20 Highest-Grossing Movie Franchises Ranked Worst To Best

Worldwide box office: $2.5 billion.

When Christopher Nolan was hired by Warner Bros. to helm a Batman movie trilogy almost twenty years after Joel Schumacher dropped the ball with '97's Batman & Robin, it proved to be a stroke of once-in-a-lifetime genius.

Bringing in a variety of veteran movie stars to guide the trilogy forward, Nolan created a Gotham so rich with character, horror, drama, and backstory that it revolutionised the way in which superhero movies could be made. This wasn't goofy fun, but gritty realism masquerading as a superhero film.

The added darkness Nolan brought to the trilogy helped Christian Bale become the best Caped Crusader since Michael Keaton, allowed Heath Ledger to scoop an Oscar for his revelatory turn as the Joker, and dug into Bruce Wayne's conflicted psyche like never before.

Starting with Batman Begins, the Dark Knight Trilogy was transcendently brilliant, and even today 2008's The Dark Knight is seen as perhaps the best superhero movie ever made. Simple put, Batman peaked here, and it'll be hard to top Nolan's vision going forward.