We Cover the Real Top Ten: “Endgame” is Not in It

By: Keaton Marcus

You know the top ten highest-grossing films of all-time, right? Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Endgame dominating? Wrong. If you look at the real pictures that reign over the rest, you would go to the adjusted for inflation list, which surprisingly, none of the top five, or even the top ten films shown there were made after the year 1997. Does this prove that technically, audiences are becoming less and less interested in showing up to the cinema? Were people more wowed back then when going to the multiplex was a brand-new hobby? We shall inform you in our newest article about the relations of how a film released in 1939 has made the most cash, and why the population might be slightly more intrigued to stay home and binge Netflix than get up off the couch and experience a film in IMAX.

1939’s “Gone With the Wind” Takes Cake

Surprised it’s not a massive blockbuster that cost over 300 million dollars to make? Well, while it’s almost impossible to believe, 1939 released Gone With the Wind is the biggest film of all-time, at least taking in around 80 years of inflation. In 4/5 of century-ago terms, the low-budget, acclaimed picture made over 189 million dollars in North America, however, adding the three other re-releases, in total, the film made over 200M dollars across the states. But that’s not true for today’s standards, is it? With the average ticket price in 2019 soaring over nine dollars, if Gone With the Wind was released the same year as Avengers: Endgame, it would have earned over 1.8 billion in the United States and Canada, therefore, technically, Gone With the Wind has made the most money with today’s ticket prices.

The Rest of the Top Ten: Space, Music, Disney

After noting the largest film of all-time according to inflation, we now take a quick dive into the following films in the interesting list. Coming right in runner-up was the original Star Wars film, which in 1977, grossed a massive 460.9M domestically, but taking in over 30 years of the rise of ticket prices, today’s standards set the earnings all the way to 1.6 billion dollars. Third, fourth, and fifth place hold 1965’s The Sound of Music, 1982’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and 1997’s Titanic, which, without inflation earned 159.2M, 435.1M and 659.3M respectively. However, taking in the many years of sitting, the three have made 1.283B, 1.278B, and 1.221B just in North America. Sixth, seventh, and eighth hold three more older films—with three-hour historical epic The Ten Commandments (1956), Steven Spielberg’s beloved Jaws (1975) and romance Doctor Zhivago (1965) which, with, a considerable amount of inflation, have grossed 1.180B, 1.153B and 1.118B dollars respectively. The last two spots have been reserved for classic horror pic The Exorcist (1973) and Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), which both fall just short of one billion dollars with inflation.

What the Heck Just Happened to the Avengers?

I’ve painted a wierd picture in your head, haven’t I? Don’t worry, your favorite light-saber donning characters, and superheroes still reign over the un-adjusted list, but leave the old films some glory, would ya? Speaking of that, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which remains number one on the un-adjusted domestic list, comes up right outside of the top ten, with over 974 million bucks in the bag (with four years of inflation). It’s not till 16th place where we see the gargantuan release of Avengers: Endgame which has grossed 858 million good ones. In fact, not a single film made after the year 1997 has made it into the real top ten list. Back tracking to the ticket prices, 109 years ago, back in 1910—the price of admission was merely seven cents, but it didn’t feel so petite back then, did it. Over a century ago, less than ten cents felt like ten bucks today, so while it was still solidly cheap—don’t immediately think the people back then had it all.

Films Before 2000 Made More?

In an estimate, actually, the majority of the top 300 all-time, inflated list, were films made before the year 2000. While many pictures today still make a ton of money, it’s still extremely worrying to see a slight decline of interest over the years with audiences and the cinema. Just 70 years ago, walking to the movies was wonderous, today, it is usually a hobby to go out with friends on a Friday, or Saturday night. Primarily, the common population enjoys as much or even more to sit on the couch and stream some Netflix, Amazon or even HBO than to go buy a ticket. With streaming giants like these, it’s hard to imagine in maybe even 50 years that as many people will go to the Silver Screen. It isn’t automatically horrible, but in my honest opinion: experiencing a fun action film in IMAX completely wipes out Netflix on a small screen, computer, I-Pad, or I-Phone.

The Evaluation

A picture 80 years ago made twice as much as the number one slot on the un-adjusted list? Weird. It’s also scary as hell to think that Kinepolis might not be a thing anymore. We will see.