Actually, I know of several people who have become increasingly annoyed by these records being broken because movie when it can mostly be attributed to movie theaters charging $15 for a movie. If you want something that is not as easily manipulated you should look at total ticket sales, which (in all reality) no movie will ever beat Gone with the Wind.

I rarely say this about movies but you HAVE TO see Avatar! Just the visuals alone were worth it... See it in 3D if you can or even better if there's an IMAX in your area.

Well deserved I say!

so what about inflation? who gives at the end of the day, the highest grossing movie is AVATAR, thats it...and you know why everyone will say it IS? because its brought in more money then any other movie, and thats what we are talking about. 

Avatar is the highest grossing movie of ALL time....DEAL WITH IT

Gone With the Wind also saw multiple re-releases and had very little competition as far as movies go. It's like discrediting Wii Fit for its high gross because the game cost $90. Avatar is more expensive, sure, but that also is negated by the decreased number of people who will buy the ticket. And it's obvious that Avatar hasn't sold the most tickets. What's the point of mentioning that? This isn't a "Avatar sells the most movies tickets ever" thread, but rather one for it being the highest grossing. All in all, I'm getting annoyed by this really snobby attitude.

And where are theaters charging $15 for a ticket, exactly? Where I live, ticket prices are on the high side, and even then they're not $15.

Wow, you don’t even have the capacity to see the other side of an argument can you?

Most people see box-office results as a sign of popularity of a movie, and gross revenue that is unadjusted for inflation makes for an amazingly poor measure for popularity. Avatar is a remarkably popular movie, and has made a ton of money, but it still has a long way to go to being as popular of a movie as many of the 25 movies that are higher than it on the all-time inflation adjusted list.

Or in other words, Avatar isn't that impressive because only 1/3 as many people as have seen it as saw Gone with the Wind; DEAL WITH IT!

You can argue multiple releases for Gone with the Wind, but movies like Jurrassic Park still grossed more when factoring in for inflation than Avatar and had a single theatrical release. The $15 ticket price was a Canadian figure.

By the way, how can it be impressive to gross more money than another movie unless you factor in for inflation ... If the United States had hyper-inflation like Zimbabwe and a coffee cost $10,000,000,000,000 would a movie that grossed the most money ever be all that impressive if it didn't make the adjusted for inflation list?

And again, there were different factors involved. Completely ignoring the fact that Avatar hasn't finished its theatrical run (and could still gross a lot more), you also have to consider that since the tickets are so expensive ($50 for the average family or group of friends), that that cuts off the movie's potential viewership as well. And you also have to consider competition, again. When Gone With the Wind came out, movies weren't nearly as large of a medium, and competition was a lot more sparse. Whereas 2009 was the highest grossing year for movies ever, and there were several films that grossed in the 700 million to billion range. Jurassic's Park biggest competition in 1993 was Mrs. Doubtfire (which by all means was a great movie and was very popular, but it wasn't a blockbuster like Jurassic Park is). And in your hypothetical Zimbabwe-U.S., who would buy that coffee? Who would see a movie with a ridiculous price if they could barely afford essentials (assuming the country is ripe with inflation and is in an economic crisis like Zimbabwe). The economic conditions are different. Gone With The Wind might have been released during the Great Depression (1939), but then it got re-released several times. Same for many other movies. Not as many people are going to see a movie if the tickets cost $15 (as you mentioned), so it evens out. There's also the issue of currency conversion, but I'm tired and I'll stop for now.

Wow, I've never seen the simple mentioning of a piece of trivia be taken to be defended with such conviction as if it was a personal attack on someone’s beliefs. In the past I have made the same observation to movies like Titanic, The Dark Knight, The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and most people thought that the list was interesting; and it was “cool” to compare movies across time periods.

Do you know how inflation works, Montana? It's not simply the increase of prices, it's the devaluation of currency. This kind of takes the wind out of most of your feeble, inexplicably angry counter-argument.