Yahoo Movies Spider-Man overtakes Harry Potter as the third most successful film franchise ever
The box office success of Spider-Man: No Way Home has nudged Spider-Man ahead of the Wizarding World as the third highest-grossing film franchise of all time.
Having taken $1.54 billion (£1.1 billion) so far, No Way Home — which stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker alongside a host of characters from the seven previous films in the live action series — has pushed the cumulative box office total of the 11 Spider-Man films so far to $9,255,751,759, putting it ahead of the Harry Potter franchise's $9,245,613,281.
Spider-Man's total includes the grosses of Sam Raimi's trilogy with Tobey Maguire, Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man films with Andrew Garfield, the animated film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, and Tom Hardy's two Venom films.
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The Wizarding World total comes from eight Harry Potter films and two entries of the Fantastic Beasts prequel series.
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The fantasy series looks likely to reclaim third place later in 2022 with the release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in April.
Highest-grossing franchises and film series
Rank | Series | Total worldwide gross |
1 | Marvel Cinematic Universe | $25.34 billion |
2 | Star Wars | $10.32 billion |
3 | Spider-Man | $9.25 billion |
4 | Wizarding World | $9.24 billion |
5 | James Bond | $7.83 billion |
6 | Avengers | $7.76 billion |
7 | The Fast and the Furious | $6.62 billion |
8 | X-Men | $6.09 billion |
9 | Batman | $6.07 billion |
10 | Middle Earth | $5.95 billion |
Still playing in cinemas around the world after its release in December, Spider-Man: No Way Home would need to take another billion dollars in order for the webslinger to overtake the 12-film Star Wars series at the global box office.
However, it's worth noting that these figures are not adjusted for inflation. There are currently no Spider-Man movies in the top ten highest-grossing movies of all time when adjusted for inflation, whereas Star Wars boasts two entries: 1977's Star Wars ($3.07 billion, adjusted for inflation) at number four, and 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($2.22 billion, adjusted for inflation) at number ten.
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1939's Gone With The Wind remains the highest-grossing film ever made, taking inflation into account, with a gross of $3.74 billion, ahead of James Cameron's Avatar which has taken $3.29 billion so far.
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