Top Ten Highest Grossing Films Of all Time: (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/)
| Rank | Title | Studio | Worldwide | Domestic / % | Overseas / % | Year^ | ||
| 1 | Avatar | Fox | $2,788.0 | $760.5 | 27.3% | $2,027.5 | 72.7% | 2009^ |
| 2 | Titanic | Par. | $2,186.8 | $658.7 | 30.1% | $1,528.1 | 69.9% | 1997^ |
| 3 | Marvel's The Avengers | BV | $1,518.6 | $623.4 | 41.0% | $895.2 | 59.0% | 2012 |
| 4 | Furious 7 | Uni. | $1,511.6 | $351.0 | 23.2% | $1,160.6 | 76.8% | 2015 |
| 5 | Jurassic World | Uni. | $1,416.4 | $572.5 | 40.4% | $843.9 | 59.6% | 2015 |
| 6 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | BV | $1,384.1 | $454.8 | 32.9% | $929.3 | 67.1% | 2015 |
| 7 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | WB | $1,341.5 | $381.0 | 28.4% | $960.5 | 71.6% | 2011 |
| 8 | Frozen | BV | $1,274.2 | $400.7 | 31.4% | $873.5 | 68.6% | 2013 |
| 9 | Iron Man 3 | BV | $1,215.4 | $409.0 | 33.7% | $806.4 | 66.3% | 2013 |
| 10 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | P/DW | $1,123.8 | $352.4 | 31.4% | $771.4 | 68.6% | 2011 |
Now, the first thing I know I look for in a film is the genre. Everyone has a preference so does this have an effect on the gross of the film?
In the number one spot is 'Avatar' (2009, Cameron), this is classified as a Sci-Fi adventure film. There seems to be a trend for action/adventure films in the top ten; 'Marvel's The Avengers' (2012, Whedon), 'Furious 7' (2015, Wan), 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' (2015, Whedon), 'Iron Man 3' (2013, Black) and 'Transformers: Dark Of The Moon' (2011, Bay). This seems to be the preferable genre, maybe this is because it offers an escape from the real world. They represent locations and situations that will not happn in our own lives, we become immersed in another place, perhaps making these films more popular. 
Stars are also a huge part of films. Often, the films starring the most famous actors are more popular than those who cast relatively unknown actors. 'Titanic' (1997, Cameron) stars Leonrado DiCaprio, who previous to this film was famous for playing Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet' (1996, Luhrmann) and Kate Winslet whi had starred in both Television and Films previous to 'Titanic'. This may have been a large factor in driving this film to the highest grossing film of all time before 'Avatar'. Other films may have also benefitted from star power: 'Furious 7' -Vin Diesel and 'Jurassic World' (2015, Trevorrow)- Chris Pratt.
It is not just the cast that can draw an audience to a film, directors could also be considered the driving star power behind the film. 'Avatar' and 'Titanic' were both directed by James Cameron. Before 'Titanic', Cameron was known for directing several films such as 'Aliens'(1986) the sequel to Ridley Scott's 'Alien' (1979) . He was well known, and by the time of 'Avatar' was already a huge success. Fans of Cameron are likely to want to watch his films, this may drraw in a larger audience, along with fans of the cast e.g. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Joss Whedon, Director of the Avengers films, was not only a writer (with credits including Toy Story) but was also a director of TV ( 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' (1996-2003), 'Firefly' (2002)). He was already well known in the film industry, so was likely to have already had a large following, making his films more popular than others. 
Saying this however, 'Avengers' is part of the Marvel franchise, meaning it may have attained the same amount of popularity regardless of the director. The Marvel films are hugely popular worldwide with all ages, starring big names such as Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson. The same can be said fo 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2' (2011, Yates). This is the final installement to the Harry Potter franchise, which was already a global phenomenon in both books and film. It is now the 7th highest grossing film of all time, and in my opinion this is due to the gradually building of success of the other Harry Potter films. There is one film however that seems to subvert all the trends noted above. This is 'Frozen' (2013, Buck and Lee). This is another of Disney's more modern princess animations, personally I preferred 'Tangled' (2010, Greno and Howard) but 'Frozen' seems to have taken the world by storm, with 'Frozen 2' in the line up for production. Maybe it was due to its slightly different storyline, set in the icey cold rather than the usual disney forests, or the humourous characters of Olaf, Christoph and Sven but this film surprised everyone with its huge success. It was not just the film, but the soundtrack that was massively successful. After it was released it was difficult to to avoid hearing 'Let it Go' on an almost daily basis!
So, I think genre and stars are the main drivers behind a films success, however sometimes films such as 'Frozen' defy the rules and result in a hugely unpredictable success!
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