Earlier in November 2019 Joker became one of an exclusive yet increasingly growing club of films to earn over One Billion Dollars worldwide.

Titanic was the first to reach the milestone when it earned $1.84B in its initial release in 1997. It wasn’t until Return of the King in 2003 the milestone was next crossed. Now a total of 45 films have met the threshold with certain films now expected, and more often needing, to earn so much to be deemed a success. So let’s look at what makes a billion.

There’s no tricks here, the recipe for success has been fairly obvious, with films needing at least two of the following; high budgets, A-list casts, expanded franchises and, of course, Disney. The House of Mouse alone accounts for over half the films.

Sequels’ the game. Unsurprisingly sequels make up the easy majority of the list. Before Joker there was just five first film entries making the list; Avatar, Titanic, Frozen, Jurassic Park and Zootopia. Though Frozen, Jurassic Park and Joker are all based on existing properties, just three are wholly new ideas. There’s a total of 9 films from Marvel’s MCU with rivals DC lagging behind with 4 entries and only one from their rival connected universe, the DCEU, in 2018’s Aquaman.

A new dimension. When Avatar was released in late 2009, not only did it make an unprecedented amount of money, it ushered in a fad of trying to maximise profits by bringing 3D back kicking- and-screaming. This not only helped Avatar earn $2.78B, it also helped a few others past the post such as Transformers and Alice in Wonderland. The hype surrounding 3D has all but died out now, but the tentpole releases are still, for better or worse, getting a 3D release to squeeze a of bit extra profit.

Walt’s World. There’s no studio to have such an impact of the box office in recent years such as Disney. From their animation studios, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar, Disney are the real powerhouse. With Marvel Studios all four Avengers films have crossed $1 Billion, along with entries from Iron Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel and Black Panther. The recent Avengers: Endgame finally unseated Avatar to be the highest grossing film of all time. Star Wars has been a huge hit for the company with all but one of the Disney owned releases earning over $1 Billion. From the Pirates films to Toy Story and their live action remakes Disney’s prowess to make money is unparalleled. With their acquisition of Fox completed this year Disney are slowing monopolising the leading box office statistics, as Avatar joins their ranks.

Bond. James Bond. In what might be one of the most surprising entries in the list. 2012’s Skyfall blew every Bond film away when it made $1.1B. Admittedly, these are more difficult to judge considering the series’ long history and adjusting previous releases with inflation. In the era since Titanic, Pierce Brosnan’s could only manage between $330M-$430M. Daniel Craig’s pre-Skyfall duo could only muster $586M and $600M respectively. Skyfall’s numbers were almost beyond unexpected, but elevated the Bond series to new heights with the somewhat lacklustre Spectre still managing $880M. Daniel Craig’s next (and presumably last) entry is out next spring. Sony will definitely be expecting it to land somewhere between Skyfall and Spectre, but with Craig’s reported salary they’ll be hoping for numbers north of Skyfall. The Fast and Furious franchise has had a similar rise to glory. Older entries in the series all under the $400m mark. Then came Fast 5 earning $630m before the 7th entry earned a mammoth $1.5B. The reverse of most franchise who often make diminishing returns. The Jurassic World series is also seeing a similar rise in fortunes compared for Jurassic Park 2 and 3.