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Movie franchises are a cultural touchstone and a lucrative financial opportunity. Film franchises regularly drive billions of dollars of box office revenue and billions more in merchandise sales. If a franchise can reach the pinnacle of financial success, it can benefit its owner for decades. These five franchises, listed by total worldwide gross, have earned a whopping combined $67.52 billion.

Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, is unquestionably the king of lucrative movie franchises. Based on Marvel comic books and superheroes, the MCU is the highest-grossing film franchise in history—the 45 MCU movies have earned over $30.8 billion worldwide—and the franchise has grossed over $20 billion more than the next highest-grossing franchise. Much of this dominance is a result of the extremely popular Avengers movies, which have earned $7.7 billion over four films. An Avengers movie, , also holds the record for second-highest-grossing film of all time at $2.79 billion.

However, MCU’s financial success was not an obvious outcome when Disney first acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009. At the time, the movie rights to many of Marvel’s most popular characters had already been sold and the Marvel Cinematic Universe was not the mainstream brand it is today. Luckily for Disney, the deal has paid off in mammoth box office and merchandising opportunities as Marvel reacquired many of the characters it had previously sold.

Another Disney property, Star Wars, is the second most valuable movie franchise in the world by box office revenue. After 15 movies, the franchise has grossed a total of $10.32 billion. The highest grossing Star Wars film by nominal revenue, 2015’s , grossed slightly more than $2 billion worldwide and is the fifth-highest-grossing movie of all time. However, despite placing fifth in worldwide gross behind Titanic.

In 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm, which owned the rights to the Star Wars franchise, for $4 billion. When merchandise and licensing sales are included with box office earnings, it is clear the investment has paid off handsomely.

Third on the list of highest-grossing movie franchises, the Harry Potter movie franchise includes both the original eight Harry Potter movies as well as a spin-off series, Fantastic Beasts. The two series make up a movie franchise and shared universe known as the Wizarding World. Based on the popular books by J.K. Rowling, the franchise steadily gained steam over the 2000s; for example, the final Harry Potter movie, , grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide after its release in 2011. With both series combined, the franchise has made a total worldwide gross of $9.6 billion.

Like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Star Wars franchise, the Harry Potter franchise has spawned a myriad of related business opportunities. Along with a Broadway play, , the franchise is involved in theme parks at Universal Orlando Resort and video games through Electronic Arts.

The fourth-highest-grossing movie franchise of all time is Spider-Man. While the most recent two live-action Spider-Man movies are included in the total gross of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Spider-Man movie franchise includes two earlier series of films and an animated film as well. In total, the Spider-Man movie franchise has grossed $8.9 billion worldwide. The second most recent film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is the highest-grossing—the film earned almost $2 billion at the worldwide box office.

The Spider-Man film franchise is unique in that, unlike other Marvel properties, the films are not produced by Disney. Instead, Spider-Man films are produced by Sony Pictures. The two companies have managed to come to an agreement over the hero’s inclusion in the MCU, but there are still unanswered questions over the future of live-action Spider-Man movies.

Based on the novels by Ian Fleming, the James Bond movie franchise is the fifth-highest-grossing of all time. While the first film in the series, , only grossed $59.57 million in 1962, the most recent Bond movie, , grossed more than 12 times as much. All in all, the franchise has made $7.9 billion in total gross over 27 movies. The most successful movie of the franchise was 2012’s , which made $1.1 billion worldwide.

The Bond movies are one of the longest-running and most successful film franchises of all time. Over 60 years, eight actors have played the famous spy. While the latest Bond film starring Daniel Craig, , was scheduled for release in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic forced Universal Pictures to delay its release until 2021.

When you combine the worldwide total gross of the MCU, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Spider-Man, and James Bond you get a jaw-dropping total of $67.52 billion.

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SLB (SLB) shares slumped Friday as a lower trend in oil and gas prices hurt quarterly results for the big oilfield services provider.

SLB reported third-quarter revenue rose 10% year-over-year to $9.16 billion, about $100 million short of consensus estimates by analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Earnings per share (EPS) of 83 cents came in 4 cents below forecasts.

North American revenue rose 3% to $1.69 billion, held back by "lower drilling activity in U.S. land as the market remained constrained by gas prices and ongoing capital discipline by operators," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Olivier Le Peuch said in remarks after the earnings were posted.

International revenue soared 12% to $7.43 billion, boosted by slightly higher Middle East & Asia demand, but Latin American revenue declined by 3%.

