,066,179,747	2006
45	44	Moana 2	$1,059,242,164	2024
46	20	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	$1,057,420,387	2016
47	34	Aladdin	$1,050,693,953	2019
48	2	Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace	$1,046,515,409	1999
49	6	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	$1,045,713,802	2011
50	49	Lilo & Stitch †	$1,038,027,526	2025

^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. Template:Bulleted list

^SMThe worldwide total for Spider-Man: No Way Home at Box Office Mojo is incorrect, by virtue of double-counting the original Spanish gross in its 2024 re-release total. For this reason totals are sourced to an archived version of Box Office Mojo prior to when the error crept in.

^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 the featurette 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. 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.

^DKRThe worldwide total for The Dark Knight Rises at Box Office Mojo is incorrect, by virtue of double-counting the original Australian gross in its 2024 re-release total. For this reason totals are sourced to an archived version of Box Office Mojo prior to when the error crept in.

^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. 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.

Highest-grossing films adjusted for inflation

A map of the world with different regions colored in correlating to inflation rates

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. 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. 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. Ticket prices have also risen at different rates of inflation around the world, further complicating the process of adjusting worldwide grosses.

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. Social and economic factors such as population change and the growth of international markets 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.

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. 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. 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", so there is little incentive to switch to a more robust analysis from a marketing or even newsworthy point of view.

Despite the inherent difficulties in accounting for inflation, several attempts have been made. Estimates depend on the price index used to adjust the grosses, 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 WindTemplate:'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; other estimates fall either side of this amount, with one putting its gross just under $3 billion in 2010, while another provided an alternative figure of $3.8 billion in 2006. Which film is Gone with the WindTemplate:'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.

Highest-grossing films since 2024Template:Dated maintenance category (articles) adjusted for inflation^[Inf]

Rank	Title	Template:Longitem	Year
1	Gone with the Wind	GW$4,450,000,000	1939
2	Avatar	A1$4,056,000,000	2009
3	Titanic	$2,516,000,000T$3,769,000,000	1997
4	Star Wars	$3,652,000,000	1977
5	Avengers: Endgame	AE$3,357,000,000	2019
6	The Sound of Music	$3,059,000,000	1965
7	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	ET$2,990,000,000	1982
8	The Ten Commandments	$2,827,000,000	1956
9	Doctor Zhivago	$2,680,000,000	1965
10	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	TFA$2,642,000,000	2015

^InfInflation adjustment is carried out using the Consumer price index for advanced economies published by the International Monetary Fund. 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 has occurred in every year since then, through 2024.

^GWThe adjusted gross for Gone with the Wind includes the original release and reissue grosses up to 1998, adjusted from the Guinness base year, and the 2019 gross adjusted from the 2020 index. There have been several limited re-releases in the 2020s, but the grosses from these reissues are not represented in the adjusted gross.

^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.

^TGuinnessTemplate:' 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. This chart incorporates the gross of $343,550,770 from the reissue and adjusts it from the 2013 index. Titanic grossed a further $762,994 during limited re-releases in 2017 and 2020, and these have been incorporated into the gross from the 25th anniversary reissue and adjusted from the 2023 index.

^ETThe adjusted gross for E.T. includes revenue from the original release and all re-releases. The original release along with the 1985 and 2002 reissues are adjusted from the Guinness base year, whilst the 2020 and 2022 grosses are adjusted from the 2022 index.

^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). 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. 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%.

A portrait of a bespectacled middle aged man.

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

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, 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. 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.

Steven Spielberg (1975, 1981, 1982, 1989 and 1993) and Cecil B. DeMille (1932, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1956) tie as the most represented directors on the chart with five films apiece occupying the annual top spot. William Wyler (1942, 1946, 1959 and 1968) and James Cameron (1991, 1997, 2009 and 2022) are each represented by four films, whilst 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, 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.

