When it comes to movie sequels, there is often the law of diminishing returns ruling over its success. It is rare that a movie successful enough to warrant a sequel has one that does significantly better than the original, both in terms of critical acclaim and in box office. However, there are times that it happens, and it usually catapults a franchise to greatness.
Typically, when a movie makes more than $500 million, it is considered a massive success. That makes the times where a sequel outgrossed the previous movie by that much extremely rare. It has only happened 14 times, in some cases with immediate sequels and in other instances when a movie franchise continues many years after the original installment.
23 Skyfall (2012) – $518 Million More
- Available for streaming on Hulu and Paramount+.
There have been 25 official James Bond movies, and while it might come as a surprise, only one of them broke the $1 billion mark at the box office. What shouldn’t come as a surprise is that the five highest-grossing James Bond movies are the last five, all starring Daniel Craig.
The biggest jump came in between the second movie, Quantum of Solace, which made $591 million, and the third, Skyfall, which made $1.1 billion. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that those were the lowest and highest box office takes for Craig’s Bond.
22 Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (1999) - $551 Million More
- Available for streaming on Disney+.
There is not a lot of love for the Star Wars prequel movies, but they made a lot of money when released anyway. The first of the prequels, Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, hit theaters in 1999, 16 years after Return of the Jedi.
It was clear that Star Wars fans were more than ready for more stories from the franchise because they showed up in mass numbers. Return of the Jedi was the lowest grossing movie of the original series at $475 million, which The Phantom Menace finished with over a billion at the box office.
21 Toy Story 3 (2010) – $569 Million More
- Available for streaming on Disney+.
Toy Story was the first Pixar movie, and for many fans, it is still one of the best. However, unlike many franchises, it seemed that the movies in this series got better and better as each sequel arrived. That also lined up with the movie’s box office take.
Each movie in the franchise made more than the one that came before. However, while the climb between the first two was under $200 million and the jump between the last two was less than $500,000, Toy Story 3 made $1.06 billion compared to the $511 million of the first sequel.
20 Iron Man 3 (2013) – $590 Million More
- Available for streaming on Disney+.
Iron Man 3 doesn’t get a lot of love. Some fans discounted the movie because of the fake out with Mandarin, but the movie was a huge success. The previous movie, considered a letdown after the first Iron Man, only made $621 at the box office.
Most audiences didn’t care what die-hard comic book fans thought about Iron Man 3‘s plot twist. They showed up in force and helped the movie hit $1.21 billion for a massive box office turnaround.
19 Incredibles 2 (2018) – $611 Million More
- Available for streaming on Disney+.
The Incredibles came out in 2004 and many Pixar fans pointed to it as one of the best superhero movies. The heroes here were original creations, but seemed inspired by the Fantastic Four, who had never achieved a lot of success in their movies.
The $631 million box office take was a great one, but Pixar chose not to rush to a sequel. Finally, in 2018, the sequel came and it ended up making $1.2 billion, and while it wasn’t as critically beloved, it was a much bigger box office success than the original.
18 The Dark Knight (2008) – $631 Million More
- Available for streaming on HBO Max.
The Batman franchise seemed dead after Batman & Robin disappointed critics and flopped at the box office. However, Christopher Nolan resurrected the franchise with Batman Begins, and he made a decent $358 million with the reboot at the time.
The Dark Knight blew that out of the water. The movie picked up Oscar nominations, was called one of the best DC superhero movies of all time, and finished with $998 million at the box office.
17 Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – $645 Million More
- Available for streaming on Disney+.
Critics and fans considered Avengers: Age of Ultron a letdown after the first Avengers movie. Its box office fell over $100 million under the original so the MCU course corrected. What resulted was Thanos invading and the Avengers teaming up with every hero in the MCU for an all-out battle.
Avengers: Infinity War was a huge success and rebounded with a $2 billion box office take, $645 million more than the previous movie. However, its reign on top was short-lived when its sequel beat it out by over $700 million.
16 Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) – $698 Million More
- Not Available to stream.
Fans were excited about the new Spider-Man movie in 2021, but the entire world was still shellshocked from the pandemic and people were still scared to leave their homes. Almost every theatrical movie failed at the box office in 2021, but Spider-Man: No Way Home was the exception.
The movie was not only a success, but it ended up as the third highest-grossing MCU movie in history, beating the previous Spider-Man movie by almost $700 million.
15 Furious 7 (2015) – $726 Million More
- Available for streaming on Fubo.
When it comes to the Fast & Furious franchise, most fans consider Fast Five to be where the franchise went from a cult favorite to a massive box office success story. However, even with its popularity, that movie only made $630 million and the sixth movie topped out at $789 million.
The one movie that sits on top of the mountain for the franchise is Furious 7. That movie blew away expectations and finished with a box office total of $1.5 billion, a number that still reigns supreme.
14 Avengers: Endgame (2019) – $749 Million More
- Available for streaming on Disney+.
It is not a surprise that several movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe kept getting bigger and bigger as they went. What is surprising is that back-to-back movies for the MCU each eclipsed the previous ones by half a billion dollars at the box office.
The final movie in the Avengers saga, Avengers: Endgame, is the highest-grossing MCU movie of all time. The impressive thing is that the previous movie broke $2 billion. Endgame ended up with $2.7 billion at the box office, second to only Avatar.
13 Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) – $788 Million More
- Available for streaming on Hoopla.
One sequel that made more than half a billion more at the box office that its previous movie was one that mainstream American movie goers might not recognize. This movie was Wolf Warrior 2, a Chinese action movie that’s story is similar to America’s Rambo franchise.
The first movie came out in 2015 and made $81 million at the box office. The sequel destroyed Chinese box office records. Wolf Warrior 2 was the highest-grossing movie of all time in the country, making $835 million worldwide.
12 Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017) – $903 Million More
- Available for streaming on Starz.
Jumanji is another franchise that had a long period between movies in the series. The first Jumanji came out in 1995 and made $262 million at the box office. 22 years later Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle made $961 million, which was a jump of almost $700 million.
However, what a lot of fans don’t realize is there was a sequel in between called Zathura that only made $58 million. That makes the 2017 movie the third in the series, and one that made over $900 million more than the previous release.
11 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) – $1.21 Billion More
- Available for streaming on Disney+.
The Star Wars saw long stretches between the original trilogy, the prequels, and the sequel trilogy. As a result, movie audience numbers and box office made a massive jump. The sixth movie, Revenge of the Sith, hit theaters in 2005 and made $848 million worldwide.
While that was a nice number at the time, it couldn’t match the $2.06 billion that Star Wars: The Force Awakens made. This was the movie that continued the saga and fans came out in droves to witness the continuing story. No other Star Wars movie has come close to that number since.
10 Jurassic World (2015) – $1.3 Billion More
- Available for streaming on Fubo.
The movie that completely demolished the previous movie in the franchise by a massive total arrived in 2015 with Jurassic World. This was a case where the sequel arrived 14 years after the previous movie, which was itself seen as a letdown for the franchise.
Jurassic Park III hit theaters in 2001, and it was the lowest grossing movie of the series, making only $365 million worldwide. When Jurassic World arrived, it made $1.6 billion, the third highest-grossing movie of ever at that time.
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