Top 200 Domestic Grossing Movies of all-time (Adjusted for Inflation)

[Alexdube]

1 hour ago, Walt Disney said:

After doing extensive research, you are right. Fox is the studio that initiated the movie and financed the majority of the movie. Despite Paramount getting domestic distribution rights, Fox was the studio that was setting the release date. Titanic is clearly Fox’s movie. I am going to list Titanic under Fox.

Indeed BOM lists Paramount as the domestic distributor. Fox did international. It was a tricky one

 

thanks for that adjustment

Edited July 21, 2019 by Alexdube

[Walt Disney]

4 minutes ago, Alexdube said:

Indeed BOM lists Paramount as the domestic distributor. Fox did international. It was a tricky one

 

thanks for that adjustment

Thank you for pointing that out to me. That was some excellent research by you.

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of The Lion King (2019).

 

Bruce Almighty has been removed from the list.

[MovieMan89]

100th 300m grosser should be coming in less than two years. Based on the current schedule, my guess would be Jurassic World 3 in June 2021, but a ton can still change that far out. 

Edited July 31, 2019 by MovieMan89

[dudalb]

On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 4:05 PM, Walt Disney said:

After doing extensive research, you are right. Fox is the studio that initiated the movie and financed the majority of the movie. Despite Paramount getting domestic distribution rights, Fox was the studio that was setting the release date. Titanic is clearly Fox’s movie. I am going to list Titanic under Fox.

Essentially Fox got nervous when "Titanic" went out of control as far as the budget went, and wanted to spread the risk around.

People forget that Titanic was widely regarded in the Industry as the new "Heaven's Gate" and was expected to fail badly at the box office.

Cameron's last film, "True Lies" had been a success but nowhere near the hit that T2 had been, and period films were very much out of favor in 1997.

People also forget that neither De Capio or Winslet..though both were considered to have promising careers...were considered A list in 1997.

 

[dudalb]

One factor when figuring number or tickets sold is that a lot of the older films on the list were first released as roadshows...where it played a long engagement ..at times over a year..at prices two or three times higher then the standard ticket price... in, usually, a single theater in a city before going into general release..."at popular prices" as the saying went. Worked totally different then "limited engagements" do today.  The emphasis was on a long payoff rather then making a huge amount of money in a short amount of time.

Of the top ten listed in this thread 4.

Gone With The Wind

Sound Of Music

Ten Commadments

Dr Zhivago

 

were Road Show Releases.

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by dudalb

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

 

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me has been removed from the list.

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by Walt Disney

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Frozen II. 

 

On Golden Pond has been removed from the list.

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker.

 

Bonnie and Clyde has been removed from the list.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Walt Disney

[Walt Disney]

Decade in Review

 

The decade of the 2010s has ended. It was a very big decade for this list. It's time to review how the studios did in this decade. A movie's current ranking will be listed in parenthesis.

 

Disney

 

To say that Disney had a big decade would be an under-statement. Disney dominated this list during the decade. Disney began the decade with a monster 2010. Disney had the top 3 domestic grossing films in 2010: Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, and Iron Man 2. Disney had purchased Marvel at the end of 2009, but they had to distribute their first Marvel film, Iron Man 2, through Paramount because of a distribution agreement that Marvel signed with Paramount before Disney bought Marvel. However, Disney still had the top 3 movies at the box office (although Iron Man 2 is no longer on the list because so many other movies were added that it was knocked off the list). Disney ended the decade with the top 6 domestic grossing movies at the box office: Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen II, Captain Marvel, and Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker.

 

For the decade, Disney added a total of 25 movies to the list. That is the most any studio has on the list for any decade. It is even more amazing that 12.5% of the top grossing movies of all-time come from 1 studio in 1 decade. The first big factor that helped Disney was the purchase of Marvel at the end of 2009. Superhero movies dominated the box office in the 2000s, but Disney did not have any superhero movies. The other major studios had been getting rich from superhero movies though, and Disney wanted to get into the superhero game. Marvel, which was an independent studio, had Iron Man (currently number 159) on the list. It is always a huge deal when an independent studio gets a movie onto this list. Marvel also had a distribution deal with Paramount. So Disney's first few Marvel films would be distributed by Paramount, and Disney would pay Paramount a distribution fee, before keeping the rest of the profits. Despite this, Disney jumped into the superhero game, and it paid off in a big way.

