Ranked: The Highest-Grossing Films in History
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Ranked: The Highest-Grossing Films in History
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Key Takeaways
- Avatar holds the title as the highest-grossing film in history, with nearly $3 billion in box office receipts.
- James Cameron has directed three of the four highest-grossing movies.
- Disney is home to most of the biggest movie successes in history.
Even as movie attendance struggles to recover from the pandemic-era onslaught of home streaming services, numerous big-budget films have raked in billions of dollars at the box office, including the most recent Avatar installment as well as two animated sequels.
This infographic ranks the 20 best-selling films of all time based on lifetime worldwide gross, using updated 2026 data from Box Office Mojo.
James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), with its over $2.92 billion in earnings, has been the highest-grossing film in history since its 2021 rerelease in China. The film previously held the title for nearly a decade before losing its position to Avengers: Endgame in 2019 for two years.
The Two-Billion Dollar Club
Including both Avatar and Endgame ($2.8 billion), only seven movies have ever passed the $2-billion mark in worldwide box office receipts.
The other five include 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.33 billion), 1997’s Titanic and 2025’s Ne Zha 2 (both $2.26 billion), 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens ($2.07 billion), and 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War ($2.05 billion).
The data table below lists the highest-grossing movies of all time as of March 2026.
| Rank | Movie | Lifetime Gross | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Avatar | $2,923,710,708 | 2009 |
| 2 | Avengers: Endgame | $2,799,439,100 | 2019 |
| 3 | Avatar: The Way of Water | $2,334,484,620 | 2022 |
| 4 | Titanic | $2,264,812,968 | 1997 |
| 5 | Ne Zha 2 | $2,260,176,370 | 2025 |
| 6 | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens | $2,071,310,218 | 2015 |
| 7 | Avengers: Infinity War | $2,052,415,039 | 2018 |
| 8 | Spider-Man: No Way Home | $1,921,426,073 | 2021 |
| 9 | Zootopia 2 | $1,866,577,771 | 2025 |
| 10 | Inside Out 2 | $1,698,863,816 | 2024 |
| 11 | Jurassic World | $1,671,537,444 | 2015 |
| 12 | The Lion King | $1,662,020,819 | 2019 |
| 13 | The Avengers | $1,520,538,536 | 2012 |
| 14 | Furious 7 | $1,515,342,457 | 2015 |
| 15 | Top Gun: Maverick | $1,495,696,292 | 2022 |
| 16 | Avatar: Fire and Ash | $1,485,550,805 | 2025 |
| 17 | Frozen II | $1,453,683,476 | 2019 |
| 18 | Barbie | $1,447,138,421 | 2023 |
| 19 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | $1,405,018,048 | 2015 |
| 20 | The Super Mario Bros. Movie | $1,360,879,735 | 2023 |
No director has more entries on the upper echelon of film history than James Cameron, who directed Titanic as well as all of the Avatar films, leaving him with three of the four highest-grossing movies in history.
Cameron notably directed the first film to gross $1 billion and the first two films to ever gross $2 billion. Today, while that club has grown to reach seven movies, Cameron clearly has the strongest double-billion track record.
The Hegemony of Franchise Films
James Cameron is notable not only for his film’s commercial successes, but also for the fact that two of his highest-grossing movies are the only non-franchise films to be found in the top-20 list. Franchise films may include spin-offs, sequels, remakes, or film adaptations of existing media properties.
Setting aside Titanic and the original Avatar, all of the other highest-grossing movies are franchise films. This includes the two Avatar sequels as well as five Marvel blockbusters, ranging from the four Avengers movies to 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.92 billion).
Ne Zha 2, the only non-American movie in the top 20, is a sequel to a 2019 Chinese film and was released in January of 2025 at the start of the Chinese New Year. Other recent animated hits, like 2019’s Frozen II ($1.45 billion), 2024’s Inside Out 2 ($1.7 billion), and 2025’s Zootopia 2 ($1.87 billion), are also sequels to beloved children’s films.
On the flip side, 2019’s The Lion King ($1.66 billion) was not a sequel but rather a CGI-animated remake of the 1994 Disney classic.
The Force Awakens, Jurassic World ($1.67 billion), and Furious 7 ($1.52 billion), all of which were released in 2015, are all sequels to existing franchises, as is 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick ($1.5 billion). Finally, 2023 films like Barbie ($1.45 billion) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.36 billion) are film adaptations of other media properties, in the former case a Mattel doll and in the latter case a Nintendo video game series.
The Mouse’s Decades-Long Domination
Film studios have clearly learned the value of a franchise film in keeping audiences coming back despite rising movie theater ticket prices. And given Disney’s unparalleled successes, it’s clear they’ve mastered the game best, leading to consistent chart-toppers every year compared to a few decades ago.
