In Hollywood, is it possible to buy your way to success? As blockbusters get bigger, so do the budgets that come with them. But does a bigger budget lead to more ticket sales and better reviews?
Hollywood’s most profitable blockbusters
While making movies can be expensive, musicMagpie’s research found that this extra investment does pay off, with 83% of movies with a budget of over $50 million generating a positive return on investment!
The most profitable big budget blockbuster in the study was Jurassic Park, which generated an incredible 1649% ROI (with a budget of $63,000,000 and a worldwide gross of $1,038,812,584).
Here are the 5 most profitable big budget blockbusters of all time:
| # | Movie | ROI |
| 1 | Jurassic Park | 1649% |
| 2 | Bohemian Rhapsody | 1627% |
| 3 | Minions | 1568% |
| 4 | Days of Thunder | 1381% |
| 5 | Despicable Me 3 | 1380% |
Does a bigger budget also lead to better reviews?
The 50 best performing movies in our study earned an average 69% Tomatometer and 75% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, showing that commercial success and critical success don’t always go hand in hand.
Coco was the most universally loved movie in the study, with a 97% Tomatometer and 94% audience score, and generated a 456% ROI.
Here are the 10 most popular big budget blockbusters:
| # | Movie | Tomatometer | Audience Score | ROI |
| 1 | Coco | 97% | 94% | 456% |
| 2 | How to Train Your Dragon | 99% | 91% | 300% |
| 3 | Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 3D | 97% | 93% | 417% |
| 4 | Lord of Rings: Two Towers | 95% | 95% | 994% |
| 5 | Zootopia | 97% | 92% | 680% |
| 6 | Up | 98% | 90% | 418% |
| 7 | Dark Knight | 94% | 94% | 394% |
| 8 | Saving Private Ryan | 93% | 95% | 746% |
| 9 | Toy Story 3 | 98% | 89% | 534% |
| 10 | Inside Out | 98% | 89% | 488% |
Want to know more? Head over to musicMagpie to see the full set of data, which looks at almost 1,000 movies: https://musicmagpie.co.uk/bang-for-your-buck
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