List of highest-grossing films
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List of highest-grossing films
Gone With the Wind held the record of highest-grossing film for 25 years, and at contemporary prices has earned more than any other film.
Films generate income from several revenue streams including public exhibition in
theaters,
home video,
television broadcast rights and
merchandising. However, theatrical
box office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications (such as
Variety and
Box Office Mojo) in assessing the success of a film, mostly due to the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, and also due to historical practice. Included on the list are charts of the top box-office earners (ranked by both the
nominal and real value of their revenue), a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights and merchandise.
Traditionally,
war films,
musicals and
historical dramas have been the most popular genres, but
franchise films have been the best performers in the 21st century, with films from the
Harry Potter,
Lord of the Rings and
Pirates of the Caribbean series dominating the top end of the list. Since
Superman (1978) there has been new interest in the
superhero genre;
Batman from
DC Comics has been the most successful exponent of the genre, with films based on the
Marvel Comics brand such as
Spider-Man,
X-Men and
Iron Man also doing particularly well. The only films in the top ten that do not form a franchise are the top two,
Avatar and
Titanic, both directed by
James Cameron, and the 2010 adaptation of
Alice in Wonderland. Animated family films have performed consistently well, with
Disney films enjoying lucrative re-releases prior to the home video era. Disney enjoyed later success with its
Pixar brand, of which the
Toy Story films have been the best performers; beyond Pixar animation, the
Shrek and
Ice Age series have met with the most success.
While
inflation has eroded away the achievements of most films from the 1960s and 1970s, there are franchises originating from that period that are still active:
James Bond films are still being released periodically, and the
Star Wars saga was reprised after a lengthy hiatus;
Indiana Jones also saw a successful comeback after lying dormant for nearly twenty years. All three are still among the highest-grossing franchises, despite starting over thirty years ago. Some of the older films that held the record of highest-grossing film still have respectable grosses even by today's standards, but do not really compete against today's top-earners:
Gone with the Wind for instance—which was the highest-grossing film for 25 years—does not even make the top fifty in the modern market, but at contemporary prices it would still be the highest-grossing film. All grosses on the list are expressed in US dollars at their nominal value, except where stated otherwise.
Highest-grossing films
The two highest-grossing films have both been directed by James Cameron.
With a worldwide box-office gross of about $2.8 billion
Avatar is often proclaimed to be the "highest-grossing" film, but such claims usually refer to
theatrical revenues only and do not take account of
home video and
television income, which can form a significant portion of a film's earnings. Once revenue from home entertainment is factored in it is not immediately clear which film is the most successful. In addition to the $1.8 billion
Titanic grossed during its original theatrical run, it also earned a further $1.2 billion from
video and
DVD sales and rentals.
[1] While complete sales data is not available for
Avatar, it earned $190 million from the sale of 10 million DVD and
Blu-ray units in North America,
[2] and sold a total of 30 million units worldwide.
[3] After home video income is accounted for, both films have earned over $3 billion. Television
broadcast rights will also substantially add to a film's earnings, with a film often earning as much as 20–25% of its theatrical box-office for a couple of television runs on top of
pay-per-view revenues;
[4] Titanic earned $55 million from just the US broadcast rights alone for its initial television run (equating to about 9% of its North American gross).
[1]
When a film is highly exploitable as a commercial property, its ancillary revenues from
merchandising can dwarf its income from direct film sales.
[5] Pixar's
Cars earned $461 million in theatrical revenues
[6]—which was only a modest hit by comparison to other
Pixar films[7]—but generated merchandise sales approaching $10 billion in the five years after its 2006 release, the most revenue ever generated by a single film.
[8]
Only the revenues from theatrical exhibition at their nominal value are included here, which sees
Avatar rank in the top position. Eleven films in total have grossed in excess of $1 billion worldwide. The films on this chart have all had a theatrical run since 1993, and films that were released before then do not appear in the chart due to ticket-price inflation, population size and ticket purchasing trends not being considered. The most represented year is 2009, with seven films.
Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 11 May 2012 in theaters around the world.
Highest-grossing films adjusted for inflation
World map showing inflation rates in 2009
Due to the long-term effects of
inflation, notably the significant increase of movie theater ticket prices, the list unadjusted for inflation gives far more weight to later films.
