All Time Top Ticket Selling Movies

movie ticketStar Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) is now the number one movie when it comes to North America box office grosses.  The box office success of Star Wars 7 was incredible.  But, when you look at the all-time North America ticket sales leaders…..Star Wars: The Force Awakens has not even cracked the Top 10.

So with Star Wars: The Force Awakens now being listed as the biggest box office hit of all-time….we figured it would be interesting to look at the top ticket selling movies of all-time.  The following table shows all the movies in our database that sold more than 40 million tickets in North America.  If you compare our table to Box Office Mojo’s Adjusted For Inflation Leaders you will see some differences.  Box Office Mojo is awesome when looking at movies from 1982 to today.  Easily the best source on the internet.  Movies made before 1980 are not the strength of Box Office Mojo…as they often use box office rentals versus box office grosses.

We did some massive updates on this page today.   The good news is we now have more information on each of these blockbusters.  The bad news is our database is not letting us include our estimated ticket sells in the table….so we had to create a second table with those ticket numbers.   So if you sort the first table by adjusted domestic gross….it will rank the top box office movies from #1 Gone With The Wind to #275 The Aristocats.  To see the estimated ticket sell numbers you have to go to the second table.

Star-Wars-vs-Avatar

All Time Top Ticket Selling Movies Can Be Sorted 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort All Time Top Ticket Selling movies by movie title and movie trailers
  • Sort All Time Top Ticket Selling movies by the stars of the movie
  • Sort All Time Top Ticket Selling movies by how much they earned in adjusted domestic box office (in millions)
  • Sort All Time Top Ticket Selling movies by estimated tickets sold (in millions)
  • Sort All Time Top Ticket Selling movies by critic and audience reviews
  • Sort All Time Top Ticket Selling movies by Oscar nominations and Oscar wins
  • Sort All Time Top Ticket Selling movie by UMR Score…..UMR Score combines box office, reviews and awards
I know when to update this page….when ever a current movie reaches the $350.00 domestic mark that means it has reached the mighty 40 million tickets sold mark.
 
By request we also have produced a Top 250 Worldwide Box Office Movie List.
Steve Lensman’s Top 100 Ticket Selling Movies…Lots of Great Posters in this video.
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152 thoughts on “All Time Top Ticket Selling Movies”

      1. Hey Dan….we had that wrong in the database…..when I fixed the date…..it actually bumped Ben-Hur off the list…..as it sits at $314.40 million on 37.30 million tickets sold….the Great Depression lowered the price of tickets….so it fell short of the 40 million tickets needed to make the list. Thanks for the catch.

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    2. I thought Christian Bale had a part in Smokey and the Bandit…lol. Copied the wrong link on that one….thanks for the catch.

      Reply

  3. Hi

    Interesting page. I suppose ticket sales are the real measure of a movie’s success. A couple of years ago in Britain, there was a programme based on ticket sales, The Wicked Lady came out on top from 1945. Today it’s easy to get all the facts and figures as a movie is released into multiplex cinemas simultaneously. This was not the case years ago a movie would have been released in big cities first, then into smaller towns a couple of months down the line. The theatre life of a film could have been up to 2 or 3 years, where today most films have 2/3 months, even really successful ones. Then onto DVD/Blu Ray and then satellite T.V.
    Last year I came onto a site that done movies ticket sales year by year, but I haven’t found it since and don’t know how accurate it was.
    It’s good to see that there’s still movies like Star Wars that can still bring in the punters.

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris….my wife has been saying for years that I should include the tickets sold into the table of information. Maybe it is time to start including those stats as well. Yep I imagine it was a nightmare back then trying to get all the revenue in….since it would take so much time. When I am researching these pages..I constantly read comments that seem to say the big cities are the most important….while the neighbor markets are the secondary market…almost looking down on the people that did not live in big cities.
      Sounds like an interesting site….Star Wars 7 is still impressive…even if it did not crack the Top 10….but it was still the #2 movie last weekend….it might get to $950 in the USA and that get it into the Top 10.
      As always…I appreciate your comments.

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  4. A great example of how regardless of the era, I don’t see blockbusters-I’ve seen 77 of these movies and most of the ones I am missing I’m not interested in seeing.

    Flora

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    1. Hey Flora…77 is pretty good….especially since many of these movies are ones you avoid. Steve has seen 178 while I am at 185. Well you can not finish first all of the time….lol. Thanks for the visit and the comment.

      FYI. We are snowed in here on the East Coast….so out of boredom the wife asked me what information I wanted out of the database….this was one of the reports that she was able to pull out. The database is getting so big….that I need a professional computer programmer to yank out the information I want…..this is a good problem to have.

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      1. Yes, I agree it is a good problem. Also, I understand your wife wanting to keep busy. I heard about the snow…

        Flora

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        1. Hey Flora….yesterday was pretty much a relaxing do nothing day….today the sun is out and the snow is going away. Turned out to be the second best day in the history of this site….maybe the snow is good for my website….lol.

