July 14th, 2011 08:16 AM GMT Share Comments (3 comments) Permalink Harry's magic earns pots of cash Posted by:  CNN, Natalie Robehmed (CNN) – The latest Harry Potter movie has already broken box office records – and it hasn’t even opened yet. Pre-ordered tickets for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” have brought in $25 million in the U.S. alone. The film is due for release this Friday. Not exactly a surprise for a movie franchise that is already king of the box office. Raking in $6.37 billion worldwide, Harry Potter has banked more billions than any movie featuring Luke Skywalker, Frodo and James Bond. The Potter franchise has also made more money than the Matrix, Twilight and X-Men franchises combined. Take a look at the highest worldwide grossing franchises and number of installments, according to box-office research website The Numbers. 1. Harry Potter (7) $6.37 billion 2. James Bond (23) $5.07 billion 3. Star Wars (8) $4.41 billion 4. Pirates of the Caribbean (4) $3.7 billion 5. Shrek (4) $2.96 billion 6. Lord of the Rings (3) $2.91 billion 7. Batman (8) $2.65 billion 8. Spider-Man (3) $2.49 billion 9. Transformers (3) $2.19 billion 10. Jurassic Park (3) $2.08 billion 11. Indiana Jones (4) $1.98 billion 12. Toy Story (3) $1.95 billion 13. Ice Age (3) $1.92 billion 14. X-Men (5) $1.88 billion 15. Twilight (4) $1.81 billion 16. Matrix (3) $1.62 billion 17. Chronicles of Narnia (3) $1.58 billion 18. Fast and Furious (5) $1.57 billion 19. Star Trek (11) $1.46 billion 20. Mission: Impossible (3) $1.4 billion So what’s the secret to the Harry Potter franchise success? Much ink has been spilled on why Harry Potter captivates audiences, but its widespread appeal – riding off the books’ popularity – is what seems to sell tickets. As a 2009 Newsweek blog pointed out, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy called upon a more niche audience. Even the unprecedented success of Batman installment “The Dark Knight”, which grossed more that $1 billion worldwide according to stats website Box Office Mojo, seems unlikely to be repeated, as that movie’s ticket sales were propelled by the untimely death of one of its stars, Newsweek speculated. Yet this is the beauty of the franchise – once a viewer watches one movie in the series, they just keep going back for more. Even the delivery of the classic complaint that the sequel is not as good as the original requires a return trip to the cinema, if only for vindication. Sequels have come a long way since what is often considered to be their start – 1916’s “The Fall of a Nation,” the follow-up to the Ku Klux Klan film “The Birth of a Nation.” Hollywood quickly learned that the built-in audience a franchise provides is a safe bet for box office success. Since then, audiences have witnessed the release of 23 James Bond films, 11 Star Trek installments, and 12 movies of Friday the 13th. This summer, cinema listings are full of sequels, among them “The Hangover 2,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” and “Transformers 3.” With a slew of follow-up films including “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” slated for release in 2012, franchises are here to stay. Comment : Well this is insane i cant believe that a movie can make so much money and it hasnt been seen in theaters. unlike other movies after they sold disks and stuff like that they still dont make so much money. That is totally crazy i never thought that can happen.