List of the highest grossing films

At $ 2.8 billion worldwide, the Avengers: Final movie is called the highest-grossing film, but such statements usually refer only to theater income and do not take into account inflation and other sources of income, which can make up a significant portion of the film’s income. So, taking into account inflation, the picture is overtaken by the previous Avatar leader, who in turn is inferior to Titanic , etc. But even if you do not take into account inflation, which is described in detail below, other indicators should be taken into account: “Titanic ”In addition to the $ 2.2 billion he raised in movie theaters, he earned more than $ 1.2 billion in sales and rental of video and DVD ^[1] . Although complete sales data for Avatar are not available, he earned $ 345 million from the sale of sixteen million DVDs and Blu-ray in North America ^[2] and a total of more than 30 million DVDs and Blu-ray worldwide ^[3] . After accounting for home video revenue, each movie earned more than $ 3 billion. Broadcasting rights also significantly increase the income of the film, since for a couple of television shows the film receives 20-25% of the profit from film distribution, which exceeds the income from pay-per-view ^[4] ; Titanic earned another $ 55 million for broadcasting on NBC and HBO ^[1] , which is about 9% of its gross income in North America.

If the film is commercially suitable, then its supporting income can greatly exceed the income from film distribution and home video ^[5] . “ The Lion King ” in total from film distribution and home video earned more than $ 2 billion ^[6] , but these figures fade compared to 6 billion earned from the sale of tickets for the production of the musical ^[7] . Merchandising can also be extremely profitable: the same “Lion King” sold $ 3 billion worth of goods ^[8] , while “ Cars ” that earned $ 462 million in film distribution, which is very modest compared to other Pixar films ^{[9 ]} , for five years from the date of release in 2006, goods were sold for $ 8 billion ^{[10] [11]} . Pixar was also a huge success in the film Toy Story: The Great Escape , which in addition to $ 1 billion in box office revenues brought nearly 10 billion for the sale of goods ^[12] .

This table shows the income of films from film distribution. Forty-three films earned more than $ 1 billion, five - more than 2 billion. The Russo brothers made three films, the fees of which are more than $ 1 billion; two of them - more than $ 2 billion. Two James Cameron films also raised over $ 2 billion. Christopher Nolan , Peter Jackson , Michael Bay , Joss Whedon and James Van shot two films each, raising more than $ 1 billion.

Background color      indicates films that are rented.

^XC Box Office Mojo stopped updating data for Frozen in August 2014 while he was still at the box office. The total amount shown here includes subsequent income in Japan, Nigeria, Spain, the UK and Germany until the end of 2015, but does not include income in Turkey, Iceland, Brazil and Australia for 2016, which amount to several hundred thousand dollars. The film was reprinted in the UK in December 2017 and earned an additional $ 2.3 million. The total amount is rounded up to $ 1 million to compensate for the inaccuracy in figures.

^{F8 The} fees of the movie “Fast and the Furious 8” are indicated according to BoxOffice magazine, and not from the Box Office Mojo website, since errors were detected in the data of the latter. For some time, the film’s fees decreased in several countries at once (especially strongly in Argentina), which makes the total amount noticeably different from the indicated one ^[14] .

^II Box Office Mojo updated the Pixar movie collection in August 2016, with the result that the final ^{installment of the} Toy Story: Big Escape cartoon is not $ 1.063 billion, but 1.067 billion ^{[15] [16]} . This means that the peak for the film was No. 4, not No. 5, as indicated in the source.

^{GY2 The} distributor mistakenly indicated for the “Lion King” the amount of $ 987.5 million instead of 968.5 million ^[17] . This means that Despicable Me 2 has finished its rental 1 position higher.

^PN “Finding Nemo” finished its rental one place higher at the end of its initial release after correcting inaccuracies. Currently, his total fees are $ 940.3 million, which means that in the original box office, the cartoon earned $ 871 million after deducting 3D reissue fees of $ 69.3 million. Also, the fees of the film “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” ^[18] , which is slightly less than that of Nemo, were reduced to $ 870.8 million.

^KDV There is no exact source of information for the film “Da Vinci Code”, since the difference between the stored copies in the Web Archive is more than three weeks, but based on the weekly income of the film ^{[19] [20]} , he overtook the film “Matrix: Reload” earlier, what did “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest” do ^{[21] [22]} .

^PE Box Office Mojo updated the foreign box office of "The New Spider-Man" after the end of the rental, which is why the film never reached its peak on the list ^[23] .

