Star Wars Surpasses James Bond as the Third-Highest-Grossing Movie Franchise

As of December 27, 2016, Rogue One‘s $616M worldwide take has propelled the Star Wars franchise past the James Bond film series to make it the third-highest-grossing film franchise ever made.

 

Prior to the release of Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the Star Wars franchise (made up of two complete trilogies and a theatrically-released pilot movie for a television series) sat comfortably at the fifth spot in the list of highest-grossing movie franchises, about $1.491B behind the Middle-Earth franchise (made up of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, and the largely-forgotten animated movie from Ralph Bakshi, collectively grossing over $5.883B). Once The Force Awakens ended its run, the Star Wars franchise led the Middle-Earth franchise by $577M. At that point, the movie held the fourth spot on the list, about $580M behind the $7.040B James Bond franchise.

 

Fast-forward to the present day, and the Star Wars franchise has collectively earned $7.075B and counting, placing it ever so slightly past the film series made up of 24 official entries (Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View To Kill, The Living DaylightsLicense To Kill, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another DayCasino Royale, Quantum Of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre) and 2 unofficial ones (the 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again). Since the James Bond franchise is currently in a bit of a bind (what with the rights to distribute the franchise on the verge of going to another studio and it becoming unclear on whether or not Daniel Craig will return or if he’s going to be replaced), it can be safe to presume that Star Wars will continue to hold this position for a while. But what’s more interesting is the place where it’s currently at.

 

 

Star Wars is still behind the $8.5B-grossing Wizarding World series (made up of the octalogy of Harry Potter movies and the first of five Fantastic Beasts films) and the $10.9B-grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe (a setting which is currently made up of the Iron Man, HulkThor, Captain America, Avengers, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Doctor Strange sub-franchises and is set to add installments such as Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel to its ranks). By the end of Rogue One‘s box office run and the release of 2017’s Episode VIIIStar Wars should take the second-highest-grossing franchise spot away from the fantasy setting constructed J. K. Rowling. Depending on when the Han Solo movie is released (presuming the movie is moved to a December 2018 date instead of its current May 2018 date), Fantastic Beasts 2 has a shot of briefly retaking that title before returning to become the third-highest-grossing movie franchise – an impressive feat in and of itself.

 

The real question, of course, is whether or not Star Wars can take the status of first-highest-grossing film franchise away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The answer to that is pretty safely going to be a “no” in almost every single scenario. Unless Disney decides to take a break from the setting (which they’ve gone on-record as saying they have plans for up to the mid-2020s) and they decide to make multiple Star Wars movies per year, the Galaxy Far, Far Away doesn’t have any real chance of overtaking the Universe of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. That being said, it’s unlikely that any one superhero sub-franchise part of the shared setting will manage to overtake Star Wars, so being in second place isn’t all that bad – especially not for Disney, who will laugh all the way to the bank as their two key franchises ensure that they dominate at the box office for years to come.

 

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Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

30 thoughts on “Star Wars Surpasses James Bond as the Third-Highest-Grossing Movie Franchise

  • December 28, 2016 at 11:17 pm
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    Hows that look when adjusted for inflation?

    • December 29, 2016 at 12:44 am
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      Star Wars still tops James Bond by a long shot with inflation in mind.

      – Pomojema

      • December 29, 2016 at 4:33 am
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        Correct. When AFI, SW series has sold more tickets than any other franchise.

      • December 29, 2016 at 6:17 am
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        ^ and that’s the big fact the article does not mention.

        • December 30, 2016 at 10:01 am
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          Because I didn’t think of that at the time I wrote this. I’m actually glad for Masked_Avenger’s comment for bringing this up, as it’s an interesting point to consider. (I don’t think it got to that point until The Force Awakens was released, though.)

          – Pomojema

  • December 29, 2016 at 2:25 am
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    Pretty impressive considering how many more Bond films there have been and how much longer it’s been around. I still say the comic bubble will burst before the SW though, Mainly because there are not many interesting Marvel characters to adapt left that they don’t already own.

    • December 29, 2016 at 2:26 am
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      Anyone else find the career parallels between Lucas and Rowling spooky? I have no doubt she will sell her characters off as well by the time she reaches his age.

      • December 29, 2016 at 3:40 am
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        Not really. He had critical and commercial success long before Star Wars. I don’t see many parallels.

