The Top 10 Most Successful Action Franchises of All Time

by Daniel T. Anderson

What would you guess to be the most profitable action movie franchise of all time?  If you had to choose one, which would it be?  Mission Impossible?  The Pirates of the Caribbean?  The Matrix films? 

Reporting on these sorts of box office results is typically pretty simplistic.  We're told the amount of money a film made domestically (and sometimes internationally) and how much the film cost to make.  The difference is supposed to be the profitability.  However, determining real-life profitability is much more complex.

For one, international box office receipts are vastly underutilized, as most action films earn more money overseas than they do domestically.  For another, theaters get a cut of the box office income, not every dollar earned goes to the studio, and the percentage the theater gets varies, depending on how long the film has been playing.  By a film's fourth week, it's normal for the theater to get 50% or more of the earnings.  And when reporting film budgets, for some strange reason, the costs of marketing and distribution are frequently overlooked, costs that often are anywhere from 50% to 100% of the production budget (after all, buying commercials and billboards all over the world is expensive!)  

Of course, the big secret is that Hollywood doesn't even make most of its money from cinemas -- most of its profit comes from what are known as "secondary markets," which include everything from Netflix to HBO to iTunes to DVD sales; it's not uncommon for secondary markets to earn as much for films as their entire domestic and international box office returns brought in.  If the figures posted in this article seem unusually high, that's because this article recognizes that secondary markets are often just as big, enough bigger for revenues, than the original theatrical run.

The most egregious error perpetrated when reporting on film profitability though is the lack of perspective in as far as taking inflation into account.  Sure Iron Man 3 has earned more than Raiders of the Lost Ark, but if Raiders of the Lost Ark sold as many tickets today as it did upon its initial release, how would Raiders of the Lost Ark stack up against The Fast and the Furious or The Avengers?

Well, here at About Action and War Movies, we have done all the hard work so that you don't have to.   Unfortunately, most of the figures beyond basic budget and box office results are not released, so we had to use formulas based on mean averages to determine all the other variables in determining profitability (marketing and distribution costs, income from secondary markets, earnings for both theater chains and secondary market distributors, etc.)  

Without further ado, here are the top ten most profitable action franchises.

10.  Die Hard

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $491,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $294,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  5

Number ten on this list is the iconoclastic Die Hard series.  Some readers might be surprised to find this franchise anywhere on the list.  Sure the original is a classic action film, but the most recent entries haven't exactly been burning up the domestic box office.  Fortunately, for Bruce, the Die Hard series still packs a bang overseas, where even the latest film, A Good Day to Die Hard earned hundreds of millions overseas while failing domestically.  Plans are for a sixth film in the franchise in which John McClane will finally die.  (It's a much overdue death!)

9.  The Terminator

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $494,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $303,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  4

With the fifth film in the franchise due this Summer, a film which is supposed to reset the messy continuity of the series and launch a brand new trilogy, Hollywood is attempting to squeeze every last bit of water from this increasingly heavy stone.  The first film was a modest cult classic, but the franchise really hit its high water mark with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a massive critical and box office hit.  Ever since though, both of the two films that followed earned less and less at the box office (while becoming increasingly confusing), mostly made still profitable by large overseas returns.  Can this franchise continue to turn a profit?  Can Arnold revive his career?  Can the timeline be cleared up to make any sort of sense?

8.  Jurassic Park

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $750,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $684,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  4

The Jurassic Park franchise does massive business - monster movies have always been big box office earners.  Though it should be said that it's massive box office contracted sharply with the third film, and then bounced back with Jurassic World owning the largest opening weekend ever.  The franchise could move up or down on this list depending on where Jurassic World finally ends.  The question is this:  Is the franchise dead after this most recent entry?  Or will audiences continue to flock to see the same repeated story once every decade or so?

7.  Mission: Impossible

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $798,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $567,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  4

While Die Hard and The Terminator seem to be dropping domestically, increasingly reliant upon overseas box office to become profitable, the Mission Impossible series is headed the other direction, with each film being more profitable than the last.  The last entry Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol made almost $700 million in profits (estimated, of course!)  There's a reason that Tom Cruise was picked by About Action and War Movies to be the most profitable action movie star of all time.  (His alter-ego Ethan Hunt also did pretty well in our spy vs. spy franchise fight.)  Expect this Summer's Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation to do huge business.

