5 Five Highest-Grossing Superhero Movie Franchises Of All Time, Ranked

Superhero movies are big business. Many of the highest grossing films in history belong to the superhero genre, reflecting the passionate loyalty that these titles conjure up in audiences. That passion often translates into legions of folks showing up in regular numbers for endless sequels in certain superhero film franchises. Sure, some titles, like "Shazam!" or "Ghost Rider," never get past a second installment after flopping at the box office. But historically, many superhero film sagas have gone on to produce moneymakers over the course of years if not decades.

The five biggest superhero movie franchises of all time at the worldwide box office (not including overarching brands like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or DC Extended Universe) show just how lucrative this corner of cinema can be. These five sagas owe their profitability to an abundance of different factors, including drawing from enduringly popular characters, spawning an obscene number of spin-offs and sequels (more movies tend to mean a greater lifetime franchise haul), new installments registering as events no matter what the larger context of the world is, and more.

These franchises didn't just break the bank for their respective studios and financiers. They also exemplify the immense box office heights superhero films can reach that many other subgenres struggle to even come close to. Behold the might of these box office hauls that are almost as towering and impressive as the most dazzling superpowers.

As early as 1978, the Man of Steel was headlining movies like "Superman" that took home $300.2 million worldwide. That Christopher Reeve star vehicle kicked off an impressive financial legacy that's now spanned nearly 50 years of cinema history. Even exempting 2017's "Justice League" (which heavily featured Henry Cavill's Superman, but didn't star the character), movies headlined by Superman have taken in a little over $3.1 billion worldwide. The largest chunk of that is from "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," which grossed $874.4 million worldwide back in March 2016.

Superman isn't just a draw when he's hanging out and fighting Batman, though. 2013's "Man of Steel" took in a mighty $667.9 million worldwide, while 1981's "Superman II" grossed $190.4 million. That streak even extended to James Gunn's "Superman," which became one of the biggest hits of summer 2025. Impressively, that feature's $354.2 million domestic haul ensured it was the biggest "Superman" entry ever at the North American box office, even besting "Dawn of Justice." 

Unless you're Star Wars, a franchise scoring a new domestic box office high nearly 50 years into its run is generally thought of as impossible. Superman, however, can count box office prowess as one of his abilities, like leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Even box office duds like "Superman Returns" ($391.1 million worldwide) and "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" ($36.7 million) couldn't keep his motion picture saga off this list.

The $7 billion+ worldwide box office club is a realm few movie franchises get to. However, the various Batman movies managed to reach that threshold without breaking a sweat. Granted, Batman's lifetime $7,053,037,410 worldwide gross is made up of way more movies than the other four sagas on this list. When ranking Batman movies by how much money they made, you're not just considering the major Michael Keaton and Christian Bale live-action films. The lifetime worldwide box office track record of this saga also includes smaller-scale animated features like "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" and "Batman: The Killing Joke." The two "Joker" movies are also included here since they're rooted in his mythology (the first "Joker" even features a young Bruce Wayne).

By and large, though, it's the live-action PG-13 Batman movies making up this $7.05 billion haul. To date, the biggest of those titles is "The Dark Knight Rises" with $1.1 billion worldwide, followed closely by "The Dark Knight" with just over $1 billion. Also impressive is the $874.4 million haul of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" as well as the $772.5 million worldwide gross of "The Batman." 33 years after Tim Burton's "Batman," audiences were still showing up for new adventures involving the Caped Crusader. 

Thanks to a cinematic history that dates back to 1966's "Batman: The Movie" (but not including two serials from the 1940s), the Batman movies were inevitably going to make it onto this list. Don't be surprised if future Batman outings push it even higher up these rankings.

The entire "X-Men" timeline now spans 14 movies that go all over the map aesthetically, from the horror movie "The New Mutants" to conventional superhero action films like "X-Men: Apocalypse" to the rowdy "Deadpool" adventures. All those outings have combined to make $7.4 billion worldwide, but even with so many entries to its name, the X-Men saga took forever to deliver an entry that cracked $500 million+ globally. That finally happened 14 years into the franchise's existence with "X-Men: Days of Future Past," which grossed $747 million globally. Other late 2010s entries like the first two "Deadpool" entries and "Logan" further bolstered the saga's financial track record with $600 million+ worldwide totals.

Ironically, the highest grossing installment in this series, "Deadpool and Wolverine," came hot on the heels of its two lowest grossing entries. "The New Mutants" topped out at $47.5 million worldwide, while "Dark Phoenix" bombed at the box office with just $246.4 million globally. After those flops cratered financially, "Deadpool and Wolverine" blew everyone away at the box office with a staggering $1.3 billion haul. That means "Deadpool and Wolverine" makes up a little over 18% of the entire lifetime gross of all X-Men movie adaptations globally. 

That kind of success easily helps balance out weaker box office performers in this series, like the $374.8 million worldwide gross of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." While it doesn't have the greatest batting average among superhero movies, these merry mutants have still racked up massive box office returns.

While Batman and Superman anchored movies released prior to 1980, and even Spider-Man technically had a 1977 TV feature starring Nicholas Hammond that reached overseas theaters, the Marvel superhero team known as the Avengers never starred in a movie before 2012. Given how much the original "Avengers" and its sequels have come to dominate pop culture, it's staggering to consider how relatively new this brand is. In a short period of time, though, the four "Avengers" movies have constantly made box office history, grossing $7.6 billion globally– an especially eye-popping sum given that how few movies this saga contains.

Currently, the floor for an "Avengers" outing worldwide is the $1.4 billion total of "Avengers: Age of Ultron." Though noticeably below the worldwide grosses of the other three "Avengers" movies, that's still the kind of number any movie would kill for. Of course, the two biggest films in this franchise are the two-part extravaganza "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame." The former film brought in $2.05 billion worldwide, while the latter grossed $2.7 billion. For just a brief moment, "Endgame" was even the biggest movie in history at the worldwide box office.

With each of these entries grossing over $1.3 billion worldwide, the "Avengers" movies have the kind of box office track record that defies hyperbole. People just show up in droves for these films without even blinking. If those incredible "Avengers: Doomsday" advance ticket sales are any indication, then this financial tradition may soon continue.

Recent research indicates that Spider-Man is the world's most popular superhero. Whether it's the Peter Parker, Miles Morales, or Gwen Stacy incarnations of the character, Spidey has latched onto people's imaginations and hearts with an earnest ability to endure against impossible odds. Being decked out in brightly colorful and visually pleasing costumes, not to mention an emphasis on helping people above all else, certainly don't hurt either. This character's towering popularity is also glaringly apparent looking at how much the various Spider-Man movies have made at the box office.

Discounting the box office hauls of the various Sony's Spider-Man Universe villain-based features, the Spider-Man films have still grossed a gargantuan $8.98 billion worldwide. That sum includes a trio of Marvel Cinematic Universe outings focused on this character, not to mention prior movies headlined by Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. The two animated "Spider-Verse" features also contributed a mighty $1.06 billion to this cume, while the biggest motion picture in this saga worldwide is easily "Spider-Man: No Way Home" with $1.92 billion. That particular title benefited from bringing various eras of "Spider-Man" cinema history together as well as an optimal December release date.

"No Way Home" may have contributed a little over 21% to the lifetime worldwide gross of this franchise, but the rest of these titles also pulled their own weight. Whenever Spider-Man headlines a new movie, it's bound to make a pretty penny. It's only fitting that the world's most popular superhero would anchor the most popular standalone superhero film saga.