[10] The unadjusted list, while commonly found in the press, is therefore largely meaningless for comparing films widely separated in time, as many films from earlier eras will never appear on a modern unadjusted list, despite achieving higher commercial success when adjusted for price increases.
[11] To compensate for the devaluation of the currency, some charts make adjustments for inflation, but not even this practise fully addresses the issue since ticket prices and inflation do not necessarily parallel one another. For example, in 1970 tickets cost $1.55 or about $6.68 in inflation-adjusted 2004 dollars; by 1980, prices had risen to about $2.69, a drop to $5.50 in inflation-adjusted 2004 dollars.
[12] Ticket prices have also risen at different rates of inflation around the world, further complicating the process of adjusting worldwide grosses.
[10]
Another complication is release in multiple formats for which different ticket prices are charged. One notable example of this phenomenon is
Avatar, which was also released in 3D and IMAX: almost two-thirds of tickets for that film were for 3D showings with an average price of $10, and about one-sixth were for IMAX showings with an average price over $14.50, compared to a 2010 average price of $7.61 for 2D films.
[13] Social and economic factors such as population change
[14] and the growth of international markets
[15][16][17] also impact on the number of people purchasing theater tickets, along with audience demographics where some films sell a much higher proportion of discounted children's tickets, or perform better in big cities where tickets cost more.
[11]
The measuring system for gauging a film's success is based on unadjusted grosses, mainly because historically this is the way it has always been done due to the practices of the film industry: the box office receipts are compiled by theaters and relayed to the distributor, which in turn releases them to the media.
[18] Converting to a more representative system that counts ticket sales rather than gross is also fraught with problems due to the fact that the only data available for older films are the sale totals.
[14] As the motion picture industry is highly oriented towards marketing currently released films, unadjusted figures are always used in marketing campaigns so that new blockbuster films can much more easily achieve a high sales ranking, and thus be promoted as a "top film of all time",
[12] so there is little incentive to switch to a more economically robust system from a marketing or even newsworthy point of view.
[18]
Despite the inherent difficulties in accounting for inflation, several attempts have been made. Estimates can result in different amounts since the
price index used to adjust the grosses and the
exchange rates used to convert between currencies all impact upon the calculations, which can have an effect on the ultimate rankings of an inflation adjusted list.
Gone with the Wind—first released in 1939—is generally considered to be the most successful film, with
Guinness World Records estimating its adjusted global gross at $3.3 billion. Estimates for
Gone with the Wind's adjusted gross have varied substantially: its owner,
Turner Entertainment, also estimated its adjusted earnings at $3.3 billion in 2007, a few years earlier than the
Guinness estimate;
[19] other estimates fall either side of this amount, with one putting its gross just under $3 billion in 2010,
[20] while
Guinness provides an alternative figure of about $5.3 billion in its online edition.
[21] Which film is
Gone with the Wind's nearest rival depends on the set of figures used:
Guinness have
Avatar in second place with nearly $2.8 billion, while other estimates see
Titanic in the runner-up spot with first-run worldwide earnings of almost $2.9 billion at 2010 prices. Including the
Guinness figures, estimates for
Star Wars (1977) range from $2.2–2.7 billion at 2010/11 price levels, while
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial has earned approximately $1.9–2.2 billion, and the $1.9–2.0 billion figure for
Jaws is corroborated by
The Economist.
[20][22] Guinness estimate that seven films in total have earned in excess of $2 billion at 2011 prices.
T The figure for
Titanic is based on the gross from its 1997 theatrical release, and does not incorporate earnings from the 2012 reissue, which has since added over $300 million to the total.
[24]
High-grossing films by year
Films directed by Steven Spielberg have been the highest-grossing film of the year on six occasions.
Due to release schedules—especially in the case of films released towards the end of the year—and different release patterns across the world, many films can do business in two or more calendar years; therefore the grosses documented here are not confined to just the year of release. Grosses are not limited to original theatrical runs either, with many older films often being re-released periodically so the figures represent all the business a film has done since its original release; a film's first-run gross is included in brackets after the total if known. In the cases where estimates conflict both films are recorded, and in cases where a film has moved into first place due to being re-released the previous record-holder is also retained. Due to incomplete data it cannot be known for sure how much money some films have made and when they made it, but generally the chart chronicles the films from each year that went on to earn the most.
