A Perspective On Hollywood Hype
Take note, Lloyd has put on his press hat for this post!
It is no secret that the latest James Cameron movie Avatar is making tons and tons of money. It’s recently been named the highest-grossing film worldwide of all time and the second highest-grossing film in U.S. box office history. It comes in behind another Cameron hit, Titanic.
But, if you judge the success of a film by the number of tickets sold domestically, the sci-flick doesn’t even crack the top 25! As a matter of fact, when looking at tickets sold, Avatar ranks below John Travolta’s Grease.
The bottom line is this, more money does not mean more moviegoers.
To get a true read on the popularity of a movie, it’s best to look at how many people actually saw the movie, rather than how much money a movie brought in. When looking at ticket sales for movies, we discover a very different story.
#1 movie of all time was released 75 years ago!
Avatar is #26 on this list.
Top Movies In U.S. History – Based on Tickets Sold
According to Box Office Mojo
- Gone With The Wind – 202,044,600
- Star Wars – 178,119,600
- The Sound of Music – 142,415,400
- E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial – 141,854,300
- The Ten Commandments – 131,000,000
- Titanic – 128,345,900
- Jaws – 128,078,800
- Doctor Zhivago – 124,135,500
- The Exorcist – 110,568,700
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – 109,000,000
- 101 Dalmatians – 99,917,300
- The Empire Strikes Back – 98,180,600
- Ben-Hur – 98,000,000
- Return of the Jedi – 94,059,400
- The Sting – 89,142,900
- Raiders of the Lost Ark – 88,141,900
- Jurassic Park – 86,205,800
- The Graduate – 85,571,400
- Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace – 84,825,800
- Fantasia – 83,043,500
- The Godfather – 78,922,600
- Forrest Gump – 78,545,600
- Mary Poppins – 78,181,800
- The Lion King – 77,231,800
- Grease – 76,921,800
- Avatar – 74,823,000
- Thunderball – 74,800,000
- The Dark Knight – 74,282,100
- The Jungle Book – 73,679,900
- Sleeping Beauty – 72,676,100
- Shrek 2 – 71,050,900
- Ghostbusters – 70,730,600
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – 70,557,900
- Love Story – 69,998,100
- Spider-Man – 69,484,700
- Independence Day – 69,268,900
- Home Alone – 67,734,200
- Pinocchio – 67,403,300
- Cleopatra – 67,183,500
- Beverly Hills Cop – 67,150,000
- Goldfinger – 66,300,000
- Airport – 66,111,300
- American Graffiti – 65,714,300
- The Robe – 65,454,500
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – 64,628,400
- Around the World in 80 Days – 64,615,400
- Bambi – 63,712,400
- Blazing Saddles – 63,227,500
- Batman – 62,954,600
- The Bells of St. Mary’s – 62,745,100
Of course some will say Gone With Wind has more ticket sales because tickets were cheaper back in 1939. While that’s true, lets remember the cost of living was much different. A movie was a treat! Last but certainly not least, it opened on a lot few screens too because movie theaters were not as prominentas they are today.
The bottom line is this. Just because a movie is making tons of money, does not mean there are more moviegoers sitting in theater seats. As the above list proves, that’s far from the truth.
Yours in top movie news!
Dr. Rus
Dr. Rus has 30+ years experience in the field of communication. He takes this experience, and his passion to encourage others to positively effect their environment, when providing insight and movie reviews. 
That’s really interesting. Here was i thinking that this was the best movie ever made, if i were to believe all the hype. It is a great movie though. There’s so many factors to take into account though when doing these kind of comparisons.