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 seventy (not including one-off hits such as Avatar, Titanic, and Zootopia). This is partly due to inflation and market growth, but 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 $25 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). If ancillary income from merchandise is included, then Star Wars is the most lucrative property; 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). The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had the most films gross over $1 billion with ten. The four Avengers films and the two Frozen films are the only franchises where each installment has grossed over $1 billion. Along with Jurassic Park and The Lion King, these are also the only franchises to have a series average of over $1 billion per film.