Biggest Box Office hit of all time–all things considered (Poll)

[Punishment]

To me all box office discussions begin and end with Star Wars.

2) Titanic

3) E.T.

4) Jaws

5) The Exorcist

[The Futurist]

Star Wars'77 was a freak ONLY in USA.So yeah :Titanic all the way.

[Shawn Robbins]

Probably Gone with the Wind if I had to choose one, but its really hard to definitively say. Impossible, really. I definitely wouldn't forget older movies like that and Snow White/Sound of Music in this discussion. Star Wars is a worthy contender as well, but films released during the Great Depression (like GWTW) achieved massive success despite the lack of readily available theaters and a truly shambled economy when expendable income was in short supply.

[vc2002]

all things considered means we have to count the OS take right? I mean, I dont think how the answer is not Titanic if we count OS LOL

[A Marvel Fanboy]

TITANIC

Edited January 2, 2013 by firedeep

[A Marvel Fanboy]

SW was just a US thing in 77'.GWTW had too much releases, its first run (WW) is not even comparable with SW IMO.

[peludo]

I thought we were talking about US only.US: Star WarsWW: Titanic

[baumer]

Star Wars'77 was a freak ONLY in USA.So yeah :Titanic all the way.

That's completely not true. Making 300 mill in 1977 overseas is huge.

[Punishment]

Worldwide list:1) Titanic2) Avatar3) Star Wars4) Jurassic Park5) E.T.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Punishment

[A Marvel Fanboy]

That's completely not true. Making 300 mill in 1977 overseas is huge.

1. You sure SW made 300M OS in 1977 ?2. Even 300M in 1977 is not comparable with Titanic 1.2B in 1997.Titanic all the way.

[baumer]

1. You sure SW made 300M OS in 1977 ?2. Even 300M in 1977 is not comparable with Titanic 1.2B in 1997.Titanic all the way.

Pretty sure about the 300 mill in 1977 and the 300 mill in 1977 is from about half the markets as Titanic, if that. The world wide market for films in the 70's was nothing close to what it is now or in the 90's. So all due respect to Titanic, which is one of my faves of all time, it is not better than 300 mill in 1977. In fact, try to find out what film at the time was the highest grossing film internationally. I'm pretty sure it was SW.

[peludo]

Talking about which is bigger OS depends, obviously, on every country. In my country, Spain, Titanic beats Star Wars. 11.3 million admissions against 6.9 million. Domestically I have few doubts that Star Wars was bigger than Titanic, but my impression is that Titanic was bigger than SW in most OS countries. In some of them, quite bigger, as happened here.

[baumer]

Talking about which is bigger OS depends, obviously, on every country. In my country, Spain, Titanic beats Star Wars. 11.3 million admissions against 6.9 million. Domestically I have few doubts that Star Wars was bigger than Titanic, but my impression is that Titanic was bigger than SW in most OS countries. In some of them, quite bigger, as happened here.

And that is possible, but we don't know.

[peludo]

And that is possible, but we don't know.

it would be a bit laborious...

[baumer]

it would be a bit laborious...

Yep. And getting stats from 30 years ago is tough in any market.

[Elessar]

I bet Titanic destroys Star Wars in the majority of markets. Here in Germany it's 8 m admissions vs almost 19 m.

[Jake Gittes]

Gone with the Wind, then Star Wars, then Titanic/ET/Sound of Music.I'd give a personal shout-out to Forrest Gump, which imo tends to be underrated as far as its BO goes. You almost never have a straightforward drama make $200m dom these days (The Blind Side is the only one I can think of), and FG did $329m 18 years ago, off a $24m OW. Those might be the best legs since E.T. Yet I'm even more amazed by its $350m overseas gross, because while the message is universal, the story is still fairly deeply rooted in American culture and history.

[The Stingray]

Star Wars - American phenomenonTitanic - worldwide phenomenonThat's my impression of it anyway.

[The Stingray]

1. Titanic (worldwide phenomenon #1)2. Star Wars: A New Hope (American phenomenon)3. Avatar (worldwide phenomenon #2)4. E.T.5. Jaws (1st blockbuster, 1st +100m movie)6. The Exorcist (1st horror blockbuster)7. The Blair With Project (1st micro budget + viral marketing = blockbuster success)8. The Passion of the Christ9. The Avengers (1st +200m OW)10. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (biggest 19th-33rd weekends)

Edited January 2, 2013 by Don Niam The Stingray

[Kalo]

as a Single film Maybe Titanic, but as a franchise as a whole definitely Star Wars, First one was the number film of all time it's Release by a large margin. it's been re-released multiple times.. is going to be released again in 3D .. they have the best selling movie action figure line ever.. thats still going strong today, it spawned multiple TV Shows.. (Ewoks, Star Wars Droids, Clone Wars, The Clone Wars) TV Movies. made dozen of video Games, including two extremely popular MMO Games. hundreds of books and Comics. most kids today still know what it is and watch it. has had about half a dozen Video/Dvd Releases. 6 Films.. and more to come. star wars spawned a legacy unlike any film has in history.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Kalo21