20 Highest-Grossing Movie Franchises Ranked Worst To Best

Worldwide box office: $3.57 billion.

Ethan Hunt, played throughout the Mission Impossible film series by Tom Cruise, deserves to rank alongside the likes of James Bond and Indiana Jones as one of cinema's greatest action heroes.

Since 1996, fans have followed the death-defying IMF agent as he's saved the world from terrorists, scaled impossible obstacles, lost friends to the good fight, defeated villainous organisations, been betrayed (more than once) by his own government, and been close to unstoppable in the process.

Since the tension-riddled original movie came along, the spy series has become bigger and more explosive with every sequel, but has never lost sight of the human drama driving the story forward.

Based on the beloved TV show of the same name, Mission Impossible has been exhilarating in its action, both funny and tragic in its character development, unpredictable in its twists and stunning in its increasingly insane stunts. The second film was maybe a stretch, but the series has gone from strength-to-strength since then, and thankfully shows no signs of slowing down.