The 23 most successful movie franchises of all time

YouTube/themoviechannel

Riding the record-setting success of "Black Panther" into the massive, upcoming release of "Avengers: Infinity War," the Marvel Cinematic Universe's catalog of films gives it a commanding lead among the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time. 

To figure out which other film series have made their mark, we turned to Box Office Mojo to rank the most successful film franchises in history by their worldwide box office totals. 

From the "Star Wars" films to the "James Bond" series, many of these franchises have had staying power over the course of decades.

And for many of them, the box office is only the start, with things like merchandising adding even more into the coffers of their respective production companies.

Here are the 23 most successful movies franchise of all time at the global box office:

23. "Indiana Jones" — $1.947 billion

Paramount via YouTube screengrab

Box office total: $1.947 billion

Number of movies: 4

Highest-grossing movie: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" ($786.6 million)

22. "Toy Story" — $1.970 billion

Pixar

Box office total: $1.970 billion

Number of movies: 3

Highest-grossing movie: "Toy Story 3" ($1.06 billion)

21. "Planet of the Apes" — $2.077 billion

20th Century Fox

Box office total: $2.077 billion

Number of movies: 5

Highest-grossing movie: "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" ($710.6 million)

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• The 10 biggest blockbuster movies of all time, and how much they raked in
• 24 movies that made outrageous amounts of money but were despised by critics
• The 30 most important deaths in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ranked by how sad they were

SEE ALSO: The 13 movies that made $1 billion at the box office the fastest, including Marvel's 'Black Panther'