Audience tastes were fairly eclectic during the 20th century, but several trends did emerge. During the
silent era, films with
war themes were popular with audiences, with
The Birth of a Nation (
American Civil War),
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,
The Big Parade and
Wings (all
World War I) becoming the most successful films in their respective years of release, with the trend coming to an end with
All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930. With the advent of
sound in 1927, the
musical—the genre best placed to showcase the new technology—took over as the most popular type of film with audiences, with 1927, 1928 and 1929 all being topped by musical films. The genre continued to perform strongly in the 1930s, but the outbreak of
World War II saw war themed films dominate again during this period, starting with
Gone with the Wind (American Civil War) in 1939, and finishing with
The Best Years of Our Lives (World War II) in 1946.
Samson and Delilah (1949) saw the start of a trend of increasingly expensive
historical dramas set during
Ancient Rome/
biblical times throughout the 1950s as cinema competed with television for audiences,
[25] with
Quo Vadis,
The Robe,
The Ten Commandments,
Ben-Hur and
Spartacus all becoming the highest-grossing film of the year during initial release, before the genre started to wane after the financially catastrophic
Cleopatra in 1963.
[26] The success of
White Christmas and
South Pacific in the 1950s foreshadowed the comeback of the musical in the 1960s with
West Side Story,
Mary Poppins,
My Fair Lady,
The Sound of Music and
Funny Girl all among the top films of the decade. The 1970s saw a shift in audience tastes to high-concept films, with seven such films made by either
George Lucas or
Steven Spielberg topping the chart during the 1980s. The 21st century has seen an increasing dependence on franchises and adaptations, with
Avatar in 2009 being the only chart-topper forming an original work.
Steven Spielberg is the most represented director with six films to his credit, occupying the top spot in 1975, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1989 and 1993.
William Wyler (1942, 1946, 1959 and 1968) and
Cecil B. DeMille (1947, 1949, 1952 and 1956) are in second place each with four films, while
Frank Lloyd (1924, 1933 and 1935),
George Roy Hill (1966, 1969 and 1973) and
James Cameron (1991, 1997 and 2009) all feature heavily with three films apiece. The following directors have all directed two films on the chart:
D. W. Griffith,
King Vidor,
Frank Capra,
Victor Fleming,
Jack Conway,
Alfred Hitchcock,
Leo McCarey,
Mervyn LeRoy,
David Lean,
Stanley Kubrick,
Robert Wise,
Guy Hamilton,
Mike Nichols,
Peter Jackson and
Gore Verbinski. George Lucas directed two chart-toppers in 1977 and 1999, but also served in a strong creative capacity as a producer and writer in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1989 as well. Disney films are usually co-directed and some directors have served on several winning teams:
Wilfred Jackson,
Hamilton Luske,
Clyde Geronimi,
Wolfgang Reitherman,
David Hand,
Ben Sharpsteen and
Bill Roberts have all co-directed at least two films on the list. Only five directors have topped the chart in consecutive years: McCarey (1944 and 1945), Nichols (1966 and 1967), Spielberg (1981 and 1982), Jackson (2002 and 2003) and Verbinski (2006 and 2007).
Every highest-grossing film of the year since 1918 has earned a million dollars in
gross rental, and since 1949 every chart-topper has taken over $10 million in rentals. At least one film every year has generated $100 million in gross revenue at the box office since 1967, and from 2008 each year has succeeded in producing a billion dollar grossing film.
Background shading indicates films playing in the week commencing 11 May 2012 in theaters around the world.
( ... ) Since grosses are not limited to original theatrical runs, a film's first-run gross is included in brackets after the total if known.
* Canada and U.S. gross only.
R Gross rental. The 'rentals' are the distributor's share of the film's theatrical revenue i.e. the box office gross less the exhibitor's cut.
[30] In the case of older films it was standard practice to report the rentals instead of the box office gross. Historically, the rental price averaged at 35–40% when the distributors owned the theater chains, equating to just over a third of the gross being paid to the distributor of the film.
