The 10 Highest-Grossing Movie Musicals, Ranked

Box office rankings for musicals tend to look simple until you ask what counts. Animated features, live action remakes of animated classics, stage adaptations and music biopics all show up on the same lists. Where a film lands depends partly on how you define the genre.

The ranking below follows the nominal worldwide totals on Wikipedia’s list of highest-grossing musical films, which was current as of October 2026. Those figures aren’t adjusted for inflation, and some totals shift slightly between trackers. Here’s the countdown, from number ten to the top.

10. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

The Queen biopic sits at tenth place with a worldwide gross of roughly $910.8 million. Wikipedia’s list classifies it as a live action music biopic. That makes it the odd one out among stage adaptations and Disney remakes, since its songs are performed as part of Queen’s real story rather than as plot driven numbers.

Whether it belongs on a musical list is a fair debate. Some trackers include it and some don’t. Its total is large enough that it clears a number of traditional musicals, and the next film on the list, Wicked, stands at about $758.8 million.

9. The Jungle Book (2016)

Disney’s 2016 take on its own animated classic finished with about $966.6 million worldwide, listed as a live action remake. The film mixes a handful of songs into a story that’s largely a spoken adventure, so it’s the lightest musical on this list. It still qualifies by the standards used in the Wikipedia ranking.

It also shows how much Disney’s remake strategy lifted musical totals in the late 2010s. Three of the top ten entries here are Disney remakes of earlier animated films. The Jungle Book was the first of them to reach this tier.

8. The Lion King (1994)

The original animated Lion King now totals about $969.6 million, according to Wikipedia’s list. Other trackers report slightly different figures. Deadline, for instance, puts it near $979 million.

Those numbers include later re-releases. Its initial worldwide total was $771 million. The gap between the first run and the lifetime figure is a reminder that re-releases and format upgrades have added a lot to older titles.

7. Michael (2026)

The newest entry is Michael, a 2026 release that has grossed about $1.03 billion worldwide. Wikipedia’s table lists it as a live action music biopic. Like Bohemian Rhapsody, its place on the list depends on counting biopics built around performed music as musicals.

Its total puts it ahead of the 1994 Lion King and the 2016 Jungle Book. It’s also the only film in this top ten released in 2026. Because it’s so recent, the figure could still move, so treat it as a current snapshot rather than a final number.

6. Aladdin (2019)

Disney’s live action Aladdin finished with roughly $1.05 billion worldwide, based on the Wikipedia ranking. The cast included Will Smith as the Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Jasmine. The film kept the songs from the 1992 original.

Its opening was big, too. Deadline noted the film’s global opening of $213 million when comparing it with Wicked: For Good’s debut. Aladdin was one of the films that established the live action remake as a billion dollar format.

5. Moana 2 (2024)

The sequel to Disney’s 2016 hit grossed about $1.06 billion worldwide. Deadline lists the exact figure as $1,059,242,164. It was released in late 2024 and is the most recent animated musical in the top five.

Its opening weekend was the main story. Wikiwand’s table shows it with the largest opening weekend for a musical, at $389.3 million. The original Moana, meanwhile, finished at around $643 million, so the sequel outearned it by a wide margin.

4. Beauty and the Beast (2017)

The live action Beauty and the Beast took in about $1.26 billion worldwide, a total the Wikiwand copy of the list shows as $1,264,435,322. It is the highest grossing live action film on this list that isn’t a biopic. Emma Watson and Dan Stevens led the cast.

The film also opened huge. Its opening weekend of about $357 million ranks third among musicals. That start helped set the pace for the remake wave that followed.

3. Frozen (2013)

The original Frozen sits third with about $1.29 billion worldwide. Wikipedia lists the figure as $1,290,000,000. It was an original story rather than a remake, which makes its total especially notable on a list full of familiar titles.

Frozen’s opening weekend was modest by modern standards, about $110.6 million. The film built its total through a long theatrical run, which suggests strong word of mouth. Its sequel then pushed the franchise higher still.

2. Frozen 2 (2019)

Frozen 2 grossed around $1.45 billion worldwide. It finished its run as the third highest grossing film of 2019. Deadline’s animated chart still lists it near the top, at $1,453,683,476.

It also earned recognition beyond the box office. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Its total is the biggest for any musical that isn’t a remake.

1. The Lion King (2019)

Disney’s photorealistic Lion King remake tops the list with about $1.66 billion worldwide. Collider’s figure is $1,656,943,394. The film is animated with computer generated imagery, though some trackers describe it as a live action remake, so its classification varies.

Whatever the label, nothing else on the list comes close to its total. Collider calls it the highest grossing movie musical. Wicked, the closest stage adaptation, is well behind it.

Where Wicked and the Stage Adaptations Stand

Wicked missed the top ten at number eleven with about $758.8 million, per the same Wikipedia list. It is the highest grossing musical film adaptation of a stage show. Its sequel, Wicked: For Good, followed with roughly $540.8 million worldwide.

Among traditional stage adaptations, Chicago is one of the older examples. It sits at number 47, with about $306.8 million. Disney’s animated films and remakes hold most of the spots above it.