Box Office: Hollywood's Most Profitible Action Franchises Are...

In terms of production budget versus global gross, the current line-up of non-fantastical, real-world action series has a new contender... and a new champion.

Almost exactly four years ago today, while desperately trying to find something to write about in the first COVID summer of closed theatres and delayed releases, I did a rundown of the six biggest ongoing real-world action movie franchises and looked at where they stood in terms of rate-of-return (budget versus gross) profitability. At the time, they were Gerard Butler’s Has Fallen series, Matt Damon’s Bourne franchise, the Pierce Brosnan/Daniel Craig 007 movies, Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible flicks, Keanu Reeves’ John Wick series and Vin Diesel’s ongoing Fast Saga flicks. 

I thought I would do an update since A) Bad Boys now qualifies as a big-deal ongoing real-world action franchise, and B) four of these previously noted series have received at least one new chapter since 2021. With all due respect to Sean Connery and Roger Moore’s 007 movies or the once-mighty but now past-tense likes of Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, they don’t apply. Without further ado, what rose, what fell, and which franchise is the new champion?