Template:Box office table legend

High-grossing films by year of release

Year	Title	Worldwide gross	Budget	References
1915	The Birth of a Nation	Template:Nts–Template:Nts Template:Nts+R (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1916	Intolerance	Template:NtsR IN	Template:Nts
1917	Cleopatra	Template:Nts*R	Template:Nts
1918	Mickey	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1919	The Miracle Man	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1920	Way Down East	Template:NtsR (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1921	The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse	Template:NtsR (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1922	Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1923	The Covered Wagon	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1924	The Sea Hawk	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1925	The Big Parade	Template:Nts–Template:NtsR (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	Ben-Hur	Template:NtsR (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1926	For Heaven's Sake	Template:NtsR FH	Template:Nts
1927	Wings	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1928	The Singing Fool	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1929	The Broadway Melody	Template:Nts–Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	Sunny Side Up	Template:Nts*R SS	Template:Nts
1930	All Quiet on the Western Front	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1931	Frankenstein	Template:NtsR (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	City Lights	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1932	The Sign of the Cross	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1933	King Kong	Template:NtsR (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	I'm No Angel	Template:Nts+R	Template:Nts
	Cavalcade	Template:Nts–Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	She Done Him Wrong	Template:Nts+R	Template:Nts
1934	The Merry Widow	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	It Happened One Night	Template:NtsR ON	Template:Nts
1935	Mutiny on the Bounty	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1936	San Francisco	Template:Nts+R (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1937	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	Template:Nts+S7 (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1938	You Can't Take It with You	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1939	Gone with the Wind	Template:Nts–Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R GW	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1940	Pinocchio	Template:Nts* (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	Boom Town	Template:Nts*R	Template:Nts
1941	Sergeant York	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1942	Bambi	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
	Mrs. Miniver	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1943	For Whom the Bell Tolls	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	This Is the Army	Template:Nts*R	Template:Nts
1944	Going My Way	Template:Nts*R	Template:Nts
1945	Mom and Dad	Template:NtsMD/Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	The Bells of St. Mary's	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1946	Song of the South	Template:Nts* (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	The Best Years of Our Lives	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	Duel in the Sun	Template:Nts*R	Template:Nts
1947	Forever Amber	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	Unconquered	Template:NtsR UN	Template:Nts
1948	Easter Parade	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	The Red Shoes	Template:Nts*R	Template:NtshTemplate:Nts (Template:Nts)
	The Snake Pit	Template:Nts*R	Template:Nts
1949	Samson and Delilah	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1950	Cinderella	Template:Nts (Template:Nts/Template:NtsR)	Template:Nts
	King Solomon's Mines	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1951	Quo Vadis	Template:Nts–Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1952	This Is Cinerama	Template:NtsCI	Template:Nts
	The Greatest Show on Earth	Template:NtsR GS	Template:Nts
1953	Peter Pan	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)*R	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
	The Robe	Template:Nts–Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1954	Rear Window	Template:Nts* (Template:Nts)*R	Template:Nts
	White Christmas	Template:Nts* (Template:Nts)*R	Template:Nts
	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Template:Nts* (Template:Nts–Template:Nts)*R	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1955	Lady and the Tramp	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)*R	Template:Nts
	Cinerama Holiday	Template:NtsCI	Template:Nts
	Mister Roberts	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1956	The Ten Commandments	Template:NtsR (Template:Nts/Template:NtsR)	Template:Nts
1957	The Bridge on the River Kwai	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1958	South Pacific	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1959	Ben-Hur	Template:NtsR (Template:Nts/Template:NtsR)	Template:Nts
1960	Swiss Family Robinson	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	Spartacus	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	Psycho	Template:Nts+ (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1961	One Hundred and One Dalmatians	Template:Nts	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
	West Side Story	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1962	Lawrence of Arabia	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts
