64 thoughts on “All Time Top Worldwide Box Office Grosses Movies”

1. So for example, for what it’s worth, in the sample I took Godpop 1972 which currently has an adjusted Cogerson domestic gross of around $720 million came in at well over $800 million and Burt’s 1970 Airport, which WH and every other major site puts below Godpop with an adjusted US figure of approx $600 million, leapfrogged the latter with an adjusted US gross of nearly $1 billion.

   In short, according to that unique method, in today’s money one Lancaster film was nearing, and has probably now reached, the billion dollar mark in DOMESTIC GROSSES alone long before any of the current action franchises were even thought of!

   Gonna put my finger on you
   Cause I need you so
   And I won’t take no for an answer
   In my life I’ve had a time
   Had to fight for what was mine
   And I don’t intend to lose my crown
   But every time I look at you
   And the beautiful things you do
   Every single nerve in my body says hold it down
   So now I’m putting about the feeble word like what must be must be
   Didn’t you know that you belonged to me
   I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse!

   [Sung by Jimmy Helms 1973 after the release of The Godfather]

   Reply

2. HI STEVE: Thanks for your normal thoughtful response. At the moment a yardstick for a movie is the “Cogerson magical 100 million dollar mark” in domestic grosses; but it strikes me that we could soon be talking about the “Cogerson magical $1 BILLION dollar mark”! Inflation touches everything and it seems only guys like you and WH can keep consistent tabs on it but even you pair can’t tame it!

   I mentioned before that a few years back I read a highly technical article on adjusting for inflation in cinema grosses. This one argued that to adjust properly for inflation things like, at any given time, population changes, number of cinemas in existence, number of other entertainment competitive outlets in areas such as alternative screen mediums and productions, sport, community and arts had to be taken into account along with ticket price increases.

   The article provided an algebra-type formula for working all that out, but it was so time-consuming to apply [various core statistical sources having to be consulted in each case] that after I had tried it out on a small sample of films I gave up. Naturally the sample was comprised of the BIG movies of my own fave stars such as Chuck, Mumbles and Lancaster: the likes of Leach, Statham and The Rock didn’t get a look in – you and WH waste enough time on THEM!

   Reply

3. Steve Lensman
   January 14, 2020 at 11:01 am

   Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, always appreciated.

   Glad you liked the posters and stills, I don’t think there are lobby cards this time.

   At the end of the day this is all informed guesswork, Bruce and I might be dead on with our calculations or laughably way off.

   At best our charts give a useful insight into the movies that have most effectively succeeded in attracting the largest amount of people to line up at theaters (UK = cinemas) over the decades. It’s not perfect because many oldies do not have foreign grosses readily available.

   One website insists that Gone With the Wind has an adjusted gross of $7bn which is ridiculous, all they did was take the total gross of all the reruns and convert from 1939 to 2019. But where would GWTW be on the chart if it was never re-released? What was it’s initial 1939-1940 box office earnings?

   Like you mention in your post, blockbuster movies have to make at least a billion dollars these days to be considered really successful. Star Wars 9 has still not passed $1bn which must be making Disney a little jittery. They have many more SW movies planned for the future.

   Avengers Endgame cost $350m to make which is a crazy amount of money, it needed to pass $1bn to be profitable. It was worth it, grossing about $2.7bn in total. Eventually movies will pass the £3bn milestone in grosses. ?

   Next video will be next monday and it’s another top 100.

   Reply

   1. Thanks for moving our posts here Bob.

      You mentioning Burt Lancaster and Airport made me wonder if Bruce has thought of doing a page listing famous actors and their most successful films in adjusted grosses. A chart page. That way we can see who really rules the roost, Harrison Ford or Burt Lancaster? Al Pacino or Alan Ladd? Marlon Brando or Jason Statham? Myrna Loy or Jennifer Lawrence? 😉

      btw in my previous reply I mention ‘£3bn’ instead of $3bn’ , a mistake though these days the difference isn’t so great. I remember when it was close to 2 dollars = 1 pound, or was I imagining it? 🙂

      Reply

      1. HI STEVE: As I have attempted to argue with The Work Horse down the years [to no avail as “you can lead a Horse to water but you cannot make it drink”] the trouble from my perspective about what you suggest is that we have no reasonably scientific method of accurately assessing how much each star has personally brought to the box office of any or all of his/her films.

