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 due to the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, and also due to historical practice.
Included on the list are charts of the top box-office earners, 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.
Highest-grossing films:
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The two highest-grossing films have both been directed and written by James Cameron.
With a worldwide box-office gross of about $2.8 billion, Avatar is often proclaimed to be the "highest-grossing" film, but such claims usually refer to theatrical revenues only and do not take account of home video and television income, which can form a significant portion of a film's earnings. Once revenue from home entertainment is factored in it is not immediately clear which film is the most successful.
Titanic earned $1.2 billion from video and DVD sales and rentals,in addition to the $2.2 billion it grossed in theaters. While complete sales data are not available for Avatar, it earned $345 million from the sale of sixteen million DVD and Blu-ray units in North America,and ultimately sold a total of thirty million DVD and Blu-ray units worldwide. After home video income is accounted for, both films have earned over $3 billion. Television broadcast rights will also substantially add to a film's earnings, with a film often earning as much as 20–25% of its theatrical box-office for a couple of television runs on top of pay-per-view revenues;Titanic earned a further $55 million from the NBC and HBO broadcast rights,equating to about 9% of its North American gross.
When a film is highly exploitable as a commercial property, its ancillary revenues can dwarf its income from direct film sales. The Lion King earned over $2 billion in box-office and home video sales,but this pales in comparison to the $6 billion earned at box offices around the world by the stage adaptation.Merchandising can be extremely lucrative too:
The Lion King also sold $3 billion of merchandise, while Pixar's Cars which earned $462 million in theatrical revenues and was only a modest hit by comparison to other Pixar films generated global merchandise sales of over $8 billion in the five years after its 2006 release.Pixar also had another huge hit with Toy Story 3, which generated almost $10 billion in merchandise retail sales in addition to the $1 billion it earned at the box office.
On this chart, films are ranked by the revenues from theatrical exhibition at their nominal value, along with the highest positions they attained. Nineteen films in total have grossed in excess of $1 billion worldwide, with Avatar ranked in the top position. All of the films have had a theatrical run (including re-releases) since 1996, and films that have not played since then do not appear on the chart due to ticket-price inflation, population size and ticket purchasing trends not being considered.
film currently playing indicates films still playing in theaters around the world in the week commencing 23 January 2015.
| Rank | Title | Worldwide gross | Year |
| 1 | Avatar | $2,787,965,087 | 2009 |
| 2 | Titanic | $2,186,772,302 | 1997 |
| 4 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | $1,341,511,219 | 2011 |
| 5 | Frozen film currently playing[14] | $1,279,852,693 | 2013 |
| 6 | Iron Man 3 | $1,215,439,994 | 2013 |
| 7 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | $1,123,794,079 | 2011 |
| 8 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | $1,119,929,521 | 2003 |
| 9 | Skyfall | $1,108,561,013 | 2012 |
| 10 | Transformers: Age of Extinction | $1,087,404,499 | 2014 |
| 11 | The Dark Knight Rises | $1,084,439,099 | 2012 |
| 12 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | $1,066,179,725 | 2006 |
| 13 | Toy Story 3 | $1,063,171,911 | 2010 |
| 14 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | $1,045,713,802 | 2011 |
| 15 | Jurassic Park | $1,029,939,903 | 1993 |
| 16 | Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace | $1,027,044,677 | 1999 |
| 17 | Alice in Wonderland | $1,025,467,110 | 2010 |
| 18 | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | $1,017,003,568 | 2012 |
| 19 | The Dark Knight | $1,004,558,444 | 2008 |
| 20 | The Lion King | $987,483,777 | 1994 |
| 21 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | $974,755,371 | 2001 |
| 22 | Despicable Me 2 | $970,761,885 | 2013 |
| 23 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | $963,420,425 | 2007 |
| 24 | The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | $960,366,855 | 2013 |
| 25 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 | $960,283,305 | 2010 |
| 26 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | $939,885,929 | 2007 |
| 27 | Finding Nemo | $936,743,261 | 2003 |
| 28 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | $934,416,487 | 2009 |
| 29 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | $926,047,111 | 2002 |
| 30 | Shrek 2 | $919,838,758 | 2004 |
| 31 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | $896,911,078 | 2005 |
| 32 | Spider-Man 3 | $890,871,626 | 2007 |
| 33 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | $886,686,817 | 2009 |
| 34 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | $878,979,634 | 2002 |
| 35 | Ice Age: Continental Drift | $877,244,782 | 2012 |
| 36 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | $871,530,324 | 2001 |
| 37 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | $864,912,963 | 2013 |
| 38 | Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith | $848,754,768 | 2005 |
| 39 | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | $836,303,693 | 2009 |
| 40 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 | $829,685,377 | 2012 |
| 41 | Inception | $825,532,764 | 2010 |
| 42 | Spider-Man | $821,708,551 | 2002 |
| 43 | Independence Day | $817,400,891 | 1996 |
| 44 | The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies film currently playing | $806,220,862 | 2014 |
| 45 | Shrek the Third | $798,958,162 | 2007 |
| 46 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | $796,688,549 | 2004 |
| 47 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | $792,910,554 | 1982 |
| 49 | Fast & Furious 6 | $788,679,850 | 2013 |
| 50 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | $786,636,033 | 2008 |
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