Theatrical rental

Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights and merchandising. However, theatrical box office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assessing the success of a film, mostly because of the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, but also because of historical practice. Included on the list are charts of the top box office earners (ranked by both the nominal and real value of their revenue), a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights and merchandise.

Traditionally, war films, musicals and historical dramas have been the most popular genres, but franchise films have been among the best performers in the 21st century. Seven Harry Potter films and five films from Peter Jackson's Middle-earth series are included in the nominal earnings chart, while the Jurassic Park, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises feature prominently. There is also continued interest in the superhero genre: Batman and Superman from DC Comics and films based on the Marvel Comics brand, such as Spider-Man, X-Men and films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have generally done well. The only films in the top ten that are not adapted from a pre-existing property or a sequel are the top two, Avatar and Titanic, both directed by James Cameron. Animated family films have performed consistently well, with Disney films enjoying lucrative re-releases prior to the home-video era. Disney also enjoyed later success with films such as Frozen (the highest-grossing animated film), Zootopia and The Lion King, as well as with its Pixar brand, of which the Toy Story and Finding Nemo films have been the best performers. Beyond Disney and Pixar animation, the Shrek, Ice Age and Despicable Me series have met with the most success.

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