Being the guy I am though (and also that I don't consider Titanic to be all that great of a movie despite it's #1 ranking), I decided to find an inflation calculator and adjust the numbers to see what would turn up. Wow, what a difference!
Here is the top 20 from the original list that is NOT adjusted for inflation. As you can tell, with a few notable exceptions, most all of these movies are from the late 1990's and on. Which makes sense since the price of a ticket has gone through the roof. (not sure why there's a big white space here...scroll down...)
| Rank | Title | Year | Unadjusted Sales |
| 1 | Titanic | 1997 | $600,779,824 |
| 2 | Star Wars | 1977 | $460,935,665 |
| 3 | Shrek 2 | 2004 | $436,471,036 |
| 4 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | 1982 | $434,949,459 |
| 5 | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | 1999 | $431,065,444 |
| 6 | Spider-Man | 2002 | $403,706,375 |
| 7 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 2003 | $377,019,252 |
| 8 | Spider-Man 2 | 2004 | $373,377,893 |
| 9 | The Passion of the Christ | 2004 | $370,270,943 |
| 10 | Jurassic Park | 1993 | $356,784,000 |
| 11 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 2002 | $340,478,898 |
| 12 | Finding Nemo | 2003 | $339,714,367 |
| 13 | Forrest Gump | 1994 | $329,691,196 |
| 14 | The Lion King | 1994 | $328,423,001 |
| 15 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | 2001 | $317,557,891 |
| 16 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | $313,837,577 |
| 17 | Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones | 2002 | $310,675,583 |
| 18 | Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi | 1983 | $309,125,409 |
| 19 | Independence Day | 1996 | $306,124,059 |
| 20 | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl | 2003 | $305,388,685 |
To adjust the figures, I used the Consumer Price Index tables found at ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt. I took the CPI from this year (2005), divided it by the CPI from the year the movie was released and multiplied by the unadjusted amount. If this is the wrong way to do this, somebody please let me know.
Now, here's the list adjusted for inflation. Now we're talking! Classics all the way down the list. And only ONE (Titanic) was released after 1983. In fact, the first movie from the 2000's that enters the list, does so at number 31...and it's Shrek 2...ugh...grossing $443M
| Rank | Title | Year | Adjusted Sales |
| 1 | Gone with the Wind | 1939 | $2,744,015,350.79 |
| 2 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | $2,465,673,133.33 |
| 3 | Star Wars | 1977 | $1,460,390,225.74 |
| 4 | Bambi | 1942 | $1,210,862,134.97 |
| 5 | The Sound of Music | 1965 | $994,829,933.71 |
| 6 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | 1961 | $982,474,916.39 |
| 7 | Jaws | 1975 | $927,881,040.89 |
| 8 | The Exorcist | 1973 | $884,605,405.41 |
| 9 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | 1982 | $865,391,669.72 |
| 10 | The Jungle Book | 1967 | $815,388,428.26 |
| 11 | Titanic | 1997 | $718,689,882.92 |
| 12 | The Sting | 1973 | $690,162,162.16 |
| 13 | Doctor Zhivago | 1965 | $680,972,190.48 |
| 14 | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back | 1980 | $676,098,060.58 |
| 15 | Mary Poppins | 1964 | $633,600,000.00 |
| 16 | The Godfather | 1972 | $619,277,865.65 |
| 17 | The Graduate | 1967 | $600,127,053.41 |
| 18 | Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi | 1983 | $595,904,402.89 |
| 19 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | 1969 | $535,240,021.80 |
| 20 | Grease | 1978 | $534,066,257.67 |
Just thought this was interesting. Also, if you do the numbers, each successive Star Wars movie has made less and less money when adjusted for inflation:
Star Wars - $1.492B
Empire Strikes Back - $736M
Return of the Jedi - $590M
Episode I - $491M
Episode II - $330M
Episode III - ?? (so far, it's $191M)
I guess this is why I get a little irritated when they say a movie had a "record breaking" weekend. It's only record breaking because a ticket cost $8 now instead of 50 cents (or whatever it cost it 1939). Oh well...it's interesting nonetheless.
