Movie series like the Twilight Saga and Harry Potter have only gotten more and more popular since their first movie. Twilight’s $70.5 million first weekend soared to $146.5 million in the second movie. Eclipse didn’t quite beat it, but it was close behind at about $144 million. Harry Potter didn’t do nearly as well on the first few movies, but got as high as $333 million in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – the fifth movie. These numbers seem impressive, and they are, but how much do they make in the end?

Hollywood says that Twilight is the most successful – financially – film ever. But how can this be when compared to series like Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings? It’s because Twilight is super cheap to make. The first Twilight movie only cost $37 million to make (including salaries and taxes), while it grossed a grand total of $392.5 million worldwide (that means that’s how much it made before things like tax deductions). That’s roughly a $355 million profit. New Moon was only $50 million, even with all of its beautiful aerial shots. That made a small dent in the $709.7 million it grossed worldwide. Eclipse also cost more to produce than Twilight, coming in at $68 million. But is got that back on its first day, and then some. In six short days, it grossed more than $275 million. So how do those figures stack up against Harry Potter? Well, the first HP film alone cost $125 million to produce, and the sixth one, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, cost a staggering $250 million to make. However, the 8 film series only cost around $2 billion to produce, and grossed an outstanding $7.7 billion. When the final Harry Potter movie was released, it easily shattered the three-day-opening record set by The Dark Knight. “Expect Deathly Hallows, Part Two to become the third-highest grossing movie once it exits theaters, and surpasses Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, which hauled in $1.1 billion worldwide,” Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst, said about the final Harry Potter Film.

“'Potter fans grew up and didn't abandon the series, but that could happen with 'Twilight,' " Phil Contrino, editor of box office, said about the two series. So even though Twilight does well in the financial department, it doesn’t have nearly the same fan base as HP. The two sagas are successful in their own way. It’s impossible to say which series is better; I can only give my own opinion. But in the end, both series are among the most successful film sagas of all time, and upcoming releases have a lot to learn from the way they operated.