Following successive $4 billion acquisitions of both Marvel Entertainment in 2009 and Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney has been able to dominate the box office through its fan-favorite franchise films like Avengers and Star Wars.
In 2019, it expanded its reach by acquiring 20th Century Fox, bringing the Avatar series and the international rights to Titanic into the fold, although Paramount Pictures retains the North American rights to Titanic.
The Mouse’s competitors in the major American film studios have struggled to keep up. The only Warner Bros. film in the top 20 is Barbie, while Paramount’s only fully-owned success is Top Gun: Maverick. Notably, these two studios are also expected to combine operations soon, as Paramount attempts to acquire Warner Bros.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out The 15 Highest-grossing Horror Movies of All Time on Voronoi.
Ranked: The World’s 10 Biggest Foreign Investors
Tech firms made many of the world’s largest investments in 2025, led by a Taiwanese company’s $100-billion investment in Arizona.
Which Companies Invested the Most Abroad?
Key Takeaways
- Five of the world’s 10 largest foreign investors in 2025 were tech companies.
- TSMC led the ranking with $100 billion in announced investment tied to its Arizona expansion.
- The top 10 companies accounted for more than a quarter of the $1.3 trillion in new foreign investments announced globally.
In 2025, multinational companies announced more than $1.3 trillion in new foreign investments, up 2.2% from the previous year. The largest commitments spanned semiconductor fabs, data centers, energy projects, and other major infrastructure.
This visualization ranks the 10 largest foreign investors of 2025 using announced investments from The fDi Report 2026. Only greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) announcements are included, meaning mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and intercompany loans are excluded.
Why TSMC Invested $100B in Arizona
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest semiconductor fabricator, topped the ranking after announcing an additional $100 billion investment in its Arizona operations in 2025.
TSMC is also the world’s largest non-U.S. company by market capitalization. Amid record profits and rising demand for its chips, the company planned to use the investment to accelerate production at its facilities in the Phoenix area. The expansion is projected to create more than 18,000 jobs.
The table below ranks the world’s 10 largest foreign investors in 2025 by announced capital expenditure.
| Rank | Company | Capital Expenditure (billions $) | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇹🇼 TSMC | 100.0 | Tech |
| 2 | 🇨🇳 ByteDance | 45.1 | Tech |
| 3 | 🇦🇪 MGX Fund Management | 43.4 | Finance |
| 4 | 🇨🇦 Brookfield Asset Management | 28.2 | Finance |
| 5 | 🇺🇸 Alphabet | 25.1 | Tech |
| 6 | 🇦🇪 DAMAC Holding | 24.6 | Real Estate |
| 7 | 🇪🇸 Iberdrola | 24.3 | Utilities |
| 8 | 🇺🇸 Microsoft | 17.7 | Tech |
| 9 | 🇦🇺 Woodside Energy | 17.5 | Energy |
| 10 | 🇺🇸 Micron Technology | 16.6 | Tech |
TSMC first pledged roughly $12 billion in 2020 to open an Arizona fabrication plant. These facilities, known as “fabs,” were designed to reduce semiconductor supply-chain risk by shifting some production away from Taiwan.
The company steadily expanded its investment over the following years as U.S.-China tensions increased, particularly around advanced chip technology. TSMC plans to produce some of its most advanced chips in Arizona as part of a 2024 deal with the U.S. government.
Despite labor challenges and higher costs, TSMC has continued to deepen its investment in Arizona. Following additional pledges in 2026, the firm’s overall greenfield investment in the state stands at $265 billion, making it the largest foreign investment in U.S. history.
Free-Flowing Tech Capital
TSMC stood well ahead of the field, but tech companies dominated the ranking overall, taking five of the top 10 spots.
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, ranked second with $45.1 billion in announced investment. Nearly $40 billion of that total came from plans to build a major data center in Brazil, a project expected to create roughly 5,000 jobs.
Big Tech firms including Alphabet ($25.1 billion) and Microsoft ($17.7 billion) also announced sizable foreign investments. Alphabet subsidiary Google, for example, pledged more than $5 billion for a large data center campus in Belgium to help meet growing demand for Google Cloud.
The Non-Tech Firms Want In Too
Digital infrastructure also shaped the investment priorities of companies outside the tech sector, particularly in Europe.
Emirati state-owned investment firm MGX Fund Management, for example, focuses heavily on global AI technologies. The company announced about $43.4 billion in investment, including a major French data center project aimed at creating one of Europe’s largest campuses of its kind.
