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Ranked: The Highest-Grossing Films in History
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Key Takeaways
- Avatar holds the title as the highest-grossing film in history, with nearly $3 billion in box office receipts.
- James Cameron has directed three of the four highest-grossing movies.
- Disney is home to most of the biggest movie successes in history.
Even as movie attendance struggles to recover from the pandemic-era onslaught of home streaming services, numerous big-budget films have raked in billions of dollars at the box office, including the most recent Avatar installment as well as two animated sequels.
This infographic ranks the 20 best-selling films of all time based on lifetime worldwide gross, using updated 2026 data from Box Office Mojo.
James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), with its over $2.92 billion in earnings, has been the highest-grossing film in history since its 2021 rerelease in China. The film previously held the title for nearly a decade before losing its position to Avengers: Endgame in 2019 for two years.
The Two-Billion Dollar Club
Including both Avatar and Endgame ($2.8 billion), only seven movies have ever passed the $2-billion mark in worldwide box office receipts.
The other five include 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.33 billion), 1997’s Titanic and 2025’s Ne Zha 2 (both $2.26 billion), 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens ($2.07 billion), and 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War ($2.05 billion).
The data table below lists the highest-grossing movies of all time as of March 2026.
| Rank | Movie | Lifetime Gross | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Avatar | $2,923,710,708 | 2009 |
| 2 | Avengers: Endgame | $2,799,439,100 | 2019 |
| 3 | Avatar: The Way of Water | $2,334,484,620 | 2022 |
| 4 | Titanic | $2,264,812,968 | 1997 |
| 5 | Ne Zha 2 | $2,260,176,370 | 2025 |
| 6 | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens | $2,071,310,218 | 2015 |
| 7 | Avengers: Infinity War | $2,052,415,039 | 2018 |
| 8 | Spider-Man: No Way Home | $1,921,426,073 | 2021 |
| 9 | Zootopia 2 | $1,866,577,771 | 2025 |
| 10 | Inside Out 2 | $1,698,863,816 | 2024 |
| 11 | Jurassic World | $1,671,537,444 | 2015 |
| 12 | The Lion King | $1,662,020,819 | 2019 |
| 13 | The Avengers | $1,520,538,536 | 2012 |
| 14 | Furious 7 | $1,515,342,457 | 2015 |
| 15 | Top Gun: Maverick | $1,495,696,292 | 2022 |
| 16 | Avatar: Fire and Ash | $1,485,550,805 | 2025 |
| 17 | Frozen II | $1,453,683,476 | 2019 |
| 18 | Barbie | $1,447,138,421 | 2023 |
| 19 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | $1,405,018,048 | 2015 |
| 20 | The Super Mario Bros. Movie | $1,360,879,735 | 2023 |
No director has more entries on the upper echelon of film history than James Cameron, who directed Titanic as well as all of the Avatar films, leaving him with three of the four highest-grossing movies in history.
Cameron notably directed the first film to gross $1 billion and the first two films to ever gross $2 billion. Today, while that club has grown to reach seven movies, Cameron clearly has the strongest double-billion track record.
The Hegemony of Franchise Films
James Cameron is notable not only for his film’s commercial successes, but also for the fact that two of his highest-grossing movies are the only non-franchise films to be found in the top-20 list. Franchise films may include spin-offs, sequels, remakes, or film adaptations of existing media properties.
Setting aside Titanic and the original Avatar, all of the other highest-grossing movies are franchise films. This includes the two Avatar sequels as well as five Marvel blockbusters, ranging from the four Avengers movies to 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.92 billion).
Ne Zha 2, the only non-American movie in the top 20, is a sequel to a 2019 Chinese film and was released in January of 2025 at the start of the Chinese New Year. Other recent animated hits, like 2019’s Frozen II ($1.45 billion), 2024’s Inside Out 2 ($1.7 billion), and 2025’s Zootopia 2 ($1.87 billion), are also sequels to beloved children’s films.
On the flip side, 2019’s The Lion King ($1.66 billion) was not a sequel but rather a CGI-animated remake of the 1994 Disney classic.
The Force Awakens, Jurassic World ($1.67 billion), and Furious 7 ($1.52 billion), all of which were released in 2015, are all sequels to existing franchises, as is 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick ($1.5 billion). Finally, 2023 films like Barbie ($1.45 billion) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.36 billion) are film adaptations of other media properties, in the former case a Mattel doll and in the latter case a Nintendo video game series.
The Mouse’s Decades-Long Domination
Film studios have clearly learned the value of a franchise film in keeping audiences coming back despite rising movie theater ticket prices. And given Disney’s unparalleled successes, it’s clear they’ve mastered the game best, leading to consistent chart-toppers every year compared to a few decades ago.
Following successive $4 billion acquisitions of both Marvel Entertainment in 2009 and Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney has been able to dominate the box office through its fan-favorite franchise films like Avengers and Star Wars.
In 2019, it expanded its reach by acquiring 20th Century Fox, bringing the Avatar series and the international rights to Titanic into the fold, although Paramount Pictures retains the North American rights to Titanic.
The Mouse’s competitors in the major American film studios have struggled to keep up. The only Warner Bros. film in the top 20 is Barbie, while Paramount’s only fully-owned success is Top Gun: Maverick. Notably, these two studios are also expected to combine operations soon, as Paramount attempts to acquire Warner Bros.
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