Due to the long-term effect of inflation , especially the significant increase in ticket prices in cinemas, the list excluding inflation gives much more weight to modern films ^[24] . The inflation-free list, which can usually be found in the press, is not objective, since it makes no sense to compare films with a large time difference, films from earlier eras will never appear on the modern list, despite higher commercial success when adjusted ^[25] . To compensate for the devaluation of the currency, inflation is taken into account in some lists, but even this practice does not completely solve the problem, since ticket prices and inflation are not necessarily parallel to each other. For example, in 1970, tickets cost $ 1.55, or about 6.68 in terms of 2004; by 1980, prices rose to about 2.69, dropping to 5.50 in terms of 2004 ^[26] . Ticket prices are also growing at different rates throughout the world, which further complicates the process of adjustment on a global scale ^[24] .

Another complication is the release in several formats, for which different ticket prices are charged. One striking example of this phenomenon is Avatar, also released in 3D and IMAX : nearly two-thirds of the tickets for this film were sold in 3D with an average price of $ 10, and about one-sixth of tickets were sold in IMAX with an average price of 14, $ 5 compared to the average ticket price of $ 7.61 for 2D movies in 2010 movies ^[27] . Social and economic factors, such as population changes ^[28] and the growth of international markets ^{[29] [30] [31]} , also affect the number of people buying movie theater tickets, along with demographics of the audience: some films sell far more children’s tickets, and tickets in large cities where a large part of the audience can concentrate are more expensive ^[25] .

The system for measuring the success of a film has many inaccuracies, mainly because historically the box office is collected by movie theaters and transferred to a distributor, who in turn publishes them to the media ^[32] . Switching to a more representative system, which takes into account ticket sales rather than fees, is also difficult because the only data available for older films is the sales results ^[28] . Since the film industry is largely focused on marketing films currently released, marketing campaigns always use inflation-free data, so it’s much easier for a modern blockbuster to put together a large box office, making it the “highest grossing movie of all time” ^{[26 ] [33]} , therefore, distributors have no incentive to switch to a more reliable analysis from a marketing or even noteworthy point of view ^[32] .

Despite the difficulties inherent in accounting for inflation, several attempts have been made. Estimates depend on the price index used to adjust gross values ^[33] and the exchange rate used to convert between currencies, which can also affect the calculations, both of which can affect the final rating in the list taking into account inflation. Gone With the Wind, first released in 1939, is generally considered the highest grossing film. The Guinness Book of Records in 2014 estimated its fees for inflation at $ 3.4 billion. Estimates of the film vary significantly: its owner, , estimated revenue in 2007 at $ 3.3 billion, a few years earlier than Guinness did ^[34] ; other estimates vary on either side of this amount, so, according to one estimate, in 2010 the film earned a little less than $ 3 billion ^[35] , another source claims $ 3.8 billion in 2006 ^[36] . Also, there is no unambiguous assessment of which film is the closest competitor to Gone With the Wind. Книга рекордов Гиннесса на вторую строчку поставила «Аватара» с 3 млрд $, в то время как по другим оценкам «Титаник» занял второе место с мировыми сборам почти в 2,9 млрд $ в 2010 году. Единственным фильмом, кроме трёх вышеуказанных, которому все источники безоговорочно присваивают цифру в 2 млрд и более является « Звёздные войны. Эпизод IV: Новая надежда »; по данным Гиннесса, он заработал 2,8 млрд на уровне цен 2014 года, в то время как другие в перерасчёте на 2010—2011 год оценили сборы с учётом инфляции в 2,2—2,6 млрд ^{[35] [37]} .

^Инф Расчёт инфляции осуществляется с использованием всемирного индекса потребительских цен Международного валютного фонда ^[39] . Индекс равномерно применяется к данным сборов, опубликованным в Книге рекордов Гиннесса в 2014 году, начиная с индекса 2014 года. Цифры в приведённой выше таблице учитывают инфляцию, которая происходила с 2014 до 2019 года включительно.

^Т Скорректированный общий показатель Гиннесса для «Титаника» увеличился только на 102 млн $ между выпусками 2012 года (опубликованными в 2011 году) и 2015 года, увеличившись на 4,2 %, как и другие скорректированные сборы в таблице, и не включив доходы от 3D-переиздания в 2012 году ^{[40] [38]} . В данных выше сборы в размере 343 550 770 $ от переиздания учитываются и корректируются по состоянию на 2014 год. Также «Титаник» был переиздан в 2017 году, но эти данные здесь не учитываются ^[41] .

^МФ Для фильма «Мстители: Финал» представлены округлённые до полных миллионов актуальные данные на 2019 год без перерасчёта с учётом инфляциии.

