Star Wars, Spider-Man, Marvel Rated The Most Successful Franchises In A New Study

In the realm of movies, there is no shortage of franchises available for fans to get excited about, and it may be difficult for some to keep track of every option out there. While there are a vast majority of choices, a new study has indicated which ones are among the most successful. And it's not surprising that names like Spider-Man, Star Wars, and Marvel have successfully secured a place at the top of the list.

The concept of film franchises has greatly changed in the past few decades, growing much larger in scale with more releases arriving faster and faster. What was once a game of just mere sequels and prequels has now blossomed into a financial powerhouse machine consisting of massive shared universes that tie into several spinoffs and even TV shows. Origin stories, team-up flicks, and versus titles are all the rage these days, with the demand for more constantly increasing. Out of all the viable contenders, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has arguably led the way in this innovation, with several others trying to follow in its footsteps, like the DCU, the Conjurverse, and the ill-fated Dark Universe. 

So far, not many have been able to keep up with Marvel, with a possible few exceptions. While franchises like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Fast & Furious" put up a decent fight, the top spots in the race for franchise dominance of the silver screen are held by a comic book publisher, a webhead, and a galaxy far, far away,

According to a study by Betway Insider, Star Wars, Spider-Man, and Marvel are the most successful film franchises of all time. Notably, Spider-Man is a Marvel property, but as the X-Men are also separated in the study, it would appear they're considering the Marvel Cinematic Universe as one franchise, and all of the "Spider-Man" films as a separate collective.

These eye-opening results were obtained by taking into account box office earnings, the number of awards won, the wiki fandom score, the average IMDb rating, and the number of returning cast members. It also included the total number of searches for movie titles, merchandise stores, release dates, and trailers. In the end, James Bond, Harry Potter, and even Batman couldn't touch the big three. 

The $10.3 billion at the box office the Star Wars film franchise has brought in, along with its over 340 awards and stellar average IMDb rating for the entire film franchise, gave it the top spot. Web-slinging into second place is everyone's favorite neighborhood Spider-Man with an $8.3 billion total from the box office, over 180 awards, and an exceptional average on IMDb. Coming in third is Marvel, with over $27 billion at the box office and over 550 awards (though one has to wonder if this means Tom Holland's official MCU "Spider-Man" films were double counted).

While the three titans of the industry have accumulated vast sums at the box office, they also have a significant amount of critical acclaim, as most entries in each film franchise have "Certified Fresh" designations from Rotten Tomatoes — further proving their supremacy among the competition. With each one showing little signs of slowing down, it will be interesting to witness what the future holds and, more importantly, how long they'll remain on top.