Nominal box office favors the present. Adjusted for ticket-price inflation, the real all-time champions are the roadshow epics and franchise landmarks that sold the most tickets, led by a 1939 Civil War melodrama no modern blockbuster has caught.
The full ranking
Nominal box office favors the present. Adjusted for ticket-price inflation, the real all-time champions are the roadshow epics and franchise landmarks that sold the most tickets, led by a 1939 Civil War melodrama no modern blockbuster has caught.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Civil War epic earned roughly $400 million unadjusted but close to $4 billion in today's dollars, having sold an estimated 200 million tickets in the U.S. alone when the population was just 130 million. It reigned as the top-earning film for a quarter century and won eight Oscars.
Avatar (2009)
James Cameron's 3D spectacle is the all-time nominal champion at about $2.92 billion, and its adjusted total of nearly $4 billion (boosted by multiple reissues) places it second only to Gone with the Wind.
Titanic (1997)
Cameron's romance-disaster epic grossed about $2.26 billion across its original run and later 3D and anniversary re-releases, and won 11 Academy Awards, tying the record.
Star Wars (1977)
George Lucas's original film earned roughly $775 million unadjusted across numerous theatrical reissues, and its inflation-adjusted total of about $3.6 billion reflects the audience that launched the modern blockbuster era.
The Sound of Music (1965)
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical dethroned Gone with the Wind as the top-earning film of its time, a roadshow-era phenomenon that adjusts to roughly $3 billion worldwide.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Steven Spielberg's tale of a boy and his alien was the highest-grossing film of the 1980s, and with its 1985 and 2002 reissues factored in, it adjusts to nearly $3 billion.
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Cecil B. DeMille's biblical epic was the peak of the 1950s spectacle cycle Hollywood used to compete with television, adjusting to roughly $2.8 billion worldwide.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
David Lean's sweeping romance set against the Russian Revolution was a long-running roadshow hit that adjusts to about $2.7 billion.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
The franchise's revival is the only 21st-century film other than Avatar and Endgame to crack the adjusted top ten, earning about $2.07 billion unadjusted and roughly $2.5 billion adjusted.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
The culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe grossed about $2.8 billion, second-highest in nominal terms, and adjusts to roughly $2.5 billion.
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