Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is a series of video games, comic books and movies, centering around the adventures of the fictional female British archaeologist Lara Croft. Released in 1996, the series developed into a lucrative franchise of related media and Lara went on to become a major icon of the video game industry. Lara Croft has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Most Successful Human Videogame Heroine" in 2006.

Six games in the series were developed by Core Design and the latest two by Crystal Dynamics. All the games were published by Eidos Interactive, which holds the rights to the Tomb Raider trademark and characters. To date two movies, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, have been produced starring American actress Angelina Jolie as legendary Lara Croft. The Tomb Raider video games have together sold over 30 million units, making it one of the highest selling video game series of all time. The highest selling Lara Croft game was Tomb Raider II which sold over 8 million units.

A large percentage of fans of the game argue that the movie adaptations are a poor tribute to their video game heritage, though Jolie, after some initial published criticism mostly centered around her being an American playing a British character, was considered an ideal choice for the role of Lara Croft.