 

Disney's first superhero movie was Iron Man 2. It was number 3 domestically, and was on this list, before getting knocked off the list.  However, Disney did add plenty of superhero movies to the list. The most successful was Avengers: Endgame (16). But, Disney also added: Marvel's The Avengers (29), Black Panther (31), Avenger's: Infinity War (36), Avengers: Age of Ultron (101),  Iron Man 3 (122), Captain Marvel (132), Captain America: Civil War (139), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (168), and Guardians of the Galaxy (193). That's 10 superhero movies. Disney went from having no superhero movies on the list to having the most superhero movies on the list in one decade. Marvel changed Disney and helped pave the way for a dominant decade.

 

If Marvel paved the way for Disney's dominant decade, then Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm cemented Disney's status as the dominant force of the decade. In 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm. George Lucas financed the Star Wars sequels and prequels through Lucasfilm. This made Lucasfilm the most successful independent studio on this list. Lucasfilm has 5 Star Wars movies on this list. No other independent studio has more than 3 movies on the list. If there was any question as to whether Lucasfilm could deliver blockbuster films while being a part of Disney, they were emphatically answered. Disney added 4 Star Wars films to the list in this decade. Disney added Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens (11), which is he highest grossing film of the decade. Disney also added: Star Wars: Episode VIII- The Last Jedi (44), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (62), and Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker (88).

 

Disney was more than just Marvel superhero films and Star Wars movies in this decade. Disney also added: Incredibles 2 (49), The Lion King (63), Beauty and the Beast (78), Finding Dory (79), Toy Story 3 (102), Frozen II (110), Frozen (120), Toy Story 4 (125), Inside Out (178), Alice in Wonderland (186), and The Jungle Book (190).

 

Disney was such a dominant studio at the box office the last decade. For 25 of the 200 highest grossing domestic adjusted films of all-time to be from Disney in the same decade is a level of success that is difficult to comprehend. As if Disney could not be any more dominant in the last decade,  Disney capped off the decade by buying Fox in March of 2019.

 

Fox

 

While Disney may have been the most successful studio of the last decade, it was not the only one with success. Fox's run as an independent studio ended this decade. It was bought by Disney. However, Fox added one more movie to the list before it was bought by Disney. Fox added Deadpool (183) to the list in 2016. It will be Fox's last independent movie on the list.

 

Currently, Fox has 20 movies on the list. It has the 2nd (Star Wars), 3rd (The Sound of Music), 5th (Titanic), and 15th(Avatar) highest grossing films on the list. Fox's impact on Hollywood in general, and this list specifically, has been massive. This is the end of Fox's legacy as an independent studio. It is now part of Disney, and it may have a very successful future as a part of Disney. However, one of the great major studios is no longer independent.

 

Universal

 

Universal had a big time decade at the box office. While it was overshadowed by Disney, it did add 6 movies to the list. That's actually a big number of movies to add for a decade. It added: Jurassic World (30), Despicable Me 2 (137), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (144), The Secret Life of Pets (171), Furious 7 (194) and Minions (198).

 

Warner Bros.

 

Warner Bros. had another solid decade. It wasn't as big as the previous decade, where Warner Bros. was putting up all-time blockbusters at will. However, Warner Bros. did not let up on the box office this decade either. It added 4 movies to the list: The Dark Knight Rises (73), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (124), Wonder Woman (143), and American Sniper (173).

Sony

 

Out of the major studios, Sony usually struggles the most to add movies to the list. Sony has less movies on the list than: Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Fox, and Universal. However, this decade, Sony did better than Paramount and Fox. Sony added 2 movies to the list: Jumanji: Welcome to he Jungle (164) and Spider Man: Far From Home (169).

