@ coolbeans
Definitely agree that inflation should be used to compare movie sales. Though I found a really neat post. A guy calculated the 20 most popular/biggest movies using not only inflation, but also population and per capita ticket purchasing trends.
Here's the link:
http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/mostpopularmovies.html
Keep in mind this was done using 2004 for the adjustments, so there is no Avatar and the numbers he gives are probably slightly lower than if they were done today. There are also 2 lists, one that uses re-release info added in and one that uses only initial release info.
Here's the 2nd list (initial U.S. releases only):
1. The Sound of Music............................1965..........$1,678 million...
2. The Exocist.......................................1973..........$1,283 million...
3. E.T..................................................1982..........$1,202 million...
4. Jaws................................................1975..........$1,678 million...
5. Dr. Zhivago.......................................1965..........$1,153 million...
6. Mary Poppins.....................................1964..........$1,065 million...
7. The Graduate....................................1975..........$1,002 million...
8. The Sting..........................................1973..........$1,001 million...
9. 101 Dalmations..................................1959.............$973 million...
10. The Jungle Book...............................1967.............$934 million...
11. Titanic...........................................1997.............$902 million...
12. Star Wars.......................................1977.............$869 million...
13. Raiders of the Lost Arc.......................1981.............$778 million...
14. Bambi............................................1942.............$709 million...
15. Ben Hur..........................................1959.............$697 million...
16. Return of the Jedi............................1983.............$668 million...
17. Jurassic Park...................................1993.............$660 million...
18. Forest Gump...................................1994.............$579 million...
19. The Lion King...................................1994.............$579 million...
20. The 10 Commandments,....................1956.............$547 million...
21. The Empire Strikes Back....................1980.............$451 million...
22. Shrek II..........................................2004.............$436 million...
23. Gone With The Wind,.........................1939............$416 million
As you can see when all things are considered, The Sound of Music owns all. LOL. Don't mind that, as I like that movie.