6.  The Matrix

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $899,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $605,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  4

The Matrix trilogy followed a strange path at the box office.  Normally, within a trilogy, the second film is usually the weakest performer.  For example, The Empire Strikes Back is the worst performing of the original Star Wars trilogy.  Attack of the Clones is the worst performing of the new trilogy.  With The Matrix, it's the opposite.  The first film had a massive estimated profit of $466 whereas the second film had a gargantuan estimated profit of $749, only to drop down to a still respectable $383 for the last film.  Why did so many people go crazy for the second film in the franchise?  I have no idea.  Either way, the trilogy is finished.  (The original film also has the benefit of being one of the ten most important action films of all time.)

5.  James Bond

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $968,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $806,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  3

Skipping the Batman franchise and we land at James Bond, at least the Daniel Craig films.  At one point in the franchise many decades ago, a Bond film that grossed $20 million was considered a huge hit.  Of course, that was also when budgets were $8 million dollars.  James Bond was dying a bit towards the end of the Roger Moore era and with the disappointing box office returns of Timothy Dalton's outings.  But then, fortunes changed with Pierce Brosnan, and the films started to earn hundreds of millions in profit.  When Bronsan left and Criag took over, things changed again - for the better - with the films now earning almost a billion worldwide just at the box office.  Craig has been quoted as saying he'd like to be let out of his James Bond contract, but with profit figures like these, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

4.  The Hunger Games

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $1,026,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $960,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  4

As this list isn't including super hero films, we skip Spiderman and Iron Man to give 7th place to The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games was a small budget action film that had low expectations from studio executives.  It was considered on track to be a potential moderate hit; no one would have guessed that it would go on to become a gargantuan box office behemoth with every film earning half a billion or more in profit.  (No wonder the studio decided to split the last chapter into two films, they get an extra film that way!)  Owning the rights to The Hunger Games could be said to be the equivalent to having the right to print money.  

3.  The Fast and Furious

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $1,049,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $988,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  4

The story of The Fast and the Furious franchise is one of the stranger tales of Hollywood.  In 2001, a small action film with a $35 million dollar budget was released called The Fast and the Furious.  It starred Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, two minor celebrities that were somewhat well known, but were nonetheless not known for their ability to open films.  It turned out to be a moderate surprise hit, earning $100 million domestically and another $100 overseas.  It wouldn't be breaking any box office records, but it was definitely enough to green light a number of sequels.  As with most franchises, the box office results started to go down, with the third film making substantially less than the original.  

And then, something strange happened, the franchise suddenly exploded.  The fourth film earned $300 million internationally.  The fifth earned $626 million.  The sixth film earned $789 million.  The latest installment earned $1,511 million, that's a billion and a half dollars just in ticket sales around the world.  What happened?  How did this happen?  Franchises usually fade out and die off, not fade up and explode.  In any case, it was enough to put this franchise at the number three spot and ensure many more films in the future.

2.  Pirates of the Caribbean

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $1,277,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $998,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  4

It cannot be understated how insanely popular this franchise is, or...at least was, at a point in time.  The lowest performing of all the films was the first one, which earned $655 million internationally at the box office. The second film in the series earned a billion dollars just in ticket sales around the world.  The third came close and so did the fourth.  Add in secondary markets and you have the second most successful franchise of all time with an actual estimated per film mean average profit of just shy of a billion dollars. On films that cost about $350 million to make including production and publicity and distribution, that's a pretty strong return on one's money.  

1.  Indiana Jones

Average Per Film Profit - Adjusted for Inflation:  $1,497,000,000

Average Per Film Profit - Actual:  $622,000,000

No. of Films Considered:  4

And the top spot goes to Indiana Jones!  (But only because Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and The Avengers aren't on this list.)

How popular has Indiana Jones been, well consider that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the often derided 2008 entry made $856 million in estimated profits once both international and national box office and secondary markets were calculated - and this was the least successful film in the franchise, by far!  Put differently, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom made over $300 million globally just in ticket sales, at a time when the large budget for this film was only $28 million (as opposed to the $185 million that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull cost.)  Which means that in its day, Raiders of the Lost Ark was the equivalent of an Avatar.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel T. Anderson, a writer at the college essay help service. He keeps up with advancing technologies so as to get acquainted with latest technological tendencies. Besides, Daniel is keen on reading modern literature and traveling.