	How the West Was Won	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	The Longest Day	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1963	Cleopatra	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	From Russia with Love	Template:Nts/Template:NtsR (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1964	My Fair Lady	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	Goldfinger	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	Mary Poppins	Template:Nts–Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1965	The Sound of Music	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1966	The Bible: In the Beginning	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	Hawaii	Template:Nts* (Template:Nts)*R	Template:Nts
	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Template:Nts* (Template:Nts)*R	Template:Nts
1967	The Jungle Book	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
	The Graduate	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1968	2001: A Space Odyssey	Template:Nts–Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	Funny Girl	Template:Nts–Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1969	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1970	Love Story	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1971	The French Connection	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
	Fiddler on the Roof	Template:NtsR (Template:Nts/Template:NtsR)	Template:Nts
	Diamonds Are Forever	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1972	The Godfather	Template:Nts–Template:Nts (Template:Nts–Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1973	The Exorcist	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
	The Sting	Template:NtsR	Template:Nts
1974	The Towering Inferno	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1975	Jaws	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1976	Rocky	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)R	Template:Nts
1977	Star Wars	Template:Nts (Template:NtsSW/Template:NtsR)	Template:Nts
1978	Grease	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts
1979	Moonraker	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
	Rocky II	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1980	The Empire Strikes Back	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)SW	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Template:Nts (Template:Nts–Template:Nts)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Template:Nts (Template:Nts–Template:Nts)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1983	Return of the Jedi	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)SW	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1984	Ghostbusters	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1985	Back to the Future	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1986	Top Gun	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1987	Fatal Attraction	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1988	Rain Man	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1989	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	Template:Nts–Template:Nts	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1990	Ghost	Template:Nts ($505,702,588)	Template:Nts
1991	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	Template:Nts ($519,843,345)	Template:Nts
1992	Aladdin	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1993	Jurassic Park	$1,037,535,230 ($912,667,947)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1994	The Lion King	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
1995	Toy Story	Template:Nts ($363,007,140)	Template:Nts
	Die Hard with a Vengeance	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1996	Independence Day	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1997	Titanic	$2,257,906,828 ($1,843,373,318)	Template:Nts
1998	Armageddon	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
1999	Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace	$1,046,515,409 ($924,317,558)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
2000	Mission: Impossible 2	Template:Nts	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
2001	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	$1,009,046,830HP1 (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	$1,147,997,407 ($1,140,682,011)	Template:Nts
2004	Shrek 2	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts
2005	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts
	Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith	Template:Nts (Template:Nts)	Template:Nts
2006	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	$1,066,179,747	Template:Nts
2007	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
2008	The Dark Knight	$1,008,287,756 ($997,039,412)	Template:Nts
2009	Avatar	$2,923,710,708 ($2,743,577,587)	Template:Nts
2010	Toy Story 3	$1,066,970,811	Template:Nts
2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	$1,342,139,727 ($1,341,511,219)	Template:NtsHP8
2012	The Avengers	$1,518,815,515	Template:Nts
2013	Frozen	$1,290,000,000 ($1,287,000,000)	Template:Nts
2014	Transformers: Age of Extinction	$1,104,039,076	Template:Nts
2015	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	$2,068,223,624	Template:Nts
2016	Captain America: Civil War	$1,153,337,496 ($1,153,296,293)	Template:Nts
2017	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	$1,332,539,889	Template:Nts
2018	Avengers: Infinity War	$2,048,359,754	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
2019	Avengers: Endgame	$2,797,501,328	Template:Nts
2020	Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train	$512,704,063 ($507,119,058)	$15,750,000
2021	Spider-Man: No Way Home	$1,922,598,800 ($1,912,233,593)	$200,000,000
2022	Avatar: The Way of Water	$2,343,477,301 ($2,320,250,281)	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
2023	Barbie	$1,447,138,421	Template:Nts–Template:Nts
2024	Inside Out 2	$1,698,863,816	$200,000,000
2025	Ne Zha 2	$2,215,690,000	$80,000,000

