Jurassic World, the completely self-aware, nose tweaking, follow up to the Jurassic Park series, has pushed Marvel’s The Avengers aside and is now the third highest-grossing film in history.
Before we get into the information, and before you fire up your keyboard to write in the comment section about Gone with the Wind is still the highest grossing when adjusted for inflation, I’m already ahead of you…
While Gone With the Wind still remains the highest grossing movie of all time when adjusted for inflation, the current top ten list of worldwide grosses is quite interesting to see.
- Avatar – $2.78B
- Titanic – $2.18B
- Jurassic World – $1.52B
- Marvels’ The Avengers – $1.51B
- Furious 7 – $1.51B
- Avengers: Age of Ultron – $1.38B
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – $1.34B
- Frozen – $1.27B
- Iron Man 3 – $1.21B
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon – $1.12B
Until this year, Universal Pictures had not released a movie that earned over a billion dollars in the box office. It should also be noted that his year, ticket prices hit an all time high. According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, the average cost of a ticket hit $8.61.
If you want to see the list adjusted for inflation, it is quite a different list:
- Gone with the Wind
- Star Wars
- The Sound of Music
- E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
- Titanic
- The Ten Commandments
- Jaws
- Doctor Zhivago
- The Exorcist
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
According to Box Office Mojo, Jurassic World would appear at the 28 spot on the adjusted inflation list. There are all sorts of ways for studios to spin their movies in hopes of driving audiences to the theaters – especially in Jurassic World’s case as the movie continues to run in theaters around the country – so I wonder if these kinds of lists really matter? Sure, for investors, stock holders, theater owners, and the like, but for movie goers, this seems more like bragging and an indictment of rising ticket prices. While we can always hang on to Adjusted for Inflation prices, expect to see the top ten list change drastically in the next few years as new films with higher ticket prices dominate the list.
