Box Office

10 Most Successful Action Movie Franchises at the Box Office

Sean Connery James Bond

The 10 Most Successful Action Movie Franchises at the Box Office. This top ten list consists of action movie franchises that have made from multi-millions to billions of dollars at the box office world wide. One of the biggest surprises was seeing Beverly Hills Cop on the list.

The 10 Most Successful Action Movie Franchises at the Box Office:

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James Bond (Over $5 billion)

Over 20 Bond movies have been released in the last 50 years and the latest one, Skyfall, is due out over the coming months, meaning popularity in the British spy remains high. Everyone has a favourite Bond, whether it’s Messrs Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan or Craig.

Transformers (Over $2.6 billion)

People of a certain age grew up watching the cartoon series of Transformers, so imagine their delight when a big-budget film franchise started in 2007 that has so far spawned three movies. With amazing special effects, robots in disguise have never looked as good on the big screen.

Mission: Impossible (Over $2 billion)

Initially a TV series that ran in 1960s and 70s, Mission: Impossible is a fast-paced spy thriller that offers something different to Bond. Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt performs all manner of logic-defying stunts and somehow manages to get out of plenty sticky situations.

The Matrix (Over $1.6 billion)

Keanu Reeves first found himself thrust into The Matrix in 1999 and went on to star in two further Matrix films, attracting a cult following of fans in the process. The plot is quite complex in comparison to other action movies, but the juice is worth the squeeze.

Die Hard (Over $1.1 bilion)

Another classic film franchise to start in the late 1980s was Die Hard as NYPD cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) did things his way in order to protect the city he loves. There have been four Die Hards so far, with Die Hard with a Vengeance a particular favourite for many people.  

Lethal Weapon (Over $952 million)

Mel Gibson and Danny Glover did the business as good cop, good cop in Lethal Weapon, which consisted of four films in total between 1987 and 1998. Blending together comedy and crime always proves a winner – as Lethal Weapon shows.

Bourne (Over $944 million)

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Three Bourne films to date have generated a staggering amount at the box office and that number will swell this year when number four, The Bourne Legacy, comes out in August. Bizarrely, Jason Bourne doesn’t make an appearance in The Bourne Legacy.

Rambo (Over $726 million)

There had to be at least one Sly Stallone film in the list and it’s the Rambo franchise, which features a renegade war hero busting bad guys left, right and centre and generally causing carnage on his one-man crusade.

Beverly Hills Cop (Over $712 million)

Wise-cracking Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) first burst on to our screens in 1984 in Beverly Hills Cop, which actually received an Oscar nomination. It didn’t win, but it did have a brilliant soundtrack, some superb one-liners and led to two sequels.

Predator (Over $581 million)

Did you know it’s 25 years since Predator came out? Amazing. A quarter of a century later, though, it remains as good as ever, even if the subsequent films in the Predator series have struggled to reach the standards set by the original.

Source: Liveforfilms, Thenumbers

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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