When a movie's box office performance is assessed, it is invariably done on the basis of "gross" - i.e., the amount of money that movie has earned in ticket sales during its theatrical run. Unfortunately, the business aspect of a motion picture's success is often mistaken for an actual barometer of its popularity. Yet even though it would seem perfectly rational to assume that the amount of money a movie grossed is equivalent to how many people placed their butts in the seats in order to see the production, this measuring stick is wanting in several important ways:
1) Inflation. Ticket prices cost far more in the 2010s than they did during the halcyon days of David O. Selznick and Cecil B. DeMille. Back in the winter of 1937, when Walt Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the first ever feature-length animated motion picture in history), its ability to take in $185 million made it one of the great theatrical sensations of the decade. Seventy-two years later, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel surpassed Snow White's cumulative intake by almost $20 million. Does that make the latter film more of a cultural splash than the former?
2) Differences in movieplexes. Movies playing in the middle of the day cost less to see than those showing late at night. Tickets for new releases sometimes cost more than those for films that are near the end of their theatrical run. Most importantly, state-of-the-art venues like IMAX offer audiences more immersive viewing experiences at significantly higher prices. As a result, it is entirely possible for one movie to gross more than another while netting fewer actual viewers. That is why a movie like Avatar - which has brought in 63 million viewers, many of them at IMAX showings - is already the highest grossing film in international history ($2 billion), and is expected to become the highest grossing film in American history later this week ($600 million). By contrast, 2002's Spider-Man only grossed $807 million internationally ($404 million of which came from domestic receipts), yet it managed to put 70 million butts in the seats during its theatrical run, 11% more than Avatar. Which film can rightly be considered the greater sensation? Even 2008's The Dark Knight, which Avatar recently surpassed on the box office chart, has 74 million views, 17% more than the film which supposedly beat it!
Below is a list of the motion pictures that have sold the most tickets during their theatrical runs, as culled from The Wall Street Journal (includes figures from re-releases; refers only to domestic runs):
1. Gone With the Wind (1939) - 196 million
2. Star Wars (1977) - 169 million
3. The Sound of Music (1965) - 141 million
4. E.T. The Extra-terrestrial (1982) - 140 million
5. The Ten Commandments (1956) - 131 million
6. Jaws (1975) - 128 million
7. Titanic (1997) - 128 million
8. Doctor Zhivago (1965) - 120 million
9. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - 109 million
10. 101 Dalmatians (1961) - 100 million
11. Ben-Hur (1959) - 98 million
12. The Exorcist (1973) - 94 million
13. Return of the Jedi (1983) - 93 million
14. The Sting (1973) - 89 million
15. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - 87 million
16. Jurassic Park (1993) - 86 million
17. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) - 85 million
18. Fantasia (1940) - 83 million
19. The Godfather (1972) - 79 million
20. The Lion King (1994) - 79 million
21. Forrest Gump (1994) - 79 million
22. Mary Poppins (1964) - 78 million
23. My Fair Lady (1964) - 77 million
24. The Graduate (1967) - 76 million
25. Grease (1978) - 74 million
26. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - 74 million
27. The Dark Knight (2008) - 74 million
28. The Jungle Book (1967) - 73 million
29. Sleeping Beauty (1959) - 72 million
30. Ghostbusters (1984) - 71 million
31. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) - 70 million
32. Spider-Man (2002) - 70 million
33. Shrek 2 (2004) - 70 million
34. Love Story (1970) - 69 million
35. Independence Day (1996) - 69 million
36. Cleopatra (1963) - 68 million
37. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - 68 million
38. Home Alone (1990) - 68 million
39. Pinocchio (1940) - 67 million
40. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) - 65 million
41. Airport (1970) - 65 million
42. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) - 65 million
43. Thunderball (1965) - 63 million
44. Bambi (1942) - 63 million
45. American Graffiti (1973) - 63 million
46. Blazing Saddles (1974) - 63 million
47. Batman (1989) - 63 million
48. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - 63 million
49. Avatar (2009) - 63 million (still in theaters)
50. The Towering Inferno (1974) - 62 million
51. The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) - 61 million
52. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) - 61 million
53. The Robe (1953) - 60 million
54. Tootsie (1982) - 60 million
55. The Passion of the Christ (2004) - 60 million
56. Spider-Man 2 (2004) - 60 million
57. Back to the Future (1985) - 59 million
58. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - 59 million
59. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) - 59 million
60. The Sixth Sense (1999) - 58 million
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