Most profitable movies of all time by NET PROFIT

[8ulk87]

Hello fellas. I wanted to make this list in light of Joker's recent success at the Boxoffice and all the talk about it being one of the most profitable movies of all time.

So here you go you can take a look at the list below to see how it compares to the rest of the Boxoffice bohemoths.

I just want to clarify that this list is based on raw NET PROFIT and not any other metric.
Keep also in mind that ive taken marketing costs into account and the numbers are not 100% accurate but as close as they can be.

Most profitable movies of all time by Net Profit.

01. Avatar (2009) - $1050 million
02. Avengers EndGame (2019) - $800 million
03. Titanic (1997) - $800 million
04. Star Wars 7 TFA (2015) - $630 million
05. Avengers Infinity War (2018) - $530 million
06. Jurassic World (2015) - $530 million
07. Furious 7 (2015) - $425 million
08. The Lion King (2019) - $425 million
09. Minions (2015) - $425 million
10. The Lion King (1994) - $410 million
11. Joker (2019) - $410 million
12. Jurassic Park (1993) - $400 million
13. The Lord of the Rings tRotK (2003) - $390 million
14. Frozen (2013) $390 million
15. Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) - $385 million
16. Despicable Me 3 (2017) - $385 million
17. The Avengers (2012) - $380 million
18. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - $380 million
19. Star Wars (1977) - $370 million
20. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) - $370 million
21. Despicable Me 2 (2013) - $370 million
22. Beauty and the Beast (2017) - $370 million
23. Black Panther (2018) - $360 million
24. Jurassic World FK (2018) - $350 million
25. Finding Nemo (2003) - $350 million
26. Star Wars the Phantom Menace (1999) - $345 million
27. Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle (2017) - $335 million
28. Incredibles II (2018) - $325 million
29. The Secret Life of Pets (2016) - $320 million
30. Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) - $315 million
31. Zootopia (2016) - $315 million
32. The Lord of the Rings ttT (2002) - $310 million
33. Avengers Age of Ultron (2015) - $300 million
34. Harry Potter atDH p2 (2011) - $300 million
35. Ice Age Continental Drift (2012) - $300 million
36. Deadpool (2016) - $300 million
---------------------------------------------------------
37. Independence Day (1996) - $290 million
38. The Lord of the Rings tFotR (2001) - $290 million
39. Captain Marvel (2019) - $290 million
40. Spider-Man FFH (2019) - $290 million
41. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) - $285 million
42. Aquaman (2018) - $285 million

There are a lot of movies that are in the $250-280 million range (mostly blockbusters with $1-1,1 billion WW grosses) but i decided not to list them as i initially planned to only add movies with Net Profit of over $300 million.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Deadpool isn't there?

 

[Sithborg]

Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity are also up there.

 

[8ulk87]

Deadpool isn't there?

Added that last on the list.

Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity are also up there.

Not when considering NET PROFIT they arent.

Blair witch grossed less than $300 mil and PA less than $200 mil. Half of those go to the theaters.

P.S. Basically any movie with a WW gross of less than $600 mil is automatically not up there unless it had a 0 production and marketing cost.

 

[Sithborg]

And was made for in the tens of thousands.

 

[8ulk87]

And was made for in the tens of thousands.

By NET PROFIT and not by any other metric like Return on investment or ratios of any kind.

Net Profit = raw profit value after all expenses are deduced.

Which means like i wrote above any movie that had total WW grosses of less than $600 mil is automatically excluded cause it must have had some budget and half of the money goes to theater owners.

P.S. For example why Star Wars 8 TLJ isnt on the list. It grossed $1332 mil WW.
Half of that is actual profit so we get $666 mil. It had a budget of around $315 mil.
Thats leaves us with around $350 mil.

The marketing budgets for those mega blockbusters is often close to $100 mil and in some cases even higher. So the actual net profit is significantly less than $300 mil.

TLJ is the highest grossing movie in the all time WW list thats not on this list.

 

[Dr.]

If you have the rough figures, I suppose you can make a rough list like this. But with close rankings, sometimes variable factors can determine which movie is higher than another. Just for instance, someone like RDJ might pull in (say) an additional $30M as a “profit participant” in a Marvel movie. So that’s $30M that doesn’t go to the studio as “net profit” and shouldn’t be counted as such. To be precise, you'd need the actual P&L statements from the accountants.

 

[8ulk87]

If you have the rough figures, I suppose you can make a rough list like this. But with close rankings, sometimes variable factors can determine which movie is higher than another. Just for instance, someone like RDJ might pull in (say) an additional $30M as a “profit participant” in a Marvel movie. So that’s $30M that doesn’t go to the studio as “net profit” and shouldn’t be counted as such. To be precise, you'd need the actual P&L statements from the accountants.

Correct. Thats i wrote its not 100% accurate but as close it can be.
For example there is no denying that Avatar is 1st EndGame and Titanic tied for 2nd and TFA 3rd.