Top 11 Highest Grossing Films of All Time

jaykhunter

Get ready for your blood to boil with some of these entries!
Source : Box Office Mojo. afaik this doesn't account for inflation.

1. AVATAR : $2.78 billion
2. Titanic : $1.84 billion
3. LOTR 3 : $1.12 billion
4. Pirates 2 : $1.07 billion
5. Toy Story 3 : $1.06 billion
6. Alice in Wonderland (2010) : $1.02 billion
7. The Dark Knight : $1 billion
8. Harry Potter 1 : $975 million
9. Pirates 4 : $966 million
10 Pirates 3 : $963 million
11 Harry Potter 7A : $955 million

A couple of questions spring to mind :
1) How many of these films did YOU see in the Cinema? Did you see any of them more than once?

2) How did Alice in Wonderland gross over a billion?

and

3) Are you ready for Pirates 5 & 6?

jaykhunter

1) I've seen 7/11 of these films in the cinema. Not Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland or the Potters. Besides Dark Knight and Pirates 2 I've only seen these films in the cinema once.

2) How did Alice in Wonderland gross over a billion?
Maybe.......maybe older generations wanted to compare this to the ones they grew up with?

3) Are you ready for Pirates 5 & 6?
Oh hell yeah!

The Mad Hatter

1) Five out of eleven.

2) 3-D Johnny Depp did it a lot of favours.

3) Just as ready as I was to ignore 1-4.

mike65

I have not seen any of them on any type of screen. I prefer to look at the inflation adjusted list.

http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

Slightly less depressing

missingtime

No Jurassic Park makes me sad...

krudler

10/11 for me, Alice didnt appeal to me at all, oh look its Johnny Depp being kooky, is that a mangled tree? oooh, some stripy things, how does Burton keep things so fresh?

callaway92

yup 10/11 for me too, not seeing Alice in Wonderland.

Didn't particularly enjoy Avatar funnily enough. Gave it a watch recently on Blu Ray and it just proves how bad the film actually is.

Glico Man

1/ I've seen 3/11. Saw TDK about 3 times. Once on opening night (buddy who worked in the cinema got me in for free), another with a group of friends and the third was with the girl I was seeing.

2/ I've absolutely no idea. It was truly awful.

3/ Dear god no...

tricky D

1. 5

2. Alice 3D came soon after Avatar so may have ridden on its wave a bit.

3. nope

Also these box office takes haven't been adjusted for inflation:
http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0610/The-Actual-Top-Grossing-US-Movies.aspx
which gives a top 5 as:
1. "Gone With the Wind" (1939) $1.6 billion
2. "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" (1977) $1.4 billion
3. "The Sound of Music" (1965) $1.1 billion
4. "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial" (1982) $1.1 billion
5. "The Ten Commandments" (1956) $1.0 billion

Top 100 list is at: http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm (edit: beaten to it by Mike)

jaykhunter

That's just the US though Worldwide is a far better scope. TBH I'd prefer it if they could just list the # of cinema tickets sold based on the average price of a ticket that year...

missingtime wrote: »

No Jurassic Park makes me sad...

Yeah. It's #17 with $915 million, nothing to sneeze at! Shocked they haven't made a reboot/sequel/prequel etc since JP3

qz

1) Saw 9 of those on the big screen I think, I gave up on Pirates after the second one.

2) It did look very pretty in 3D, but otherwise it was pretty forgettable

and

3) God they aren't making Pirates 5 and 6 are they

11/11 (I worked in a cinema for 5 years, I tended to see a lot of movies)

Genuinely can't understand how Alice in Wonderland is one of the highest grossing movies of all time. It honestly bored the bejesus out of me!

irish_stevo815

1) Seen 7 of the 11 in cinema, only once tho. Havent seen any of Pirates in the cinema, or Potter 1.

2) Guess it was just due to the whole 3d thing still being new.

