These are the highest-grossing, primarily non-English language films in the world. Mandarin is the most frequent language with 39 films in the top-50 highest grossing non-English films, while Japanese is the second most frequent language with 7 films in top-50.
In terms of gross revenue, English-language films are vastly over-represented among the highest-grossing films of all time. Among the top 100 highest-grossing films, 97 of them are in English, with the other three being the Chinese films Ne Zha 2, The Battle at Lake Changjin and Wolf Warrior 2.
One factor behind the relatively high gross revenue of English-language films is because of the function of the English language as the world's lingua franca. It is the first language of 400 million people, the second language of another 400 million, and a foreign language of an additional 700 million. It is thus understood by 1.5 billion people, which is almost 20% of the world population. The Chinese language, especially the standard variant, has over twice as many native speakers as English, but much fewer foreign-language speakers.
Another major factor is the difference in cinema box office ticket prices around the world, with developing countries and newly industrialized countries having lower ticket prices than developed countries, due to lower currency value, less average income and lower living costs. A number of Chinese, Indian and Soviet films sold more than tickets at the box office, but at relatively low ticket prices compared to Hollywood films and thus limiting the amount of gross revenue generated. Up until the 1990s, US and UK ticket prices were significantly greater than Chinese, Indian and Soviet ticket prices. , the average cinema ticket price was in the United States, compared to ($5.10) in China and () in India.
A number of non-English markets have traditionally given box office figures in ticket sales (such as France, South Korea and the Soviet Union), rather than gross revenue, thus only ticket sales numbers are available for a number of older non-English films in various markets. This list varies from revenue-based rankings due to the huge difference in the price of admission tickets from place to place as well as from one moment in time to another.
The following table lists known estimated box office ticket sales for various high-grossing non-English films that have sold at least tickets worldwide.
Note: Some of the data are incomplete due to a lack of available admissions data from a number of countries. Therefore, it is not an exhaustive list of all the highest-grossing non-English films by ticket sales, so no rankings are given.
The following table lists known home video sales for various high-grossing non-English films. Note that this list is incomplete and is thus not necessarily representative of the highest-grossing non-English films by video sales, therefore no rankings are given.
The following is a list of the top 20 highest-grossing openings for non-English films. Since films do not open on Fridays in many markets, the 'opening' is taken to be the gross between the first day of release and the first Sunday following the film's release.
(...) Since grosses are not limited to original theatrical runs, a film's first-run gross is included in brackets after the total if known.
The following is a timeline of the highest-grossing openings for non-English films. Since films do not open on Fridays in many markets, the 'opening' is taken to be the gross between the first day of release and the first Sunday following the film's release.
The following is a list of highest-grossing films by language.
The following is a list of highest box office admissions by language.
The following is a list of highest-grossing openings by language. Since films do not open on Fridays in many markets, the 'opening' is taken to be the gross between the first day of release and the first Sunday following the film's release.
The following is the Highest-grossing non-English film franchises and film series. Fengshen Cinematic Universe sits at the top with , and has the best average at per film.