The Top Grossing Movies of All Time (Adjusted for Inflation) | List of the Highest Grossing Films

Founded in by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services. DIS casts a large shadow over the movie industry. Four of the 10 highest-grossing movies of all time come from the House of Mouse, according to data from Box Office Mojo.

The studio owns the market for children's movies outright, including the entire top 10 of domestic G-rated titles. Here's a quick look at Disney's 10 biggest successes at the American box office -- with a couple of irresistible honorable mentions. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the top-grossing movie franchise of all time, and you'll see several more titles from that movie series before we're done, here.

10 Highest Grossing Movie Franchises of All Time | Mental Floss

The 13th MCU film and third Captain America feature could also be thought of as a full Avengers showdown. It features almost the entire superhero crew, taking sides with Iron Man or the Captain in a battle of ideologies. Civil War also sets the stage for next year's Avengers: Infinity War and adds Spider-Man to the franchise.

This was a more focused story, sticking to characters from Iron Man's corner of Marvel's comic-book world.

If this were a global list instead of a domestic one, Iron Man 3 would have been Disney's fifth-biggest hit. It has a sizable lead on parts one and two of this classic trilogy, though the differences nearly disappear if you adjust ticket prices for inflation. Toy Story and Toy Story 3 were released 15 years apart, and decades make a difference. The adventures of Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Andy have become the stuff of legend. Toy Story is firmly embedded in popular culture, and it has inspired lots of theme park rides, video games, spinoff TV series, and more.

The first film proved that computer animation can compete with traditional animated films, turning the market for children's movies on its head. Toy Story 3 tapped into that legacy and continued to build on it. We're not done with Woody yet -- Toy Story 4 is slated to premiere in the summer of A formidable example of Disney's animated musicals, Lion King collected two music-related Academy Awards as "Circle of Life," "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," and "Hakuna Matata" entered the American imagination.

All-Time Top Film Franchises - Box Office

Lion King sits at the very heart of Disney's classic content portfolio and has also inspired countless spinoffs, theme park rides, and even a Broadway musical with six Tony Awards to its name. Other movies have spawned theme park rides.

This series went the other way around, being based on a ride of the same name at several Disney parks around the world. The movies feature many characters and story elements taken directly from the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom attractions, and the company has also infused new material from the films into the rides.

It's a great example of Disney exploiting its biggest wins to the hilt in order to draw more foot traffic to both theaters and theme parks.

Dead Man's Chest was Disney's biggest box office hit for a long time, holding that record for six years before a title higher up on this list surpassed it.

A fifth part of this swashbuckling franchise will raise the curtain on May 26,once again starring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. We're back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where the Avengers teamed up to create and then destroy a robotic villain.

The top-grossing Pixar title in this rundown was a sequel to hit Finding Nemo. When Nemo was rereleased in 3D as a year anniversary event, director Andrew Stanton watched it again and found inspiration how to do forex trading in uae a sequel based on the forgetful fish voiced by Ellen DeGeneres.

Stanton had resisted calls for a sequel for years, because he never wanted to spit out another title for easy money. The focus on Dory provided the strong heart and plot he had been looking for, and audiences embraced the resulting film in a big way.

Come up with a great story first, and the money will follow. That's how Disney operates at its best.

This is technically not an installment in the core Star Wars saga, though Rogue One does tell the tale of events leading up to 's A New Hope. The main story's cast is largely absent, apart from highest grossing movie franchises of all time adjusted for inflation handful of cameo appearances, but audiences still showed up in astounding numbers.

That's a good omen for Disney's plans to create many more non-core stories in the Star Wars universe, focusing on events or characters from the main plot but in a more tangential way. Rogue One 's success is a testament to the draw of the Star Wars franchise, which Disney will take advantage of for years to come. Marvel had been building toward this moment since trading system in minecraft, when the then-independent company entered an ambitious financing program to fuel its cinematic plans for the next decade.

Disney has allowed the Marvel division to stick to its guns, delivering one MCU hit after another. The Avengers franchise is the MCU's crown jewel and a crucial part of Disney's long-term business plans.

But nothing beats the first new Star Wars title in 10 years, and arguably the first good one since The Force Awakens holds all-time records in many categories, including all-time domestic sales, the top opening week, and highest sales online forex broker indian theater in wide release. Decades of pent-up demand met strong reviews, and a supernova of cash generation followed. If Rogue One was a strong showing for the Star Wars universe at large, the dominance of The Force Awakens shows the full power of the Star Wars brand.

Though Frozen fell short uimanager.put( joptionpane Disney's all-time top 10 domestically, it would have been No. This sleeper hit reached back to the Disney Renaissance model and came back with fantastic songs, a strong story full of unexpected plot twists, and a backstory dreamed up by H. Sister princesses Elsa and Anna jumped right into the cultural conscience, led by Idina Menzel's rendition of the musical centerpiece, "Let It Go.

Now there's a Frozen -themed ride at Disney World's Epcot park, a Broadway musical is in the works, and I'm sure you haven't been able to avoid Elsa and Anna's likenesses on lunch boxes, pajamas, and Halloween outfits.

Frozen -branded consumer goods have become a big and dependable revenue stream for Disney and its partners, and of coursethere's a sequel under development. Yes, that's ahead of The Force AwakensThe Avengersand The Lion King.

The original Star Wars title beats the apple-cursed princess, of course, but that was way before Disney's time as steward of the Lucasfilm catalog. Just like Frozen hearkens back to the Disney Renaissance era, the Renaissance itself was a return to the story-quality focus of the company's early days. Disney's management has not always stayed true to that ideal, but the company simply works better when the story focus returns.

These days, titles like Rogue OneFrozenCaptain America: Civil Warand Finding Dory are met with both critical acclaim and fantastic sales. I think it's safe to say that Disney is on the right track. Anders Bylund owns shares of Walt Disney.

The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Anders Bylund is a Foolish Technology and Entertainment Specialist. Where the two markets intersect, you'll find his wheelhouse. He has been an official Fool since but a jester all his life. Contains six flavors not found in nature. Believes in coyotes and time as an abstract. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

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