Meanwhile, Canadian firm Brookfield Asset Management also targeted Europe’s AI and digital infrastructure market. Brookfield pledged about $28.2 billion in greenfield FDI in 2025, primarily for projects in France and Sweden. Its announced investments are expected to create roughly 4,800 jobs.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
For a breakdown of the sectors driving global FDI, check out The Top 10 Sectors for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Voronoi.
These Data Centers Could Use More Power Than Major Cities
Meta is building a data center in Louisiana which at full power could consume nearly as much energy as New York City.
How Data Center Power Demand Compares to U.S. Cities
Key Takeaways
- Meta’s planned Hyperion data center has a full-power annual energy equivalent of 43.8 TWh, approaching New York City’s electricity use.
- Amazon’s AWS Susquehanna Data Campus has an annual energy equivalent greater than Philadelphia’s electricity consumption.
- Vantage’s Port Washington campus could have an annual energy equivalent roughly four times Madison’s electricity use.
Data centers are drawing increasing scrutiny across the United States as their electricity and water requirements grow alongside the country’s AI infrastructure buildout.
This visualization compares three major planned data centers with six U.S. city electricity benchmarks. Data comes from 2026 corporate and regulatory filings, as well as the latest published consumption figures from city press offices.
All figures are in terawatt-hours (TWh), a standard unit of electrical energy. Because the data centers are planned or under development, their figures assume continuous operation at stated future power levels rather than forecasting actual electricity consumption.
Meta’s Manhattan in the Bayou
Facebook parent company Meta is planning a massive data center in Louisiana. Hyperion, as the project has been nicknamed, is set to have an annual energy equivalent of 43.8 TWh at full operation.
That would be nearly eight times the 5.6 TWh of electricity consumed by New Orleans in 2025. Perhaps even more strikingly, Hyperion’s annual equivalent would sit just below New York City’s forecast annual electricity use of 46.9 TWh.
The table below compares data centers’ annual energy equivalents with U.S. city-level electricity benchmarks.
| City / Planned Data Center | State | Annual power equivalent (TWh) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🏙️ New York City | NY | 46.88 | NYISO Zone J, 2025 forecast update |
| 🤖 Meta Hyperion | LA | 43.80 | Richland Parish, based on full expansion |
| 🏙️ Phoenix | AZ | 17.50 | Citywide electricity consumption, 2022 |
| 🤖 AWS Susquehanna Data Campus | PA | 16.82 | Ramp to full volume by 2032 |
| 🏙️ Philadelphia | PA | 13.10 | Green House Gas inventory, 2022 |
| 🤖 Vantage / Stargate Port Washington | WI | 11.39 | Planned utility-forecast demand through 2030 |
| 🏙️ Sacramento | CA | 10.51 | Municipal Utility District retail system, 2025 |
| 🏙️ New Orleans | LA | 5.60 | Service territory, 2025 |
| 🏙️ Madison | WI | 2.80 | Community inventory, 2022 |
The New York comparison is particularly fitting. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in July 2025 that the $50 billion facility would span nearly the size of Manhattan.
Hyperion, formally known as the Richland Parish Data Center, is expected to partially come online by 2030 before reaching full build-out in 2032.
Amazon’s $20 Billion Pennsylvania Bet
At full capacity, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Susquehanna Data Campus will reportedly have an annual energy equivalent of 16.8 TWh—roughly 30% more than Philadelphia’s 13.1 TWh of electricity use in 2022.
The Susquehanna facility is part of Amazon’s larger $20 billion investment in digital infrastructure in Pennsylvania. Governor Josh Shapiro described the investment by the world’s largest company by revenue as the biggest capital investment in state history.
Another notable feature is the campus’s proximity to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Amazon’s plans to source power from the neighboring facility have faced regulatory scrutiny from federal authorities.
Under an agreement between AWS and the nuclear plant’s operator, the data center would obtain roughly 40% of the plant’s energy output, enough to power more than half a million homes.
Wisconsin’s New Capital
Vantage’s Port Washington campus in Wisconsin is part of the $500 billion Stargate initiative involving major technology firms including SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle. The campus’s 11.4 TWh annual energy equivalent would be roughly four times Madison’s 2.8 TWh electricity benchmark.
Another useful comparison is the Sacramento area. Port Washington’s annual equivalent would be about 8% higher than the 10.5 TWh of annual electricity sales reported by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), which serves Sacramento and surrounding communities.
With a total price tag of $15 billion, the Port Washington data center is expected to be completed in 2028. It will add to the United States’ existing global lead in the number of data centers.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
For a broader look at global data center electricity demand, check out How Much Electricity Are AI Data Centers Consuming? on Voronoi.
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