        • January 12, 2017 at 10:46 am
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          I mean later in life. They are both prone to revisionism and have split their own fan community as a result of it.

    • December 29, 2016 at 3:40 am
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      Marvel has proven they can make almost anything work. Might be a while.

      • January 12, 2017 at 10:44 am
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        Aside from Guardians, Antman, and Doctor Strange. They have been working with marquee character names. I don’t see Manthing being bumber one anywhere.

        • January 12, 2017 at 3:46 pm
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          Aside from obscure ass characters who no one except us nerds heard of which they made into JUGGERNAUTS…yeah, aside from that. That’s my whole point.

          • January 16, 2017 at 9:00 am
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            A lot of that is due to the anticipation of Infinity War. I don’t see them growing anymore after that due to how hard it will be to top it. It’s going to be nearly impossible to juggle 50 plus characters in two films as in that somebody’s favorite will get shortchanged. I doubt they will all film together due to the nature of their schedules. Maybe if they get the X-Men back but Feige admits that that’s a lost cause now.

          • January 16, 2017 at 4:05 pm
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            I don’t think mainstream audiences are anticipating or even know about Infinity War yet. They went to see those movies because they looked fun.

    • December 29, 2016 at 5:33 am
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      You may THINK that Marvel is running out of characters, but they managed to create a Guardians of the Galaxy movie that made almost $800 million worldwide. I feel that they’ll be able to find long-term success. After all, they’ve already been around for 8 years.

      • January 12, 2017 at 10:42 am
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        It will probably peak with Infinity War. Not much can top that and with 50 some odd characters a lot of fan favorites are going to get left on the cutting room floor.

  • December 29, 2016 at 5:29 am
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    we´re rich!!! we´re rich!!!! no… wait…

  • December 29, 2016 at 6:35 am
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    Slightly off topic? I’m not a huge Potter fan. Well I guess I’m not really a “fan” at all. I just thought the movies were ok.

    I loved Fantastic Beasts… Like a lot. That ending. Way more feels than I was expecting. I hope all those characters return for the sequel.

  • December 29, 2016 at 11:25 am
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    I assume that this is just cinema earnings. I wonder what the figures would look like if you factored merchandising into the equation. I bet Star Wars would be far and away the winner.

    Please don’t think this is a dig at merchandising, I LOVE my Star Wars tat and get thoroughly pissed off at people who moan about Disney or Lucas making money for entertaining us.

    • December 29, 2016 at 3:36 pm
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      I would think that Star Wars would be 4-5 laps ahead in that race.

  • December 29, 2016 at 12:04 pm
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    That’s only because Marvel and HP have been over-rated and stupid teen-based fandoms.

    • December 29, 2016 at 10:04 pm
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      “People have interests that differ from mine, therefore they’re stupid teens!!”

      Newsflash, Star Wars has teen fans, too.

      • December 29, 2016 at 10:57 pm
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        Marvel and HP are so much more stupid than Star wars and, say, Lotr.

        • December 30, 2016 at 1:00 am
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          “Marvel and HP are so much more stupid than Star wars”

          Your opinion.

  • December 29, 2016 at 3:35 pm
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    Star Wars won’t be behind Harry Potter for long. Fantastic Beasts will probably not hit the heights that the new Star Wars movies will. Marvel is a bit more of a challenge considering there are 3 MCU films coming in 2017 and only one Star Wars film.

  • December 29, 2016 at 5:23 pm
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    What was the domestic opening weekend gross of Rogue One Vs. TFA?

    I’m also curious if this basically means that *for sure* there will be a standalone/ chapter film each year for at least the next 10 years or something like that.

    • December 29, 2016 at 10:02 pm
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      $155 million – Rogue One

      $248 million – The Force Awakens

    • December 30, 2016 at 9:59 am
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      They’ve already confirmed that there will be a movie a year from 2017-2020, and they’ve hinted that they have an idea for what they want to drop in 2021. At the current point, I don’t see why they’d want to slow down – and I could actually imagine them releasing two Star Wars movies in a year if they made one of them animated.

      – Pomojema

  • December 30, 2016 at 6:24 am
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    I love this article, very thorough.

    • December 30, 2016 at 10:26 am
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      If the weekend box office plays out like I think that it’s going to, then you’ll be getting another one like this very soon.

      – Pomojema

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