Throughout the 20th century, the tastes of the audience were quite diverse, but still some trends were revealed. In the era of silent cinema, war films were popular, and such films as The Birth of a Nation , The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse , The Big Parade , and Wings gained the most popularity. Their popularity went away with silent films by the beginning of the 1930s. With the advent of sound in 1927, the musical became the most popular genre, the most suitable for demonstrating new technology (in 1928 and 1929, musicals became the highest grossing ones). This genre continued to be actively profitable throughout the 1930s, but during World War II , war films again began to dominate, starting with Gone With the Wind in 1939 and ending with The Best Years of Our Life in 1946. ”marked the beginning of the popularity of historical dramas from antiquity during the 1950s, when cinema competed with television ^[45] :“ Camo Gryady ”,“ Shroud ”,“ Ten Commandments ”,“ Ben-Hur ”and“ Spartak ”became the most grossing films of his years; subsequently, after several high-profile failures, the genre began to weaken ^[46] . The success of " Merry Christmas " and " South Pacific " in the 1950s heralded the return of musicals in the 1960s: West Side Story , Mary Poppins , My Fair Lady , Sounds of Music , and Funny Girl the most successful films of the decade. The 1970s were marked by a change in the tastes of viewers for films: six of these films made either by George Lucas or Steven Spielberg topped the charts in the 1980s. The 21st century became more and more dependent on franchises and adaptations , when the box office movies were calculated based on the popularity of the existing series ^[47] .

Most often, Steven Spielberg’s films are found on the list, his films became the highest grossing films for the year six times (in 1975, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1989 and 1993). Cecil Blount Demille (1932, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1956) and William Wyler (1942, 1946, 1959 and 1968) are in second and third places with five and four films, respectively, while David Wark Griffith (1915, 1916 and 1920), George Roy Hill (1966, 1969 and 1973), James Cameron (1991, 1997 and 2009) and Anthony and Joe Russo (2016, 2018 and 2019) share fourth place with three films each. George Lucas shot two episodes of the Star Saga in 1977 and 1999, but also worked as a producer and screenwriter of the 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, and 1989 leaders. Frank Lloyd , King Widor , Frank Kapra , Michael Curtis , Leo McCarey , Alfred Hitchcock , David Lin , Stanley Kubrick , Guy Hamilton , Mike Nichols , William Fridkin , Peter Jackson , Gore Verbinsky and Michael Bay are twice listed; Mervyn Leroy , Ken Ennakin and Robert Wise each have one solo and one joint film, and John Ford is co-director of two films. Disney films are usually directed by a team: Wilfred Jackson , , , , Ben Sharpstein , Wolfgang Reiterman and Bill Roberts, all of which are listed on at least two joint work. Only seven directors are listed twice in a row: McCarey (1944 and 1945), Nichols (1966 and 1967), Spielberg (1981 and 1982), Jackson (2002 and 2003), Verbinski (2006 and 2007) and the Russo brothers (2018 and 2019).

Due to the release date, especially if the films were released at the end of the year, and the different release times around the world, many films can be rented for several calendar years, so the data shown on this list do not indicate the amount collected by the film for the year , but only show how much the picture released this year has collected. Also, fees are not limited to a single rental, as many old films are periodically reprinted, therefore fees are shown in parentheses after the original rental, outside parentheses are general fees, taking into account all the shows. Due to incomplete data, it may not be known exactly when and how much money some films earned, but, as a rule, the table contains a chronicle of the films of each year during which they earned the most. In cases where the ratings contradict the data of both films, and in cases where the film came out on top due to a re-release, the previous record holder is also listed.

Background color      indicates films that are rented.

In brackets (...) the fees after the original rental are indicated, outside the brackets are the general fees, taking into account all impressions; if the sum of all impressions exceeds the fees of the previous leader of the year, then several films are indicated.

^* Fees in the USA and Canada only

^D Rental income from distributors.

^N No modern source cites data for Intolerance, but The Numbers indicates a figure of $ 8 million in North America ^[51] . But it is possible that this figure was mistaken for a remake of 1954, “ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, ” which also earned $ 8 million at the box office in North America ^[52] .

^ВН Некоторые источники, включая The Numbers , утверждают, что самым кассовым фильмом 1926 года является «Алома Южных морей», заработавшая 3 млн $. Но ни один из современных источников не предоставляет данных по этому фильму, поэтому неясно, к чему относится цифра в 3 млн $. Если это кассовые сборы, то «Алома» является не только самым кассовым фильмом года, но и одним из самых кассовых фильмов за всю историю немого кино, и если бы это было так, это бы противоречило International Motion Picture Almanac и Variety , не включившим фильм в список.

^ЗВ Оригинальная трилогия «Звёздных войн» не включают доход от выпусков специального издания 1997 года; тем не менее в эту сумму входят доходы от других переизданий

^ГП Совместный бюджет двух частей «Даров Смерти».