[31] In the modern marketplace, rental fees can vary greatly—depending on a number of factors—ranging from 25–65%, although the films from the major studios average out at 43%.
[32]
TBA To be ascertained.
SW The 'first run' Star Wars grosses do not include revenue from the 1997 special edition releases; however, the figure does include revenue from the re-releases prior to the special editions.
HP Production costs were shared with
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.
Timeline of highest-grossing films
The Birth of a Nation pioneered many of the techniques used in film-making today, becoming the most successful film ever made at the time of its release.
At least ten films have held the record of 'highest-grossing film'.
The Birth of a Nation and
Gone with the Wind spent 25 consecutive years apiece as the highest-grosser, with Steven Spielberg holding the record on three occasions and James Cameron—the current holder—twice. Spielberg became the first director to break his own record when
Jurassic Park overtook
E.T., and Cameron emulated the feat when
Avatar broke the record set by
Titanic.
Some sources claim that
The Big Parade superseded
The Birth of a Nation as highest-grossing film, eventually being replaced by
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which in turn was quickly usurped by
Gone with the Wind.
[33] As of 1932,
Variety still had
The Birth of a Nation ($10,000,000) ahead of
The Big Parade ($6,400,000) on gross rentals,
[34] and even though exact figures are not known, it is unlikely
The Birth of a Nation was ever overtaken by a silent-era film.
[35] If the estimate for
The Birth of a Nation is correct,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ($8,500,000)
[36] would not have earned enough on its first theatrical run to take the record, although it would have been the highest-grossing 'talkie'.
[37] In any case, if
The Birth of a Nation earned significantly less than its estimated gross, the record would fall to
Ben-Hur (1925), which grossed $9,386,000 in rentals on its original theatrical run.
[38] In addition to its gross rentals earned through public exhibition,
The Birth of a Nation played at a large number of private, club and organizational engagements which are not accounted for by its rental gross.
[39] It was hugely popular with the
Ku Klux Klan who used it to drive recruitment,
[40] and in total it is estimated to have earned at least $50–60 million by the 1950s.
[41] While it is generally accepted that
Gone with the Wind took over the record of highest-grossing film on its initial release—which is true in terms of public exhibition—it is likely it did not overtake
The Birth of a Nation in total revenue until a much later date, with it still being reported as the highest earner up until the 1960s.
[39]
The 1972 pornographic film
Deep Throat reportedly earned as much as $600 million, a figure that may have been inflated by money laundering schemes by gangsters.
Another film purported to have been the highest-grosser is the 1972
pornographic film,
Deep Throat. In 1984,
Linda Lovelace testified to a United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on juvenile justice that the film had earned $600 million;
[42] this figure has been the subject of much speculation, since if it is accurate then the film would have made more money than
Star Wars, and finished the 1970s as the highest-grossing film. The main argument against this figure is that it simply did not have a wide enough release to sustain the sort of sums that would be required for it to ultimately gross this amount.
[43] Exact figures are not known, but testimony in a federal trial in 1976—about four years into the film's release—showed the film had grossed over $25 million.
[44] Roger Ebert has reasoned it possibly did earn this much on paper, since mobsters owned most of the
adult movie theaters during this period and would
launder income from drugs and prostitution through them, so probably inflated the box office receipts for the film.
[45]
Gone with the Wind,
Star Wars,
E.T. and
Avatar all added to their record grosses with reissues. Their grosses from their original theatrical runs are included here along with totals from re-releases up to the point that they lost the record; therefore the total for
E.T. incorporates revenue from the 1985 reissue but not from 2002; the total for
Star Wars includes revenue from the late 1970s and early 1980s reissues but not from the 1997 Special Edition; the total for
Avatar—as the current record-holder—includes all its income at the present time.
Gone with the Wind is represented twice on the chart: the 1940 entry includes its gross from its initial theatrical run along with all its revenue up to its 1961 reissue (before it lost the record to
The Sound of Music in 1966), and its 1971 entry (after it took back the record) includes income from the 1967 and 1971 reissues along with its earlier grosses, but omitting later reissues.
