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thismeintiel on 24 January 2010
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darklich13 said:
thismeintiel said:

@darklich13

You think you could do your inflation magic to The Sound of Music? I posted a link earlier where based on just initial US releases, it was #1. Though the guy included population growth and recent ticket sale trends. I was just kinda wondering what it is WW for just inflation.

Also for those who downplay the success of previous movies because of "lack of other entertainment", you're forgetting one major detail. Back when Gone With the Wind and The Sound of Music released, there were far far less theatres in the US (other countries as well). And of those theatres, the overwhelming majority of those had only one screen. Multiplexes didn't really get a start in the US till the mid-60's, becoming the norm in the 70's-80's. So even if some of those movies had re-releases, they probably still ended up having the same or fewer showings than today's films.

Sorry, I can't find any data on Sound of Music being released outside of US.  If you can find any data please let me know, but from what I can tell it was a domestic release only. You make a very good point about theaters though.

The Sound of Music did release outside of the US, however I couldn't find any financial info either.  Though I did find some interesting info.  Domestically it was only released once.  It made ~158.7 mil, which adjusted by inflation alone (not taking into account population growth and availibility of theatres) it made ~1.05 bil.  That's just crazy to me.  So if we only go on initial release data, to be fair to Avatar's one release, it would be the #1 movie of all time in the US. 

Here's a link to the list of the top 100 movies: http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

I'll post the top 30:

1 Gone with the Wind MGM $1,485,028,000 $198,676,459 1939^
2 Star Wars Fox $1,309,179,000 $460,998,007 1977^
3 The Sound of Music Fox $1,046,753,000 $158,671,368 1965
4 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Uni. $1,042,629,400 $435,110,554 1982^
5 The Ten Commandments Par. $962,850,000 $65,500,000 1956
6 Titanic Par. $943,342,300 $600,788,188 1997
7 Jaws Uni. $941,379,300 $260,000,000 1975
8 Doctor Zhivago MGM $912,395,600 $111,721,910 1965
9 The Exorcist WB $812,679,700 $232,671,011 1973^
10 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Dis. $801,150,000 $184,925,486 1937^
11 101 Dalmatians Dis. $734,391,800 $144,880,014 1961^
12 The Empire Strikes Back Fox $721,627,700 $290,475,067 1980^
13 Ben-Hur MGM $720,300,000 $74,000,000 1959
14 Return of the Jedi Fox $691,336,700 $309,306,177 1983^
15 The Sting Uni. $655,200,000 $156,000,000 1973
16 Raiders of the Lost Ark Par. $647,842,600 $242,374,454 1981^
17 Jurassic Park Uni. $633,612,900 $357,067,947 1993
18 The Graduate AVCO $628,949,700 $104,901,839 1967^
19 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Fox $623,469,700 $431,088,301 1999
20 Fantasia Dis. $610,369,600 $76,408,097 1941^
21 The Godfather Par. $580,080,900 $134,966,411 1972^
22 Forrest Gump Par. $577,310,300 $329,694,499 1994
23 Mary Poppins Dis. $574,636,400 $102,272,727 1964^
24 The Lion King BV $567,653,700 $328,541,776 1994^
25 Grease Par. $565,374,900 $188,389,888 1978^
26 Thunderball UA $549,780,000 $63,595,658 1965
27 The Dark Knight WB $545,973,300 $533,345,358 2008
28 The Jungle Book Dis. $541,547,400 $141,843,612 1967^
29 Sleeping Beauty Dis. $534,169,000 $51,600,000 1959^
30 Avatar

The one's with a ^ have had more then one release.  Right now Avatar sits at #30.  I think when all is said and done, it will rest in the 15-20 range.  Definitely no way it will be bigger than the Sound of Music.  Also doubt it will hit the top 10.