Which Movie Franchisees Makes Have the Highest Box Office Earnings?
Executive Summary
Which movie franchises dominate the global box office? This brief analysis ranks the top 5 film franchises by total box office market share, using totals from The Numbers (worldwide plus inflation-adjusted domestic). We show how the Marvel Cinematic Universe leads, followed by Star Wars, James Bond, Harry Potter, and Spider-Man, and how much of the market still belongs to all other franchises combined.
Top 5 Franchises by Total Box Office Market Share
Based on total box office (worldwide + inflation-adjusted domestic as reported by The Numbers), the top five franchises by market share are:
Rankings and Shares
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU): 5.8%
- Star Wars: 2.5%
- James Bond: 1.9%
- Harry Potter: 1.7%
- Spider-Man: 1.7%
- All other franchises combined: 86.5%
Note: Percentages may not sum to exactly 100% due to rounding.
What This Shows
- The MCU leads all single franchises, accounting for about 2.3× the share of Star Wars and roughly 3× James Bond.
- Even so, the top five together make up ~13.5% of the total. The vast majority (86.5%) of box office is spread across other franchises, albeit not very equally spread out. This aligns with our other report Read It Here that found a gini coefficient of 0.8 for the total box office revenue across 1700 franchises, very unequal!
- This split reflects a “long-tail” market: a few headline franchises are very large, but most revenue is distributed across hundreds of smaller series.
Conclusion
While the MCU stands out as a dominant brand, no single franchise controls the market. Studios benefit from having a broad portfolio, as revenue isn't concentrated only in the biggest properties. For analysts, it's important to factor in the many mid- and small-sized franchises that collectively account for most of the industry's total earnings.