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Which Disney princess made the most at the box office?

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

From Digital Spy

With a history even longer than Rapunzel's hair, Disney has won the hearts and minds of children everywhere over the years thanks in part to the enduring popularity of the Disney princesses. Now for the first time ever, all of your royal favourites will appear together in Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Determining which of these beauties is 'best' might be even harder than preventing a cold snap in Arendelle, so we've decided to tackle this in a slightly different way.

Join us as we rank each Disney princess according to their US box-office performance (statistics were unfortunately too limited for a worldwide accounting), including a few that the House of Mouse might not officially recognise, but yet deserve to be ranked nonetheless. To keep things fair, the figures have been adjusted for inflation too.

14th. Tiana

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $104,400,899

Adjusted for inflation: $123,767,333

The Princess and the Frog marked Disney's brief return to traditional animation in 2009 following Home on the Range five years earlier, but audiences didn't open their hearts up to Tiana's film like they had back in the '90s heyday of the studio.

Still, strong reviews and three Academy Award nominations helped ensure that Disney's first African-American Princess would still leave a powerful legacy behind following her cinematic debut.

13th. Kida Nedakh

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $84,052,762

Adjusted for inflation: $133,207,290

In 2001, Disney decided to try something new, eschewing the musical format in favour of an action-adventure movie inspired by the stories of Jules Verne. Despite using more CGI than any of their previous animated features, Atlantis: The Lost Empire sank at the box office, prompting the studio to quietly cancel plans for a spin-off TV show.

However, Princess Kida still stood out from other Disney princesses because of her physical strength and combative disposition, providing children with an unusually powerful role model from the House of Mouse.

12th. Rapunzel

US box office: $200,821,936

Adjusted for inflation: $228,121,622

Disney infamously changed the name of Rapunzel to the gender-neutral Tangled in 2009, hoping to draw in boys as well as girls. While love interest Flynn Rider did play an important role in the film, Rapunzel herself is still the undisputed star of Tangled, brought to life by the vocal stylings of Mandy Moore.

The former pop star saw the light, so to speak, and moved away from the charts, finding more far success on screen with Tangled and This is Us.

11th. Mulan

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $120,620,254

Adjusted for inflation: $230,695,878

Not only is Mulan the first and only Disney Princess of East Asian origin, but she's also the only one who isn't royal by either birth or marriage.

Nor did she need a crown to win over critics and audiences alike back in 1998, earning Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations along the way. An upcoming live-action adaptation directed by Niki Caro should help propel Mulan even further up this list too when the film is released in 2020.

10th. Ariel

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $111,543,479

Adjusted for inflation: $238,057,216

Ariel has been a part of our world ever since she first appeared in The Little Mermaid, helping to breathe life back into the realm of Disney animation following a disastrous run of critical and/or commercial failures throughout the '80s.

Had she surfaced out from under the sea at a later date, Ariel might have benefited from the momentum that Disney had built as the their renaissance continued to grow in strength. Either way though, everyone's favourite little mermaid remains one of the most popular Disney princesses and we pity the poor unfortunate souls who would argue otherwise.

9th. Moana

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $248,757,044

Adjusted for inflation: $258,931,200

As the newest Disney princess, there's no telling how far Moana will go in the years to come, but her cinematic debut certainly proved her appeal, winning huge acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

Moana received two Academy Award nominations at the 89th Academy Awards and while there's no official sequel on the cards just yet, we wouldn't be surprised if the Polynesian princess takes to the ocean again soon in another adventure.

8th. Merida

Photo credit: Disney / Pixar
Photo credit: Disney / Pixar

US box office: $237,283,207

Adjusted for inflation: $274,410,300

As Pixar's first and only take on the Disney Princess trope to date, Brave was a… well, brave gamble for the studio who worried that this focus would deter young male audiences.

Fortunately, Merida's cinematic debut won the Academy Award, the Golden Globe, and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Feature Film, proving that a strong willed princess is exactly what Disney needs to succeed in the modern era.

7th. Pocahontas

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $141,579,773

Adjusted for inflation: $297,480,300

At the time of its release in 1995, Pocahontas was deemed a relative failure given how successful The Lion King had been just one year before, but in hindsight, the film's box-office takings were still rather impressive.

Despite the glaring historical inaccuracies and racial 'issues', Pocahontas still soared like all the colours in the wind.

6th. Anna and Elsa

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $400,738,009

Adjusted for inflation: $449,215,700

Far from a mere fixer upper, Frozen became one of the only animated films to surpass the $1 billion mark internationally when it was released in 2013 and could retain its status as the highest grossing animated film of all time if The Incredibles 2 drops out of theatres soon.

Once the domestic figures are adjusted for inflation though, Anna and Elsa still fail to take the crown. That could all change soon though when Frozen 2 arrives on November 27, 2019.

5th. Jasmine

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $217,350,219

Adjusted for inflation: $480,371,900

Back in 1992, Aladdin was one jump ahead of the competition, becoming the first full length animated feature to gross $200 million in the US, and also reigned supreme with the biggest gross for an animated movie until The Lion King roared along two years later.

In the 26 years that have passed since the film was first released, Princess Jasmine has grown from strength to strength as a fan favourite and it looks like she's in for a whole new world of success when the live action reboot hits theatres on on May 24, 2019.

(And technically it's Aladdin's film. His name's on the tin, anyway.)

4th. Aurora

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $51,600,000

Adjusted for inflation: $664,259,200

When Sleeping Beauty was first released in 1959, it was the most expensive Disney film made up to that point and due to a lackluster performance at the box office, it became the last fairy tale adaptation that the studio would attempt until The Little Mermaid, thirty years later.

However, four popular reissues in 1970, 1979, 1986 and 1995 helped cement the film's appeal after Walt Disney died and like a dream, Aurora ended up becoming one of the most successful Disney Princesses of them all.

3rd. Cinderella

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $294,292,502

Adjusted for inflation: $773,804,100

As one of the few princesses to star in both an animated Disney feature and also a live-action adaptation too, Cinderella might have an unfair advantage here compared to some of the other Princesses on this list, but not everyone is lucky enough to have a fairy godmother looking after them either.

Besides, Cinderella also had to endure the wrath of a wicked stepmother twice in 1950 and then again in 2015, so maybe we should cut her some slack.

2nd. Belle

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $722,981,785

Adjusted for inflation: $934,895,900

Beauty and the Beast might be a tale as old as time, but that hasn't stopped Disney from wheeling it out time and time again. The 1991 version became the first animated film to win a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars and has since been re-released for IMAX in 2002, in the form of a sing along edition in 2010 and in 3D in 2012.

As if that wasn't impressive enough, the recent live-action adaptation starring Emma Watson has become the highest grossing remake of all time, helping to bump our beloved Belle up to become the second-highest-earning Disney princess.

1st. Snow White

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

US box office: $184,925,486

Adjusted for inflation: $996,260,000

Snow White takes the crown here and not just because of the incredible legacy that she left behind as the very first Disney Princess.

When it was first released in 1939, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves briefly became the highest-grossing sound film of all time before Gone With The Wind took its place just one year later. However, subsequent re-releases in 1944, 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987 and 1993 ensured have since helped the first Disney Princess film to earn a place as one of the all time top ten performers at the US box office.

Not bad for a princess who once needed her very own Prince Charming to kiss her while she was unconscious save her.

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 is out now in the US and will be released on November 30 in the UK.


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