A Major Movie Franchise Just Hit The Billion Dollar Mark
There is a short yet prestigious list of film franchises that have managed to push past the hit the billion dollar mark at the box office.
This article is more than 2 years old
The cinema theaters are finally opening and beginning to attract the earlier lively crowds before the pandemic hit. Box office earnings is less than expected for all films that release during this time and yet, some manage to attract more people and earn a hefty profit. And it is during this current recovering state of the post-pandemic industry that a major movie franchise has managed to get itself included in Hollywood’s billion-dollar franchises!
Spiral: From the Book of Saw, the ninth film in the Saw franchise, was recently released and despite the negative reviews, it has managed to top the box office chart even in the second weekend since its release. Starring Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, and Samuel L. Jackson, the film has earned $4.55 million in its second week thus bringing its total earnings to $15.8 million. This not only maintains its current box office streak but also brings the Saw franchise past the billion-dollar mark worldwide.
But despite being the film that will be credited for pushing Saw into the highest-grossing billion-dollar franchises category of Hollywood, Spiral is not managing to earn many positive reviews. While it is being praised for trying a novel direction despite being part of a franchise that is plagued with stale concepts, the film fails to be the catalyst that was expected to revitalize and renew the interest in Saw films.
Talking about billion-dollar franchises, as mentioned earlier, Hollywood has a long list of such uber successful film franchises whose every film is deemed a guaranteed box office earner long before it even hits the theaters. Currently, the Marvel Cinematic Universe i.e., the MCU remains the highest film franchise of all time having grossed about $22.59 billion worldwide.
In the last twelve years, 23 films have been released by Marvel of which eight films- Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: Civil War- individually crossed the billion-dollar mark at the box office. In fact, Avengers: Endgame managed to earn $1.2 billion worldwide within five days of debuting in the theaters. And the MCU is expected to continue its current trajectory with a whole new slate of upcoming films.
Interestingly, the two highest-grossing film franchises, that didn’t just hit the billion-dollar mark but actually blew past it, are both owned by Disney. After the MCU, it is the Star Wars films that sit at the second position as the major money-minting film franchise under Disney and has grossed over $10 billion to date. It has been more than 40 years since the first Star Wars film released and yet, it continues to maintain a strong number of fans that will never get tired of watching adventure enfold in a galaxy far, far away.
Apart from the MCU and Star Wars, the billion-dollar franchises also include the Harry Potter franchise (which recently expanded to include the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film series), James Bond, X-Men, Fast & Furious, and the DC Extended Universe. They can now welcome Saw to the group as well.