3) It's all gone a bit "Meh" for me

Mickeroo

Saw all of those in the cinema apart from Pirates 4 which I haven't watched at all. Saw Avatar, LOTR 3, TDK twice, everything else once. Pretty shocked Pirates 4 and ALice in WOnderland are on that list tbh!

irishh_bob

jaykhunter wrote: »

Get ready for your blood to boil with some of these entries!
Source : Box Office Mojo. afaik this doesn't account for inflation.

1. AVATAR : $2.78 billion
2. Titanic : $1.84 billion
3. LOTR 3 : $1.12 billion
4. Pirates 2 : $1.07 billion
5. Toy Story 3 : $1.06 billion
6. Alice in Wonderland (2010) : $1.02 billion
7. The Dark Knight : $1 billion
8. Harry Potter 1 : $975 million
9. Pirates 4 : $966 million
10 Pirates 3 : $963 million
11 Harry Potter 7A : $955 million

A couple of questions spring to mind :
1) How many of these films did YOU see in the Cinema? Did you see any of them more than once?

2) How did Alice in Wonderland gross over a billion?

and

3) Are you ready for Pirates 5 & 6?

only one im surprised by is alice in wonderland

btw , when you allow for inflation , avatar isnt even in the top ten and is behind titanic , gone with the win took double in the states what avatar did

the top three biggest draws in ticket sales

gone with the wind 1939
star wars 1977
the sound of music 1965

Jesus H Christ, I just checked the first Pirates movie and that grossed over €600 million, so those four films have made 3.5 BILLION! That is an insane figure.

WTF that is some crazy **** right there. 5 films on this list feature Johnny Depp hamming it up big time.

delbertgrady

1. I saw them all in the cinema except Avatar and the Pirates of the Carribean sequels (so that's seven out of eleven), and I saw the first Harry Potter film twice.
2. While not an absolute certainty, established stories, be they based on historical events (Titanic), or well-known and beloved stories (Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter) always pull the crowds.
   And Anne Hathaway is hot as the White Queen.
3. No, but some hamburger franchise are probably working on the tie-in toys as we speak.

latenia

The best measurement to use would be 'bums on seats.' Everbody knows that Thriller has sold 20 million+ copies but couldn't care less about its gross revenue which is really only of interest to studio executives; I don't see why films should be different.
Counting each individual viewing would also obviate messy inflation calculations and variance in ticket pricing in various markets.

jaykhunter

irishh_bob if u have worldwide gross allowing for inflation or even better, worldwide ticket sales please post!

astrofool

tricky D wrote: »

1. 5

2. Alice 3D came soon after Avatar so may have ridden on its wave a bit.

3. nope

Also these box office takes haven't been adjusted for inflation:
http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0610/The-Actual-Top-Grossing-US-Movies.aspx
which gives a top 5 as:
1. "Gone With the Wind" (1939) $1.6 billion
2. "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" (1977) $1.4 billion
3. "The Sound of Music" (1965) $1.1 billion
4. "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial" (1982) $1.1 billion
5. "The Ten Commandments" (1956) $1.0 billion

Top 100 list is at: http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm (edit: beaten to it by Mike)

Avatar starts as €2.78b in the first list, but it's "unadjusted gross" in that list is only €700m.

paddydriver

Must have seen ET about 10 times in the cinema if that counts..

Was on for so long that every single birthday party that year included trip to cinema to see it!

Ridley

I've seen four or five: PotC 3/4, Dark Knight, Return of the King. Can't remember if I saw PotC 2 in the cinema...

Haven't seen Alice and I choose to hope that PotC 5 or 6 will be as good as Black Pearl but I'm a sucker for swordfights. I still want Prince of Persia to have another go, goshdarnit.

It's Avatar 2 and 3 that I'm skeptical about. Avatar was a big meh for me anyway and the sequels are essentially taking place after the happily-ever-after like the cheap animated Disney films. I'm looking at Aliens and T2 as an indication that Cameron at least knows what he's doing.

