Friday, May 27, 2005

Top Grossing Movies Of All Time

I got curious the other day about what are the top grossing movies in the USA. IMDB has a great site and provides just the list I was looking for. However, they state at the bottom that the "figures are not adjusted for inflation". Bummer.

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...)























RankTitleYearUnadjusted Sales
1Titanic1997$600,779,824
2Star Wars1977$460,935,665
3Shrek 22004$436,471,036
4E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial1982$434,949,459
5Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace1999$431,065,444
6Spider-Man2002$403,706,375
7The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King2003$377,019,252
8Spider-Man 22004$373,377,893
9The Passion of the Christ2004$370,270,943
10Jurassic Park1993$356,784,000
11The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers2002$340,478,898
12Finding Nemo2003$339,714,367
13Forrest Gump1994$329,691,196
14The Lion King1994$328,423,001
15Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone2001$317,557,891
16The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring2001 $313,837,577
17Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones2002$310,675,583
18Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi1983$309,125,409
19Independence Day1996$306,124,059
20Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl2003$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























RankTitleYearAdjusted Sales
1Gone with the Wind1939$2,744,015,350.79
2Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs1937$2,465,673,133.33
3Star Wars1977$1,460,390,225.74
4Bambi1942$1,210,862,134.97
5The Sound of Music1965$994,829,933.71
6One Hundred and One Dalmatians1961$982,474,916.39
7Jaws1975$927,881,040.89
8The Exorcist1973$884,605,405.41
9E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial1982$865,391,669.72
10The Jungle Book1967$815,388,428.26
11Titanic1997$718,689,882.92
12The Sting1973$690,162,162.16
13Doctor Zhivago1965$680,972,190.48
14Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back1980$676,098,060.58
15Mary Poppins1964$633,600,000.00
16The Godfather1972$619,277,865.65
17The Graduate1967$600,127,053.41
18Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi1983$595,904,402.89
19Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid1969$535,240,021.80
20Grease1978$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.