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  5. This list might come in useful for me when I compile my box office videos on older films Bruce, nice work amigo. A shame it’s only North American grosses but I know worldwide grosses are very hard to find.

    The Force Awakens is the biggest grossing film ever in North America with over $800m but looking at your list we see a different view. The Force Awakens hasn’t even cracked the top 10 in adjusted dollars or tickets sold. Fascinating, as Spock would say. 🙂

    Gone With the Wind and Star Wars (1977) are so far ahead I don’t think any film will ever pass them. They lead worldwide too, Avatar and Titanic trail behind.

    I’ve seen 178 of the 192 films listed. Movies I haven’t seen include – Love Story, Best Years of Our Lives, Bells of St. Mary’s, 9 to 5, On Golden Pond and Kramer vs Kramer.

    A highly interesting look at the most popular movies in North America in adjusted dollars. Voted Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve
      1. Hope you can find some use for this page Tons of stats here on a ton of movies.
      2. Finding worldwide grosses is almost impossible for the older movies…the ones since 2000 are easier…but sometimes those are unknown too.
      3. Yep the fact that The Force Awakens is not in the top 10 is fascinating…..it has done better than Return…about the same as Empire….but not even close to Star Wars. Not thinking Force Awakens is going to be re-released in theaters….like the others did.
      4. 178 movies..that is pretty good…..Flora is at 77….I am at….counting…damn this is going to take awhile….185….it was easier to count the ones I have not seen
      5. One day you will tell me you watched Best Years of Our Lives….one of the best movies of the 1940s. 9 to 5 used to be funny….it has not aged well.
      6. White Christmas is the first one that I have not seen….have not seen the original Ben-Hur or the other silent.
      7. That makes me wonder where the original Ten Commandments is….pretty sure it should be over $300 million in adjusted gross…I will check that out after this comment.
      8, Thanks for the vote up.

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      1. Just checked….DeMille’s first Ten Commandments….ONLY made $322 million in adjusted gross….so it just missed making the table.

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        1. I’ve seen it mentioned a few times that Birth of a Nation (1915) was the highest grossing movie until Gone With the Wind beat it in the early 40’s. Can you verify? Wikipedia suggests that it’s success might have been exaggerated. “D.W Griffith’s own records put Epoch’s worldwide earnings at $5.2 million as of 1919” Epoch being the production company.

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          1. D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation’s box office grosses has been a great debate for over a hundred years. Griffith claimed it grossed over 10 million. That would not be rentals. Variety has published 10 million in rentals….5 million in rentals and 3.5 million in rentals. Seems even Variety does not know the answer. I think the 5 million in rentals is the closest…as it still means it grossed over 10 million.

            Anyway….I went with the 5 million rental number….which generates a gross over $11 million with adjusted gross being $713.60 million based on 84.60 million tickets sold….which puts Birth of a Nation in 22nd place. I was actually surprised that Birth of a Nation was not already in the database….thanks for the question….not sure the answer is correct….but not sure anybody really knows anymore.

          2. Bruce, there was no reply button under your Birth of a Nation reply which was a bit strange so I’ve had to reply to my reply. 🙂

            Thanks for the info, so figures for Nation were probably exaggerated but it’s still one of the biggest earners of it’s era, or was there a more successful film leading up to Gone With the Wind? Ben-Hur (1925)? The Jazz Singer? King Kong? 🙂

          3. Hey Steve…your comment found the right place. In my research I discovered this link recently….It was a Top Box Office Rental chart from 1936. It lists Birth of a Nation at 3.5 million….https://archive.org/stream/international193738quig#page/942/mode/2up

            #1 was The Singing Fool…#2 Four Horse of the Apocalypse #3 Ben-Hur (1925), #4 The Big Parade and #5 Birth of A Nation. I will have to add The Singing Fool to the table.

          4. Ok….just checked my Variety stats….The Singing Fool ended up with a 3.8 million rental mark…which is about $200 million in adjusted gross…..but King Vidor’s The Big Parade has $5.18 million….which was enough to make this table….as it sold 41.70 million tickets…for a adjusted gross of $351.50 million….and a 175th place spot on the table. Thanks for the suggestion.

        2. Fascinating, so Nation wasn’t quite the biggest film of all time, other silents were bigger. The only two silents I’ve seen from the ones you’ve listed are Ben-Hur and Birth of a Nation, I also saw The Ten Commandments. I don’t think I’ve seen King of Kings. I want to see The Big Parade, not sure if it’s my collection I have to check. Thanks for all the info, you’re the man!

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          1. Hey Steve….that page is now in my book… It only lists about 80 movies….but it is the earliest all-time list of box office champs that I have seen before. Glad you found that link interesting too!

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