Harry Potter Franchise Outgrosses Bond and Star Wars Series

There are still two Harry Potter movies to go, but the franchise is already the top-grossing series of all time with $4.47 billion in worldwide earnings. This figure puts it above Star Wars and its sequels and prequels ($4.23 billion) and the 21 official James Bond movies plus the unofficial Never Say Never Again ($4.44 billion). The success came over Labor Day weekend as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix reached a worldwide box office gross of $923.7 million. With it continuing to take in money overseas, that number will only get bigger. And then there's the next installments, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will add at least another billion to the franchise total. Of course, the Bond series will also continue once the Potter films are done and could regain the spot -- still, at only a quarter of the number of 007 installments, those more-family friendly Potters are doing some serious business.

Then again, there's always the issues of inflation and rising ticket prices. According to inflated adjustments, the Bond films have made $10.9 billion (provided by Wikipedia, minus Never Say Never Again). Also, according to Variety, the Star Wars movies have actually out-grossed the Harry Potter series domestically ($2.18 billion vs. $1.41 billion -- without inflation adjustments). So, as usual with box office records and announcements, this is only big news if you want it to be. Warner Bros. COO Alan Horn told Variety that it isn't about competing with franchises like Star Wars and 007; it's just bragging about a "fun number." Anyway, it never should be about what franchise makes the most money; it should be about which franchise is the best, and we all know what that is.