Created 12/8/2005 by Scott Arnold
BoxOfficeMojo has a page for Inflation Adjusted totals, but those are for Domestic. Which is fine, but I was interested in World Wide. They also have a page of World Wide totals, but those weren't adjusted for inflation. I looked around, and it seems BoxOfficeMojo doesn't have a World-Wide adjusted for inflation list (which would be difficult if not impossible to do, as you would have to look at inflation rates in every single country).
But...just for fun...I computed World-Wide adjusted for inflation totals using domestic inflation rates --> (DA/D)*WW = WWA, where DA = Domestic Adjusted, D = Domestic, WW = World-Wide, and WWA = World-Wide Adjusted.
I used data only from those lists, and not from the individual movie data pages. Reason being, the totals listed on the BoxOfficeMojo prepared lists do not match what is shown for individual films. For example, the world-wide gross for Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets shown on the BoxOfficeMojo prepared list is $976,700,000, yet on the Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets individual move page, the world-wide gross is shown as $876,688,482. Because of this, I only used data from the prepared lists.
I included all movies that made the top 10 on at least one of the lists (Domestic, Domestic Adjusted, and World-Wide). Also, a couple of films were not included on one of the lists, thus preventing me from completing the calculation (The Ten Commandments has no domestic total and Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets has no domestic adjusted total). Also, a couple of films were missing from the World-Wide list, in which case I assumed they were only released domestically and used the Domestic adjustd total as the World-Wide adjusted total (The Sound of Music and Snow White).
Despite all this effort, these numbers are still trivial for picking the king of movies, as I used domestic inflation rates for all countries, some people may only be interested in domestic (and not world wide), plus numerous other factors that could effect what movie is considered top dog. But it was a fun list to compile. So without further ado...
The winners for all-time World-Wide inflation adjusted earnings are:
| # 1 | Gone with the Wind | $ 2,604,701,431 |
| # 2 | Titanic | $ 2,522,533,410 |
| # 3 | Star Wars: A New Hope | $ 1,917,425,147 |
| # 4 | E.T. | $ 1,654,403,215 |
| # 5 | Jaws | $ 1,483,980,235 |
| # 6 | The Exorcist | $ 1,341,549,951 |
| # 7 | Jurassic Park | $ 1,275,398,725 |
| # 8 | Lord of the Rings: Return of the King | $ 1,168,806,965 |
| # 9 | Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace | $ 1,164,004,658 |
| #10 | The Sound of Music * | $ 1,139,965,400 |
| #11 | Harry Potter: The Sorcerer's Stone | $ 1,100,317,034 |
| #12 | Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | $ 999,604,504 |
| #13 | Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets ** | $ 976,700,000 |
| #14 | Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | $ 969,201,653 |
| #15 | Shrek 2 | $ 948,869,518 |
| #16 | Finding Nemo | $ 917,014,814 |
| #17 | Spider-Man | $ 905,142,908 |
| #18 | Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith | $ 848,500,051 |
| #19 | The Ten Commandments * | $ 838,400,000 |
| #20 | Spider-Man 2 | $ 807,987,145 |
| #21 | Doctor Zhivago * | $ 794,466,900 |
| #22 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarves* | $ 697,600,000 |
| #23 | Passion of the Christ | $ 630,595,940 |
Calculated in this fashion, Gone with the Wind holds an ever so tiny lead over Titanic. Star Wars IV holds a distant yet solid 3rd place. E.T. and Jaws round out the top five. The next classic after Gone with the Wind is The Sound of Music, at #10, and that's not including world-wide numbers for it, if there are any. LoTR lands all 3 of it's movies firmly in the top #20, making it the most successful series, edging out Star Wars, which saw 3 of it's 6 films make the top 20. Spider-Man also has a strong showing.
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Last Updated 12/8/2005 by Scott Arnold Created 12/8/2005 by Scott Arnold |
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