Le Peuch said that "commodity prices have been under pressure" over the past few months. He blamed that on "uncertainty around OPEC+ supply releases, weaker demand from China, and softer economic growth rates in the U.S. and Europe." Le Peuch said those factors "resulted in a cautionary approach to activity and discretionary spend by many customers" that were borne out in the earnings report.

Shares of SLB skidded about 4% to $42.25 Friday afternoon. They are down 19% year-to-date. 

SLB wasn't alone in feeling the effects of falling commodity prices Friday. The S&P Energy Sector Index fell as crude and natural gas futures pulled back slightly.

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Things are heating up in the French fry business. 

Shares of Lamb Weston (LW), a leading fries supplier to McDonald’s (MCD) and other fast-food giants, jumped Friday on news that an activist investor has taken a stake in the struggling company and is looking to shake things up. 

The stock recently went up almost 10%. Regulatory filings today indicated that Jana Partners had acquired about a 5% stake in Lamb Weston. A report confirmed that another investor reporting a smaller stake in Lamb Weston, Continental Grain, was working with Jana, seeking a sale or other changes at the company.

Shares of Lamb Weston are down nearly 30% in 2024. Earlier this month, the company announced a restructuring plan that included a plant closing and layoffs. The company has bemoaned slow restaurant traffic and a move toward promotional fast-food value meals which resulted in diners getting smaller orders of fries. 

Lamb Weston's market value is around $10 billion, according to Visible Alpha data.

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Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) shares fell Friday as the Ohio-based bank posted a third-quarter profit drop as net interest income (NII) and noninterest income declined, and it put aside more money to cover bad loans. 

Fifth Third reported quarterly net income of $573 million, down from $660 million a year ago. Earnings per share (EPS) of $0.78 missed the consensus estimate of $0.83 of analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

Net interest income declined 1.2% year-over-year to $1.42 billion, and noninterest income was 0.6% lower at $711 million.

Fifth Third put aside $160 million for credit losses, a 34% jump from 2023, and 65% more than in the second quarter.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Spence said the bank put in a "strong and consistent performance" in the period, and is "well positioned for the declining interest rate environment and volatility driven by the economic and regulatory uncertainty."

Fifth Third Bancorp shares closed at a more than two-year high yesterday, and even with today's roughly 2% decline they're up nearly 30% in 2024.

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Autoliv (ALV) shares surged Friday after the world’s largest maker of airbags and seatbelts reported strong third-quarter results, despite a drop in light vehicle production amid a global slowdown in the auto sector.

Autoliv posted third-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.84, with revenue declining 0.8% from a year ago to $2.56 billion. Both figures were in line with analysts' estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

CEO Mikael Bratt said that despite a “tough environment,” the company “managed to outgrow" light vehicle production, "enabling almost unchanged sales and operating income.” He added Autoliv had substantial outperformance in Europe and Asia, except for China.

Bratt noted the company expects market share gains with domestic Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in the coming years. 

Autoliv said that based on customer call-outs, it expects light vehicle production will decline 3% globally for the year. It now anticipates organic sales growth of about 1%, down from its earlier outlook of approximately 2%.

Autoliv shares were up over 5% at $98.84 in afternoon trading Friday, though they remained lower for 2024.

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Big Brother Naija reality TV star Victoria Adeleye, better known as Vee, has recounted how a fan sent private images to her then-boyfriend.

Vee, who famously dated her colleague Emuobonuvie Neo Oliseh Akpofure, better known as Neo, revealed that it was the fan who contacted her to spill the tea.

Speaking on a podcast, she said: “I have been in a situation where a random account messaged me with screenshots, saying they had been sending n@ked pictures to my partner.

She said she wanted to test our relationship on my behalf because she is a fan. She sent naked pictures to him, and he had seen them and maybe liked a few or something.

When I presented the situation to him, he said, “You know my manager was on that account; people are sharing that account.”

At the end of the day, the story wasn’t straightforward. I just knew there were lies being told because it never made sense. You can sense when someone is lying.

Later, the screenshots of the DM that person sent to me ended up on blogs.

We had a discussion, and because the story wasn’t clear to me, we moved on from it, but I folded it and put it in my pocket.

As she was sending me the screenshots, I was saving them. I didn’t even reply to them until this day. It was a random fake account with no ID, but it had a n@ked picture without a face. She said she just wanted to test him, and at one point, she got him a PS5 because she is his fan, and then they exchanged Snapchats.

I guess we will never know, but it looks bad, and you’ve given me an excuse that I have to accept as my fate.”

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