Galvasean

In the cinema I saw (bolded)


1. AVATAR : $2.78 billion - once
2. Titanic : $1.84 billion
3. LOTR 3 : $1.12 billion - twice
4. Pirates 2 : $1.07 billion - once
5. Toy Story 3 : $1.06 billion - twice
6. Alice in Wonderland (2010) : $1.02 billion
7. The Dark Knight : $1 billion - thrice
8. Harry Potter 1 : $975 million
9. Pirates 4 : $966 million
10 Pirates 3 : $963 million - once
11 Harry Potter 7A : $955 million

Sadly, i didn't even like either of the Pirates movies I saw in the cinema. The only Pirates movie I liked was #1 which I saw on DVD.

Curiously 5 of the top ten were released in 3D. I guess it aint going anywhere any time soon. I'd say transformers 3D will be joining the list soon.

Does Avatar's gross include both releases/versions of the film?

Renn

Does it take the extra cost of 3D into account?

quickbeam

Only two, Harry Potter 1 (I had no interest in it, but was dragged along), and LotR3, which I saw I think 7 times.

A few of the others I saw on DVD or TV but most I had no interest in: POTC sequels, Avatar, Alice in Wonderland.

Bums on seats is a better indicator though.

Beruthiel

Avatar - saw in cinema.
Titanic - saw on TV. Muck.
LotR 3 - Saw in cinema, and watched many times on dvd.
Pirates 1/2 - Saw on dvd.
Pirates3/ 4 - Nope.
Harry Potter 1 - Nope.
Harry Potter 7A - Nope.
Toy Story 3 - Nope.
The Dark Knight - Saw on dvd.
Alice in Wonderland - Nope.

Can't believe that list. One wonders about the cinema going public....

Soby

Seen em all.Well bar LOTR.Seen it just not in Cinema. Surprised as well with Alice being there.Im easy to please but it wasnt great.Also surprised POTC 4 > 3 tbh

phasers

James Cameron must be bleedin' loaded.

1) I've seen 8/11, all only once in the cinema. Edit: oh wait, I saw TDK twice.

2) Teenagers

3) No. Johnny Depp is dead to me.

Cionád

1)

1. AVATAR : $2.78 billion - in cinema, once
2. Titanic : $1.84 billion - three times cinema It's great.
3. LOTR 3 : $1.12 billion - in cinema, twice
4. Pirates 2 : $1.07 billion - haven't seen
5. Toy Story 3 : $1.06 billion - dvd
6. Alice in Wonderland (2010) : $1.02 billion - cinema, once
7. The Dark Knight : $1 billion - cinema, once
8. Harry Potter 1 : $975 million - haven't seen
9. Pirates 4 : $966 million - haven't seen
10 Pirates 3 : $963 million - haven't seen
11 Harry Potter 7A : $955 million - haven't seen

2)
3D got in the crowds, I didn't like it.

3)
Nope.

don ramo

irishh_bob wrote: »

only one im surprised by is alice in wonderland

btw , when you allow for inflation , avatar isnt even in the top ten and is behind titanic , gone with the win took double in the states what avatar did

the top three biggest draws in ticket sales

gone with the wind 1939
star wars 1977
the sound of music 1965

are they infalted from the original release or do they count the multiple releases theyve had down the years??

going by average prices for tickets here being E11 (converting currently at $15) for a 3D ticket, with us probably being one of the most expensive in europe (speculating here) that would mean avatar drew 180 million people to the cinemas (worldwide) on its first release that has to be a record or close, american prices are i think around $10 (E7.20) for 3D which if it was an average would mean 270 million people went to see it,

http://www.natoonline.org/statisticstickets.htm

2.78 billion worldwide gross for starwars if the figures are just the '77 release grosses, with average tickets prices back then being $2.23 and now being $8, on par with avatar

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars4.htm

ziedth

1. 6/11 didn't see any of potters, toy Story, wonderland or last pirates.

2. I literally have no idea. I'd imagine 3-D was still fairly new and Depp always draws in a crowd. I'd imagine it's poor though.

3. I gave up on the Pirates franchise after the third one. Which is a real pity because I thought the first one was a great film.

losthorizon

It just should be based on ticket sales worldwide. And I bet if it was most of those films being talked about wouldnt even feature thankfully.

When I see that Top Ten list its pretty depressing really.

Sad Professor

The reason the total number of tickets sold isn't counted is because that wouldn't tell the studios the information that they want to know. They don't care how popular a film is, but they do care about how much money they are making from it and whether it's going to break even or not. The longer a film is running the less money the studio makes from it. This is why there's such an obsession with how much a film grosses in the first week/weekend, etc, because about 80-90 percent of that is going right back to the studio.

Counting the number of tickets sold and adjusting for inflation really isn't in the studios' interest anyway as it's only going to make their big hits seem less big. For this reason these highest grossing lists are kinda meaningless. Also, even if you could figure out roughly how many tickets were sold it wouldn't really tell you anything because films in the past were distributed and marketed very differently.

MagicMarker

Only saw 3 of those in the cinema and I've only seen 4 of them overall.

I haven't seen any Harry Potter movies and I've only seen the first Pirates movie.

MagicMarker

mike65 wrote: »

I have not seen any of them on any type of screen. I prefer to look at the inflation adjusted list.

http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

Slightly less depressing

Only slightly though, Beverly Hills Cop 57 places above Terminator 2!!! :eek:

ztoical

jaykhunter wrote: »

1) How many of these films did YOU see in the Cinema? Did you see any of them more than once?

I saw all of them.

1. AVATAR : $2.78 billion - twice once in 3D and once in standard.
2. Titanic : $1.84 billion - once hated it, utter rubbish and looked no better then a night to remember which was made in the 1950's
3. LOTR 3 : $1.12 billion - twice and would go again
4. Pirates 2 : $1.07 billion - twice
5. Toy Story 3 : $1.06 billion - twice once in 3D and once in standard
6. Alice in Wonderland (2010) : $1.02 billion - once
7. The Dark Knight : $1 billion - three times and would go again
8. Harry Potter 1 : $975 million - once
9. Pirates 4 : $966 million - once
10 Pirates 3 : $963 million - three time [not by choice the second and third time]
11 Harry Potter 7A : $955 million - once

jaykhunter wrote: »

2) How did Alice in Wonderland gross over a billion?

Good marketing.

jaykhunter wrote: »

3) Are you ready for Pirates 5 & 6?

Couldn't care less, enjoyed the first 3 as mindless fun but number 4 I barely made it through so most likely will skip them.

losthorizon

MagicMarker wrote: »

Only slightly though, Beverly Hills Cop 57 places above Terminator 2!!! :eek:

Read that wrong first!:pac:

Elmo

Does anyone know the top movies by the number of tickets sold? (regardless of price).

Goldstein

If you're going to weight a movies performance on levels of inflation, should you not also weight it on how many alternative entertainment sources were competing for people's leisure time in the year of release?

I'm not seriously suggesting that but it's worth bearing in mind whenever inflationary adjusted cinema takings are mentioned that Gone with the Wind didn't have the internet, computer games, DVDs/Blu-Rays, 1,000s of tv channels to compete with.

Then there are population increases, disposable income levels, ticket sales, ticket prices and a whole host of things that aren't factored.

Elmo

Goldstein wrote: »

If you're going to weight a movies performance on levels of inflation, should you not also weight it on how many alternative entertainment sources were competing for people's leisure time in the year of release?

I'm not seriously suggesting that but it's worth bearing in mind whenever inflationary adjusted cinema takings are mentioned that Gone with the Wind didn't have the internet, computer games, DVDs/Blu-Rays, 1,000s of tv channels to compete with.

Then there are population increases, disposable income levels, ticket sales, ticket prices and a whole host of things that aren't factored.

Ticket sales are prob the most constant 1 ticket sale = 1 ticket sale. Especially when you consider that the above list are of US box office receipts. Lets ignore other spin offs that come from new technology such as TV, Internet etc.

For numbers of ticket sold however you have to consider the number of seats available and even the number of screens that a movie was presented in! If you like total seats sold in relation to total number of seats available.

ztoical

Elmo wrote: »

Ticket sales are prob the most constant 1 ticket sale = 1 ticket sale. Especially when you consider that the above list are of US box office receipts. Lets ignore other spin offs that come from new technology such as TV, Internet etc.

Given the promotions run by cinemas it would be hard to say 1 ticket = 1 ticket sale and also back in the 50's/60's it was common that you would pay for entrance to the cinema but they would play the films on a loop so you could come in the middle and watch the film until it got back to were you came in so in theory you could watch the same film several times for one ticket price. Hitchcock's "no late admission" for Psycho was one of the first films [but not the first] to stop this. Up until the 1960's Double features were very common so you would pay entrance for two films with one ticket.

richymcdermott

Ive seen 6/11 suprised to see alice there

Elmo

ztoical wrote: »

Given the promotions run by cinemas it would be hard to say 1 ticket = 1 ticket sale and also back in the 50's/60's it was common that you would pay for entrance to the cinema but they would play the films on a loop so you could come in the middle and watch the film until it got back to were you came in so in theory you could watch the same film several times for one ticket price. Hitchcock's "no late admission" for Psycho was one of the first films [but not the first] to stop this. Up until the 1960's Double features were very common so you would pay entrance for two films with one ticket.

I am assume that they had to divide their ticket sales between each movie, and that people would have asked to go to see a movie rather then just a cinema ticket. Or that smaller cinemas knew what film they had playing. So who people viewed the film isn't really all that relevant. Okay you could see the same movie 5 times in the one cinema but in reality its unlikely that many people go to see the same movie twice on one day. Unless they have multiple dates, and even then it is unlikely that they'd have the cheek to use the same ticket.

Elmo

1. AVATAR : $2.78 billion - Everyone should get a refund.
2. Titanic : $1.84 billion - Never seen, wouldn't want to either
3. LOTR 3 : $1.12 billion - Never seen, saw a bit of the first one
4. Pirates 2 : $1.07 billion - nope
5. Toy Story 3 : $1.06 billion - nope
6. Alice in Wonderland (2010) : $1.02 billion - nope
7. The Dark Knight : $1 billion - Once in the cinema plenty of repeat views
8. Harry Potter 1 : $975 million - no and won't
9. Pirates 4 : $966 million - no and won't
10 Pirates 3 : $963 million - Yes and reason i won't
11 Harry Potter 7A : $955 million - no I won't

ztoical

Elmo wrote: »

I am assume that they had to divide their ticket sales between each movie, and that people would have asked to go to see a movie rather then just a cinema ticket. Or that smaller cinemas knew what film they had playing. So who people viewed the film isn't really all that relevant. Okay you could see the same movie 5 times in the one cinema but in reality its unlikely that many people go to see the same movie twice on one day. Unless they have multiple dates, and even then it is unlikely that they'd have the cheek to use the same ticket.

Records of cinema tickets wasn't accurate until very recently, I know as I've worked in two - one down country and one chain cinema in Dublin. The country one had three screens but as they started all films at the same time and at the same price they just sell one ticket and reley on people going to the right screen. Dublin chain had fancy computer system but the amount of times it crash and messed up I lost count. So if you want to go on just physical tickets sold and not on actual profits declared by the studio you can only count films from the last 10 years and even then it's not totally spot on.

As for people not going to see the same film twice or more in one day it was actually very common in the states before tv became more common as you got your news reel, animated, live action short and your main feature for your ticket. They still have remnants from it on US tv as you'll find channels will play the same feature film three or four times back to back on the one night.

Elmo

ztoical wrote: »

Records of cinema tickets wasn't accurate until very recently, I know as I've worked in two - one down country and one chain cinema in Dublin. The country one had three screens but as they started all films at the same time and at the same price they just sell one ticket and reley on people going to the right screen. Dublin chain had fancy computer system but the amount of times it crash and messed up I lost count. So if you want to go on just physical tickets sold and not on actual profits declared by the studio you can only count films from the last 10 years and even then it's not totally spot on.

I would hate to be the distributors. Disney yeah we want our money from Popeye, Fox we'd like our money from Star Wars and paramount Raiders of the Lost Ark. Okay they being the top movies of the time possible were not in cinemas at the same time but you catch my drift that as far as the big distributors are concerned they know how many tickets were sold for their movies.

Annual Cinema Admissions 1991 - 2010

Year 000s change
1991 8,084.1 na
1992 8,258.7 +2.16%
1993 9,310.1 +12.73%
1994 10,422.5 +11.95%
1995 9,836.7 -5.62%
1996 11,480.2 +16.71%
1997 11,491.3 =
1998 12,386.8 +7.79%
1999 12,452.4 +0.53%
2000 14,885.7 +19.54%
2001 15,941.5 +7.09%
2002 17,319.4 +8.64%
2003 17,431.8 +0.65%
2004 17,261.9 -0.98%
2005 16,395.9 -5.02%
2006 17,854.1 +8.89%
2007 18,365.7 +2.87%
2008 18,229.3 -0.7%
2009 17,584.6 -3.5%
2010 16,486.9 +6.2%

Yet these figures can't be broken down into ticket sales ???


All-Time Top Films in ROI (from 2002*)
Film Euro
1. Mamma Mia! 6.4m
2. The Dark Knight 6.3m
3. The Simpsons Movie 6.1m
4. Shrek The Third 5.7m
5. Shrek 2 5.3m
6. Lord Of The Rings:
Fellowship Of The Ring 5.2m
7. Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone 4.8m
8. Lord Of The Rings:
Return of the King 4.7m
9. Casino Royale 4.2m
10. Veronica Guerin 4.1m

Elmo

ztoical wrote: »

They still have remnants from it on US tv as you'll find channels will play the same feature film three or four times back to back on the one night.

That is because they don't have to pay for repeat showing within a 24 hour period.

And in the early years of cinema Distributors, Studios and Showhouses were at times the one company.

ztoical

Elmo wrote: »

That is because they don't have to pay for repeat showing within a 24 hour period.

And in the early years of cinema Distributors, Studios and Showhouses were at times the one company.

It's the same principle though that people will sit through the same film in a short period, I've seen plenty of people do it when I lived in the states and was guilty of doing it myself. Not a massive amount of the audience will but a percentage does. When it came to cinema in the early period it was based on the vaudeville theatre model were you just had acts going on all day and people paid in once and could stay as long as they liked.

Studio money isn't based on individual seats sold, they get a % of the box office but the amount they get depends greatly on the film and what week of it's release it's in. The cinema has leased the film and the studio will asked for an amount based on the number and size of the screens the cinema is showing it in. The amount of that % will higher for the first week as in theory it should be easier for the cinema to fill the screen and make it's money from food sales while in the proceedings weeks the amount the cinema takes from box office is higher but the numbers would be lower attending...it's why studios want you to go to see a film earlier. Its also why films shown in things like kids saturday mornings where the tickets are reduced are always older films. Some cinemas like the prince Charles in London get films several weeks after the main release and show them dirt cheap because they have to pay a lot less then a big cinema chain. Cinemas will also do deals where they will take a less commercial film from the same studio as a more popular film on the deal they get a much higher % of the box office of the smaller film if not the whole box office.

So saying 2 films sold x number of tickets doesn't mean they made the same money as far as studios are concerned. A film that does massive business in the first week will earn more money for the studio then a film that starts slow but builds an audience over a number of weeks.

You also have to add in the Rambo effect. It's estimated that one of the reasons Meet the Spartans was so popular was that so many teenage boys were buying tickets to see Meet the Spartans and then going in to Rambo. It's estimated that up to 12 million was lost in ticket sales for Rambo due to this.

Speaking of Rambo I'm still curious as to why theater chains such as Odeon refused to play the film, Odeon claimed commercial reasons which is odd as the film did amazing well.

Br4tPr1nc3

i seen 4 of them in the cinema....


my guess is the only reason why theyre classed as the highest grossing is before the cost to go the cinema has risen, and therefore appears to gross more.

MagicMarker

Br4tPr1nc3 wrote: »

i seen 4 of them in the cinema....


my guess is the only reason why theyre classed as the highest grossing is before the cost to go the cinema has risen, and therefore appears to gross more.

What?