Tagged

The 40 Highest Grossing Movie Characters of All Time

Published: February 6, 2024 by Colman Andrews

Along with dramatic tension and vivid scene-setting, one of the most important things a filmmaker can do is to create indelible characters — men or women (or sometimes animals) whose personalities are so vivid and actions so effective that we’re happy to keep coming back and seeing them again and again as they embark on new adventures.

Popular characters don’t have to be likable or admirable. According to Guinness World Records, the single most played character in movies and TV is the world’s most famous vampire — Dracula. The sinister Transylvanian has appeared, in one form or another, in more than 40 TV series, and at least 200 movies, dating back to the silent film era, with two new Dracula motion pictures scheduled for release this year.

Two other cinematic bad guys, both animated, are the murderous Bengal tiger Shere Khan in “The Jungle Book” (1967) and its successors and the grumpy supervillain Gru in the Despicable Me film series. Both, despite their evil characters, are among the movie characters throughout history who have been most responsible for the box office success of the films in which they’ve appeared. (Click here to discover the 20 best animated films of all time.)

In order to compile a list of the 40 highest grossing movie characters of all time, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data from the film industry site The Numbers, ranking characters according to an index based on the domestic box office gross of the movies they appear in and the extent of their participation in those movies.

The list features both live and animated characters, and includes superheroes, secret agents, fantasy figures, and one key personality from the Bible. Only six of those included are female.

No one will be surprised to find such iconic film figures as Shrek, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Rocky Balboa, Captain Jack Sparrow, Batman, or Luke Skywalker on the roster, but it’s nice to also find the forgetful blue tang named Dory from the Finding Nemo films represented, and it’s reassuring that the wise and noble Obi Wan-Kenobi of Star Wars fame has found a place here as well.

As for the single highest grossing movie character of all time? Of course it’s the world’s most famous spy, James Bond. (Here’s a list of the most evil James Bond villains.)

Methodology

To determine the highest grossing movie characters of all time, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on domestic box office from film industry site The Numbers, a subsidiary of Nash Information Services. Characters were ranked based on their total contributions to domestic box office. Box office contributions were calculated based on billing order, with domestic box office figures successively halved according to billing order. If an actor portraying a character received top billing, for example, they would be assigned half of the film’s box office. Actors receiving second billing were assigned one-fourth of a film’s box office, actors receiving third billing one-eighth, actors receiving fourth billing one-sixteenth, and so on. Box office data is adjusted for inflation.

Here are highest grossing movie characters of all time: