The movie that has made the most money globally is Avatar (2009), directed by James Cameron, with over $2.9 billion in worldwide box office revenue, followed by Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Way of Water, though Gone with the Wind (1939) is often cited as the highest when adjusted for inflation.
The first actor paid $1 million for a single movie role is often cited as Marlon Brando for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), but Elizabeth Taylor secured a $1 million contract for Cleopatra (1963) that included significant box office bonuses, making her the first to earn that much, while Mary Pickford had a $1 million contract for multiple films earlier (1916).
Seven films in total have grossed in excess of $2 billion worldwide, with Avatar ranked in the top position.
The Billion-Dollar Movie Club: 62 Movies to Reach $1 Billion Worldwide. List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
As of late 2025, seven movies have grossed over $2 billion worldwide, with Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Avatar: The Way of Water, Titanic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Infinity War, and Ne Zha 2 (an animated film) being the exclusive members of this elite club, a feat achieved by very few films in cinematic history, notes Screen Rant.
The fastest movie to reach $1 billion worldwide is Avengers: Endgame (2019), achieving the milestone in just 5 days, followed by Avengers: Infinity War (2018) in 11 days, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) tying at 12 days, with recent releases like Inside Out 2 (2024) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) also hitting it quickly.
The 25 Biggest Movie Flops of All Time
How We Chose The Top 100 Best Movies Of All Time
Most Watched Movies Of All Time
The #1 movie in the world, based on the highest worldwide box office gross, is James Cameron's Avatar (2009), followed by Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). These rankings focus on total money earned, with Avatar exceeding $2.9 billion globally.
To date, Leave No Trace holds the site's record, with a rating of 100% and 248 positive reviews.
The #1 richest actor is often cited as Arnold Schwarzenegger, with an estimated net worth around $1.49 billion, followed closely by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, while some lists place Tyler Perry at the top due to his studio ownership, but Schwarzenegger consistently leads actor-focused lists with vast wealth from acting, business, and politics.
The youngest person ever to accumulate a million dollars was the American child film actor Jackie Coogan (1914-84) born in Los Angeles, California, USA. In 1923-24 he was earning $22,000 (£11,936) per week and retained approximately 60% of his films' profits. At the age of 13, he was a millionaire in his own right.
Top 100 Rewatchable Movies
Films with the best acting.
Mithun Chakraborty holds the dubious honour of giving the highest number of flop films among lead actors in Bollywood. The actor has 180 flop films in a career that has spanned over 40 years.
The movie that took 48 years to make is The Other Side of the Wind, Orson Welles' final, unfinished film that began shooting in the 1970s and was finally completed and released by Netflix in 2018, long after Welles' death. The project was famously trapped in legal issues and distribution nightmares, with production spanning years and the editing process continuing posthumously until its eventual release, making it one of the longest-produced films ever.
The Top 10 Small Budget Movies That Had the Highest Return on Investment
The latest: Following in the footsteps of Ne Zha 2, Lilo & Stitch, and Zootopia 2, Disney's Avatar: Fire and Ash reaches the $1 billion milestone in less than three weeks.
The Most Watched Movies of all time according to IMDB. Like this list
18+ movies to watch