 

Paramount

 

Paramount had a tough decade when it comes to this list. Currently, Paramount has 23 movies on the list, which is 3rd most of any studio. It's only trailing Disney (54 movies) and (Warner Bros. (27 movies). However, Universal has 19 movies, and is approaching fast. Fox has 20 movies, but it's no longer independent, so it will only be adding movies for Disney in the future. Paramount did add one movie to the list this past decade: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (161).

 

Lionsgate

 

Independent studios have a tough time adding movies to the list. The major studios are so dominant that it's tough for an independent studio to break through. When an independent studio does, it is very difficult to repeat the process by adding another movie to the list. There are currently 24 independently financed movies on the list. Lucasfilm has the most with 5. In the past decade, Lionsgate managed to add 3 movies to the list. All of the movies came from its Hunger Games franchise. No independent studio has 3 movies on the list from the same decade. Even Lucasfilm doesn't have more than 2 Star Wars movies on the list from a decade. Lionsgate added: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (108), The Hunger Games (112), and The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay- Part 1 (197).

Edited October 7, 2020 by Walt Disney

[dudalb]

Fascinating thing about Lionsgate is they are a successful studio, but not successful enough to shield them from hostile takeover attempts. Apparently Hasbro came close to taking them over last year.

 

With Fox, it was more a case that Rupert just decided he wanted out of the movie business.

Edited January 4, 2020 by dudalb

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

 

Saturday Night Live has been removed from the list.

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been removed from the list.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Walt Disney

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Top Gun: Maverick.

 

Minions has been removed from the list.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Walt Disney

[MrFanaticGuy34]

Is it just me or has Box Office Mojo never updated their ”Top Grossing Movies Adjusted for Inflation”-list yet? Monumentally huge blockbusters like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” & “Top Gun: Maverick” are nowhere to be seen among the top 100-list. 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/top_lifetime_gross_adjusted/?adjust_gross_to=2022&ref_=bo_cso_ac

[CaptNathanBrittles]

Using THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART I's adjusted gross of $378m as a baseline these should be in contention for this list.

 

THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) $705m

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1923) $669m

THE BIG PARADE (1925) $661m

BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1925) $591m

THE KID (1921) $512m

GOING MY WAY (1944) $489m

MRS. MINIVER (1942) $484m

THIS IS CINERAMA (1952) $467m

SAN FRANCISCO (1936) $462m

FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLL (1943) $462m

THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961) $460m

WAY DOWN EAST (1920) $458m

MOM AND DAD (1945) $455m

SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD (1956) $452m

THE GOLD RUSH (1925) $452m

PEYTON PLACE (1957) $444m

THE OUTLAW (1943) $443m

THE JOLSON STORY (1946) $439m

BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) $432m

CITY LIGHTS (1931) $430m

BOOM TOWN (1940) $429m

YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942) $426m

EL CID (1961) $423m

SPARTACUS (1960) $421m

RANDOM HARVEST (1942) $421m

THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943) $410m

HELL'S ANGELS (1930) $409m

BATTLE CRY (1955) $408m

OPERATION PETTICOAT (1959) $407m

ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND (1938) $407m

CINERAMA HOLIDAY (1955) $403m

SAYONARA (1957) $402m

SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (1944) $399m

THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (1944) $397m

MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) $389m

THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) $386m

BOY'S TOWN (1938) $384m

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958) $383m

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945) $382m

WHOOPEE! (1930) $381m

THE SHAGGY DOG (1959) $380m

BULLITT (1968) $380m

STAGE DOOR CANTEEN (1943) $379m

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1967) $379m

 

 

Edited October 19, 2022 by CaptNathanBrittles

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

 

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 has been removed from the list.

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Avatar: The Way of Water.

 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has been removed from the list.

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of The Super Marios Bros. Movie.

 

Mission Impossible has been removed from the list.

[Walt Disney]

The list has been updated to reflect the addition of Barbie.

 

Furious 7 has been removed from the list.