'Star Wars' Surpasses Box Office Success of 'Harry Potter' Franchise

By Vianne Ilagan, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, January 03, 2018

"Star Wars" is now the second highest grossing franchise in box office history, surpassing the success of "Harry Potter," which held the record for years. The success of the latest film in the franchise, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," has significantly helped push the franchise to the second highest spot in terms of global revenue.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is now the highest grossing film of 2017, beating out Disney's live-action adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast." The film has successfully reached the $1 billion mark at the global box office, allowing the "Star Wars" franchise to unseat the highly popular "Harry Potter" franchise and drop it into third place.

Currently, the "Harry Potter" franchise has eight original movies and one spin-off, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." On the other hand, "Star Wars" has nine movies in total, including the 2008 animated film "Clone Wars." The "Harry Potter" franchise's total global revenue currently stands at $8.53 billion, but "Star Wars" was able to narrowly pass it over the weekend with $8.55 billion.

While the success of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" has helped "Star Wars" break "Harry Potter's" box office record, the competition between the two franchises is far from over, as each of the two franchises is set to release a new movie this year. This coming May, "Star Wars" will release "Solo: A Star Wars Story" and "Harry Potter" will release the "Fantastic Beasts" sequel, "The Crimes of Grindelwald.

"Star Wars" has been around since 1977 and has been one of the most lucrative franchises in film history. In fact, the popularity of the franchise was one of the driving forces behind Disney's decision to acquire Lucasfilm in 2012. In 2015, Disney revived the franchise with a bang with the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

While "Harry Potter" and "Star Wars" continue to battle out for the second spot, the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to sit on the top spot as the highest grossing franchise in history with combined earnings of $13.5 billion.