The Godfather was re-released in 1973 after its success at the
45th Academy Awards, and
Jaws was reissued in 1976, and their grosses here most likely include earnings from those releases; similarly,
The Birth of a Nation was re-released a couple of times prior to 1932, so it is not clear if
Variety's 1932 figure includes revenue from just the original theatrical run or all releases up to that point.
The Sound of Music,
Jaws and
Titanic increased their earnings with further releases in 1973, 1979 and 2012 respectively, but they are not included in the totals here since they had already conceded the record prior to being re-released.
Jurassic Park has had just one theatrical run, so its total represents its entire gross.
The Sound of Music was the first film to earn $100 million in rentals, but
Gone with the Wind would have been the first to generate $100 million in box office receipts through its reissues, while
Titanic was the first $1 billion grossing film.
R Gross rental.
Includes revenue from re-releases.
YYYY If a film increased its gross through re-releases while holding the record, the year in which it recorded its highest gross is also noted in italics.
Highest-grossing franchises and film series
The
James Bond series was the first to gross over a billion dollars, and is still one of the most successful.
Prior to 2000, only seven
franchises had grossed over $1 billion at the box office:
James Bond,
[53] Star Wars,
[54] Indiana Jones,
[55] Rocky,
[56][57][58] Batman,
[59] Jurassic Park[60] and
Star Trek.
[61] Since the turn of the century that number has increased to over thirty franchises;
[62] this is partly due to inflation and market growth, but also to Hollywood's adoption of the franchise model: films that have built-in brand recognition, such as being based on a well known literary source (
The Lord of the Rings) or an established character (
Indiana Jones). The methodology is based on the idea that films associated with things audiences are already familiar with can be more effectively marketed to them, and as such are known as "pre-sold" films within the industry.
[22] The
Harry Potter series has grossed the most, amassing nearly $8 billion over eight films at the box office, although the
EON James Bond series is the highest grossing when adjusted for inflation, with a total of over $12 billion at 2011 prices.
[22] If ancillary income from merchandising is included, then
Star Wars is the most lucrative franchise, earning more than $22 billion in total, with film sales accounting for just one third of overall revenues.
[63][64] Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the most consistent series, averaging at about $970 million per film with each film earning in excess of $870 million.
Background shading indicates that at least one film in the series is playing in the week commencing 11 May 2012 in theaters around the world.
Highest-grossing franchises and film series[§] (The films in each franchise can be viewed by selecting "show")
| Rank | Series | Total worldwide
box office | No. of films | Average of films | Highest-grossing film |
|
| 1 | [show]Harry Potter | $7,706,147,978 | 8 | $963,268,497 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($1,328,111,219) |
|
| 2 | [show]James Bond | $5,131,470,822 | 24 | $213,811,284 | Casino Royale ($596,365,000) |
|
| 3 | [show]Star Wars | $4,381,599,678 | 7 | $625,942,811 | Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace ($1,026,284,487) |
|
|
|
| 5 | [show]Shrek | $3,509,937,566 | 5 | $701,987,513 | Shrek 2 ($919,838,758) |
|
|
|
|
|
| 8 | [show]Transformers | $2,675,610,116 | 4 | $668,902,529 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($1,123,746,996) |
|
| 9 | [show]Batman | $2,633,156,775 | 7 | $376,165,254 | The Dark Knight ($1,001,921,825) |
|
|
|
| 11 | [show]Spider-Man | $2,496,346,518 | 3 | $832,115,506 | Spider-Man 3 ($890,871,626) |
|
|
|
| 13 | [show]Indiana Jones | $1,978,055,564 | 4 | $494,513,891 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($786,636,033) |
|
| 14 | [show]Toy Story | $1,948,143,626 | 3 | $649,381,209 | Toy Story 3 ($1,063,171,911) |
|
| 15 | [show]Ice Age | $1,925,332,111 | 3 | $641,777,370 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($886,686,817) |
|
|
|
| 17 | [show]X-Men | $1,890,097,619 | 5 | $378,019,524 | X-Men: The Last Stand ($459,359,555) |
|
| 18 | [show]The Matrix | $1,632,989,142 | 3 | $544,329,714 | The Matrix Reloaded ($742,128,461) |
|
|
|
| 20 | [show]The Chronicles of Narnia | $1,580,364,900 | 3 | $526,788,300 | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ($745,013,115) |
|
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