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Chris Hu on 17 July 2015
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binary solo said:
AlfredoTurkey said:
This whole business about total gross is pointless due to inflation. The only true measure of a movies success is tickets SOLD. Not gross income.

Here is the top 10 domestic (US) records

1 Gone with the Wind
2 Star Wars
3 The Sound of Music
4 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
5 Titanic
6 The Ten Commandments
7 Jaws
8 Doctor Zhivago
9 The Exorcist W
10 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Dis.

The whole problem is, back in early part of last century there was almost nothing else for the masses to do for entertainment other than go to the movies, and there were fewer movies released per year so people had less choice, or didn't need to pick and choose what to see like we do now. These days there is also a lot more besides movies competing for the entertainment dollar (including video games), most notably VHS-->DVD-->Blu Ray, which a lot of people wait for a movie to come out to buy / rent. As time has gone by the wait between box office release and DVD/Blu ray release has shortened a lot. And in the last 10-15 years streaming (including unofficial streaming the day the movie releases) also affects box office. So across generations ticket numbers is not really an equitable comparison either because conditions in the entertainment industries have changed a huge amount in that time.

It's very interesting to note that out of those top 10, the only movie that was released after home video became mainstream was Titanic, and none of the top 10 was released after fast broadband became mainstream. ET cam out just as VHS was becomming really mainstream, but its box office gross did not take a hit from the VHS thing.

It won't be long before a current year movie will need to make $1 billion in the USA alone in order to break into the adjusted for inflation top 10. I think it's highly unlikely that any future movie will ever break in to the top 20 adjusted for inflation list. As time goes by it is harder and harder for contemporary movies to get high up on that list.

OT, I think Star Wars will disappoint, but like The Hobbit it will make $1 billion because it is what it is. People want to capture the magic of the original Star Wars, but it's not possible because at the time Star Wars was what Avatar was in 2009, a technical breakthrough with enough of a story to keep people interested. Star Wars only has 2 truly good movies, everything else Star Wars related has basically been riding on the back of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. 

 

Titanic and E.T. both had very long theatrical runs also.  Titanic was in theaters for 287 days and E.T. was in theaters for 364 days.  That is just their original runs since both where re released E.T. twice and Titanic once.