Visualizing the highest-grossing movie franchises from 1979 to 2019

'Harry Potter’ ranks among the highest-grossing film franchises in history

The eight Harry Potter films earned $7.7B worldwide, placing the series alongside Star Wars, Marvel and James Bond as one of the top-grossing movie franchises ever produced. Watch a comparison over time here.

The numbers behind the 'Star Wars' franchise

The "Star Wars" movies include some of the biggest blockbusters in Hollywood history, with the original film, 1977's "A New Hope," earning a 2,400% profit. Only one of the franchise's movies (2018's "Solo") has lost money at the box office.

Breaking down the many box office records 'Star Wars' has broken

The first "Star Wars" film made history in 1977 when it surpassed "Jaws," considered the first Hollywood blockbuster, for the highest-grossing movie of all time. But that's just the first in a long line of records that the franchise has broken in the decades since then, with impressive records set by films like "The Force Awakens," "Revenge of the Sith," and "The Last Jedi."

Critics rank the best movie franchises of all time

Franchises and sequels make up a growing percentage of annual films at the box office and aren't typically associated with critical acclaim. However, many franchises over the decades have achieved high praise from critics. This list compiled from...

Disney movies grossed $6.58B in 2025

The worldwide box office figure was $1.5B higher than 2025's take, propelled by movies like "Zootopia 2," "Lilo & Stitch," and "Avatar: Fire and Ash." The haul was the biggest from a studio since 2019.

Visualizing Hollywood's flops and winners in 2023

Is the movie worth watching? See how this year's cinematic releases compare with one another by revenue and popularity with this simple chart. Hollywood movies can be ranked on two axes: their popular rating and total revenues earned. In this data...

The top 10 movie franchises that tried and failed with a new lead actor

Movie franchises are seen as a safe bet for film studios, but sometimes those studios switch up the lead actor in hopes of refreshing the franchise. While it can work, there are many examples of such films bombing, like with the "Terminator" and "Home Alone" franchises. This video breaks down the 10 worst cases of a failed switch in franchise lead.

Horror grossed more than $1B at the box office for the first time in 2017

It was the first time the genre broke the barrier for domestic box offices, powered by hits like “Get Out,” “IT” and “Split.” Since then, horror movies have remained commercial juggernauts: In 2025, the genre surpassed the $1B mark by September.

Disney fans categorize the company's films into specific eras

Superfans break the company's animated films into chronological eras: the Golden Age, the Transitional Era, the Disney Renaissance, the Modern Era, and the Revival Era.

In recent years, Hollywood studios have reevaluated their Comic‑Con presence

Comic-Con’s impact on the movie industry may be diminishing. In 2025, major studios—including Marvel, DC, Lucasfilm, Sony, Paramount, Legendary, and Lionsgate—scaled back Comic‑Con participation. They cited high costs, timing that didn’t align with release schedules, and limited marketing impact in a crowded promotional landscape.

Netflix is the dominant streaming service

As of 2025, Netflix had amassed more than 300 million subscribers globally and saw quarterly revenue over $11B.

How Spielberg changed film

Before "Jaws," summer was Hollywood’s off-season. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller changed all that, launching the era of the summer blockbuster. From "E.T." to "Jurassic Park," Spielberg’s films redefined how stories were told, how audiences reacted, and how studios marketed.

Charting the most popular email providers since 1997

The email is the most stable feature of the Internet; a rare digital product that changed little over the decades. Nonetheless, the major email service providers have vastly shifted. Watch this time-based chart which shows the number of users of the top 10 email providers since 1997, and see how totally nonexistent Gmail skyrockets to dominance by today.

A scientific analysis of famous time travel stories

This 8-minute video explores how time travel influences the narrative arc of several movies, books and video games, from Harry Potter to A Christmas Carol. (Warning: it contains spoilers!) J.K. Rowling and Charles Dickens set myriad parameters as they’re worldbuilding to avoid paradoxes and create quasi-logical timelines. By drawing diagrams as he’s speaking, the video breaks down how time works in some of popular culture’s most beloved fictional universes.

The origins and evolution of the movie sequel

Sequels have long leveraged the financial success of a first installment into a second, or third, part, as far back as the earliest novels in the 18th century, like Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," which inspired countless spin-offs. The film...

Visualizing decades of stock market performance

Stock markets and the indexes that track their biggest companies tend to ebb and flow, with long growth periods punctuated by shorter recessions. Track the 60-year history of one of the most common stock market indexes, the S&P 500, with this data visualization. The chart highlights the long-term durability of markets despite appearance of short-term volatility.

Pop culture sometimes changes the way people invest

After the "Barbie" movie premiered, the number of investors in Barbie parent company Mattel's stock grew more than six times larger on the investment platform Public, according to the platform's recent report. Other cultural trends have affected which stocks investors choose as well.

The best movies about Wall Street

From Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” to “American Psycho” starring Christian Bale, Hollywood has no shortage of Wall-Street-centric filmography. These films often distinguish themselves by interrogating why excess wealth and success are so often deemed synonymous in American culture.

The global defense industry in one chart

The world's most valuable defense companies (for example, Lockheed Martin) make up much of the global defense industry. As of 2025, RTX led the pack with a roughly $183B market cap.

Ranking the most popular undergraduate degrees of the last decade

Roughly 2 million Bachelor's degrees are awarded by colleges and universities in the US every year, but within that number there are big shifts in the popularity and decline of certain majors. This data visualization breaks down the biggest gainers...

The dominant popularity of McDonald's french fries

McDonald's french fries are, by far, the most popular french fries available at fast food restaurants around the world. Since their beginnings, their consistent and unique flavor, crispiness, and shape formed a new staple side at restaurants. Despite undergoing drastic shifts in how they are made due to health and business factors, the fry has remained dominant in the fast food culinary world. Find out more about its history in this video.

Find out how airline mergers created some of today's largest airlines

Four airlines dominate the US commercial airline industry: Delta, United, Southwest, and American. Many of these large companies secured their top spots in the industry via a series of mergers and acquisitions starting in the 1970s, when American acquired Trans Caribbean Airlines.

Visualizing the spread of five major religions across the world

Every major religion has a story that started in a specific place before growing to reach millions. This quick video depicts an illustrated map over the last 5,000 years, showing how Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam grew from their humble beginnings.

America’s richest families

You could probably name a few of America's richest people, like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, for instance. But could you name the richest families in America, like the Waltons or the Mars family? Explore the list of 2024's richest families in America—and find out how they made their money—here.

The 100 most significant sports moments between 2000 and 2025

This list ranks the 100 most significant sports moments of the first 25 years of the 21st century. The editors compiled the collection based on a list of factors, including the "collective joy" factor, whether it made you curse in disbelief, and how much it transcended the sport and entered the broader culture. The top moment: The improbable "helmet catch" during the Super Bowl in 2008.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Animal phobias are likely the most common type of phobias, followed by an extreme fear of heights.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.