         Even where a star is the only major one involved in a run of films, the grosses of those movies can vary widely from one to the other so that obviously that star does not attract an identical gross to each of his films; and you therefore can see how it becomes more complicated when a couple or an ensemble of big stars are in the same movie.

         When they split up Dean Martin’s Top 20 solo films attracted in inflation-adjusted figures at the US box office some $3.16 billion and Jerry’s Top 20 grossed just under $2 billion. On the face of it therefore Dino was the bigger box office star as a solo artist.

         However Jerry had no other big stars in his 20 movies except Tony Curtis in Boeing Boeing and in 18 of the 20 was billed alone above the title. Conversely Dino in his 20 was surrounded by names as big or bigger than his own : Lancaster; The Duke [twice]; Sinatra [ several times]; Brando; Mitchum; Newman; Gene Kelly; Curtis; Jimmy Stewart; Monty Clift;Judy Holliday; Deborah Kerr; Shirley MacLaine.

         The average adjusted domestic gross of those movies in which Dino was accompanied by another major star is $158 million; over 10 movies where Dino had no major star accompanying him his average figure is $60 million; and the average gross of a Lewis stand-alone movies is $98 million. Lewis’ first 10 films in his heyday after M & L broke up averaged $131 million and he was alone above the title in every one with no other major star for company or support.Draw your own conclusions.

         NOTE: The figures that I have quoted are based on Bruce’s stats which I think he may have just updated to reflect the latest average ticket price. You can if you wish check them out for yourself to confirm the statistical accuracy of what I am saying.

         Reply

4. BOB to STEVE Part Three
   January 13, 2020 at 7:09 pm

   TOP 25 FAVOURITE ENTRIES: STILLS

   1/Capt Jack Sparrow
   2/Indie and his father!
   3/Ghost
   4/Joker
   5/Rogue One
   6/Hobbit 2012
   7/Forrest Gump
   8/Spidey 2002
   9/Heath Ledger
   10/Skyfall
   11/Frozen 2
   12/Two Towers – great!
   13/Mary Poppins
   14/”I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse!”***
   15/Lion King
   16/Avengers Assemble
   17/Jurassic World 2015
   18/Dr Zhivago
   19/The Force Awakens
   20/Ben Hur
   21/ET
   22/Avengers Endgame
   23/RIP poor Carrie – those were the days!
   24/Titanic
   25/”Frankly my dear I don’t give a d**n!”

   ***First uttered by The Duke in a low budget B western in his early days – but the snobs were not interested back then whereas after it became famous in Godpop there was even a hit record with the line as its title.

   I notice that only the first 5 entries have less than a $billion. We are on the brink of the era where to be in the Top 100 worldwide grosses a movie has to be also in the $billion club, which probably means that at some stage the Top 100 will be substantially crowded out by these action/super hero franchises!

   Reply

5. BOB to STEVE Part Two
   January 13, 2020 at 5:58 pm

   TOP 25 FAVOURITE ENTRIES: POSTERS

   1/Pirates of Caribbean 2003
   2/Terminator 2
   3/Hobbit 2
   4/Raiders of Lost Ark
   5/two for Aladdin
   6/Spiderman 3
   7/Rogue One
   8/Capt Marvel
   9/Transformers 4
   10/Dark Knight Rises
   11/Beauty & Beast
   12/Transformers 3
   13/Jurassic World 2018
   14/Iron Man 3
   15/The Last Jedi
   16/Lord of the Rings 2001
   17/The Graduate- unusual one.
   18/Lion King
   19/Empire Strikes Back
   20/The Force Awakens
   21/Jaws
   22/Avatar
   23/Both for Titanic
   24/25 Unique ones [to me] for Chucks 10 Cmmts and Ben Hur

   Reply

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