(...) 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. 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.

^FHSome sources such as The Numbers state that Aloma of the South Seas is the highest grossing film of the year, earning $3 million. 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, which may suggest the higher figure is the worldwide rental, given the confusion over international figures during this period.

^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.

^S7Snow WhiteTemplate:'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. 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), and as of 1953—following the 1947 re-release—Variety was reporting earnings of $26 million. Through 1956, MGM reported cumulative North American earnings of $30,015,000 and foreign earnings of $18,964,000, from three releases. 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) 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 VarietyTemplate:'s formula seemingly halved the gross to obtain an estimate for the U.S. share, and halved it again to simulate a rental fee. All five Cinerama features collectively generated $120 million in worldwide box office receipts.

^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) 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 theatrical poster for The Birth of a Nation depicting a hooded man carrying a burning cross on horse back.

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. 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. 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. 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) would not have earned enough on its first theatrical run to take the record; although it would have been the highest-grossing 'talkie', displacing The Singing Fool ($5,900,000). Although received wisdom holds that it is unlikely The Birth of a Nation was ever overtaken by a silent-era film, 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. 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. It was hugely popular with the Ku Klux Klan who used it to drive recruitment, and at one point Variety estimated its total earnings to stand at around $50 million. Despite later retracting the claim, the sum has been widely reported even though it has never been substantiated. 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. 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 compared to Gone with the WindTemplate:'s $59 million; 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, and by 1963 it was trailing Gone with the Wind by just $2 million with international takings of $65 million, ultimately earning $66 million from its initial release.

File:Deep Throat poster 2.jpg

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; 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. 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. 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.

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/Template:Zwspgeneral release/Template:Zwspsecond-run) 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 have all increased their earnings with further releases, but they are not included in the totals here because they had already conceded the record prior to being re-released.

Timeline of the highest-grossing film record

Established	Title	Record-setting gross	Ref
1915	The Birth of a Nation	$5,200,000R
1940		$15,000,000R ‡
1940	Gone with the Wind	$32,000,000R
1963		$67,000,000R ‡
1966	The Sound of Music	$114,600,000R
1971	Gone with the Wind	$116,000,000R ‡
1972	The Godfather	$127,600,000–142,000,000R
1976	Jaws	$193,700,000R
1978	Star Wars	$410,000,000/$268,500,000R
1982		$530,000,000 ‡
1983	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	$619,000,000–664,000,000
1993		$701,000,000 ‡
1993	Jurassic Park	$912,667,947
1998	Titanic	$1,843,373,318
2010	Avatar	$2,743,577,587
		$2,788,416,135 ‡
2019	Avengers: Endgame	$2,797,501,328
2021	Avatar	$2,847,397,339 ‡
2025		$2,923,710,708 ‡

^RDistributor rental.

^Template:‡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

Prior to 2000, only seven film series had grossed over $1 billion at the box office: James Bond, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Rocky, Batman, Jurassic Park, and Star Trek. Since the turn of the century, that number has increased to over a hundred. 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.

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". 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. 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 $32 billion at the box office. The Spider-Man films are the highest-grossing series based on a single property, earning over $11 billion at the box office (although the Eon James Bond films have earned over $19 billion in total when adjusted to current prices).Template:Efn The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had the most films gross over $1 billion, with eleven.

 Background shading indicates that at least one film in the series is playing in the week commencing Template:Days before now in theaters around the world.

Highest-grossing franchises and film series^[§]

(The films in each franchise can be viewed by selecting "show".)

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

^*Canada and U.S. gross only.

^RDistributor rental.

See also

• Lists of highest-grossing films

References

Franchise and series sources

• ^§
• Avengers
• Batman
  • Fathom events
    • Batman (UK):
    • Batman Returns (UK):
    • Batman Forever:
    • Batman and Robin:
  • Batman: The Movie (1966) Template:Ndash
• DC Extended Universe
• Despicable Me
• The Fast and the Furious
• Wizarding World
• James Bond
  • (Brosnan and Craig)
  • . "James Bond Franchise Films: All-Release Worldwide Box Office." (Connery, Lazenby, Moore and Dalton)
• Jurassic Park
• Marvel Cinematic Universe
• Middle-earth
• Mission: Impossible
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Shrek
• Spider-Man
• Star Wars
  • Disney releases (2015–present):
• Transformers
• The Twilight Saga
• X-Men

External links

• All-Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses at Box Office Mojo
• All-Time Highest-Grossing Movies Worldwide at The Numbers
• Box-Office Top 100 Films of All Time at Filmsite.org