The MCU vs. Other Mega Movie Franchises

 The MCU is now the highest grossing cinematic property ever. Disney’s 10 years of franchise building have yielded some sizable results. The MCU has so far released 19 films, which makes it the second-most prolific film franchise (of the modern era) behind James Bond. The only other film franchise that comes close to it in terms of earnings is also James Bond. There have been other franchises that have earned more per film, and others have had better responses from critics, but the MCU may not have even reached its peak yet.

To put all this into perspective, I did a little research and put together some handy comparisons below. I selected six other mega movie franchises for comparison with the highest total box office proceeds. Some people may consider the Pixar films as a franchise, or all of the previous Batman films, but for the purposes of this investigation, I did not consider them. To me, a franchise has to be based on the same central characters throughout. There can be related spin offs, but the storyline needs to be consistent and share the same characters and vision. In the case of the James Bond franchise, I only considered the Ion Productions films. 

All box office earnings are adjusted for inflation, and account for total international gross. For some older films (Star Wars, James Bond), it is difficult to find accurate international box office proceeds, and so the values listed for those films may not be as accurate as later films. Box office earnings are based on proceeds as of 5/21/2017. Both the MCU and X-Men franchises currently have films in theaters and so their total proceeds are still increasing.

 The Data

First, let's look at what each franchise brings to the table:

MCU TOTAL BOX OFFICE HAUL (adjusted) = $16,361,000,000.00

MCU Average Box Office Proceeds per Film (adjusted) = $861,000,000.00

MCU Average Rotten Tomatoes Rating = 83.84

MCU Average Metacritic Rating = 67.95

Star Wars TOTAL BOX OFFICE HAUL (adjusted) = $14,312,400,000.00

Star Wars Average Box Office Proceeds per Film (adjusted) = $1,391,120,000.00

Star Wars Average Rotten Tomatoes Rating = 75.1

Star Wars Average Metacritic Rating = 66.9

James Bond TOTAL BOX OFFICE HAUL (adjusted) = $14,683,000,000.00

James Bond Average Box Office Proceeds per Film (adjusted) = $611,792,000.00 ($823,000,000.00 if you ignore Clone Wars)

James Bond Average Rotten Tomatoes Rating = 71.0

James Bond Average Metacritic Rating = 62.4

LoTR TOTAL BOX OFFICE HAUL (adjusted) = 5,851,000,000.00

LoTR Average Box Office Proceeds per Film (adjusted) = $975,000,000.00

LoTR Average Rotten Tomatoes Rating = 79.5

LoTR Average Metacritic Rating = 76

Harry Potter TOTAL BOX OFFICE HAUL (adjusted) = $8,530,000,000.00

Harry Potter Average Box Office Proceeds per Film (adjusted) = $947,800,000.00

Harry Potter Average Rotten Tomatoes Rating = 83.4

Harry Potter Average Metacritic Rating = 73

Harry Potter TOTAL BOX OFFICE HAUL (adjusted) = $5,313,300,000.00

Harry Potter Average Box Office Proceeds per Film (adjusted) = $483,020,000.00

Harry Potter Average Rotten Tomatoes Rating = 74

Harry Potter Average Metacritic Rating = 62.8

Fast and Furious TOTAL BOX OFFICE HAUL (adjusted) = $5,134,000,000.00

Fast and Furious Average Box Office Proceeds per Film (adjusted) = $641,750,000.00

Fast and Furious Average Rotten Tomatoes Rating = 55.9

Fast and Furious Average Metacritic Rating = 54.8

The Comparisons

First, here's a chart that shows each franchise's box office earnings by film over time. You can click on any chart to see a larger version in another window:

Now, let's look at how the MCU compares to these other franchises in terms of the criteria listed above: