Can you name the all-time highest grossing movies in the U.S.?

Gross (million)	Movie	Year
$1,606m		1939*
$1,416m		1977*
$1,132m		1965
$1,127m		1982*
$1,041m		1956
$1,020m		1997
$1,018m		1975
$986m		1965
$879m		1973*
$866m		1937*
$794m		1961*
$780m		1980*
$779m		1959
$761m		2009
$747m		1983*
$708m		1973
$700m		1981*
$685m		1993
$680m		1967*
$674m		1999
$660m		1941*
$627m		1972*
$624m		1994
$621m		1964*
$613m		1994*

Gross (million)	Movie	Year
$611m		1978*
$594m		1965
$590m		2008
$585m		1967*
$577m		1959*
$564m		2004
$562m		1984*
$560m		1969
$556m		1970
$552m		2002
$550m		1996
$538m		1990
$535m		1940*
$534m		1963
$533m		1984
$527m		1964
$525m		1970
$522m		1973
$520m		1953
$513m		2006
$513m		1956
$506m		1942*
$502m		1974
$500m		1989
$498m		1945

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All-Time Box Office Quiz

Rating:	Report a mistake
Created by: davidr -
Published: February 26th, 2009
Category: Movies
Plays: 137,372

Tags: Grossing Quizzes, highest, gross, box, All, million, office

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	HollywoodLeo:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 15:43 GMT	1 point
	Dark Knight needs a *. They released it a 2nd time last month.

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	GeordieGuitarist:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 15:56 GMT	4 points
	I can't believe Thunderball is the highest grossing Bond film.

	Jelle:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 15:56 GMT	10 points
	Too late I realised that all I had to do was name Star Wars episodes, Spielberg flicks and Disney cartoons.

	debbiedoesnothin:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 16:16 GMT	-4 points
	I thought for sure I typed Dark Knight - I must have done a typo or something.

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	frey553:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 16:33 GMT	6 points
	@slew: It doesn't really surprise me, it was one of the first ones I got. I mean yes it's a story from the bible but it's also an epic film on the same scale as Titanic. People who love ships weren't the only ones to go see that movie.

	frey553:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 16:36 GMT	7 points
	Maybe accept Star Wars Episode VI for Return of the Jedi and Star Wars Episode V for The Empire Strikes Back seeing as how Star Wars Episode I is accepted? That or change it so that The Phantom Menace is required to get Episode I.

	Etheridge2:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 16:40 GMT	6 points
	great quiz was having a conversation about sporcle last night with a friend and we were wanting this exact quiz...i log on today and there it is...is sporcle reading my mine now?? that is SCARY

	montecarlo:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 17:04 GMT	2 points
	i went through a stage of guessing all kinds of comedies... NEVER would've guessed the one 4 from the bottom. guess that comes from me being more biased to recent films (90s). sorry jim carrey and adam sandler.

	tobinw:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 17:15 GMT	2 points
	Wow, I would've never guessed 101 Dalmatians to be that high.

	JulieD:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 17:48 GMT	4 points
	I find it very frustrating that I went to the pain of writing "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" and it wasn't accepted.

	Kevin:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 17:51 GMT	5 points
	@Jelle - I realized that, and I still missed a bunch that fall in those categories. I mean, our first dog was a Dalmatian we named Mary Poppins, and I missed both movies. @JulieD: It wasn't accepted because that isn't the name of the movie. The rest were all "Indiana Jones and..." but the first one was just Raiders of the Lost Ark.

	Rackie:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 18:03 GMT	-1 points
	But maybe accept Indiana Jones and? I tried that and got confused. Also didn't think to try Shrek 2 after Shrek wasn't there!

	mister_pianoman:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 18:14 GMT	1 point
	@frey553 When Empire and Jedi were released, episodes V and VI were not part of their title (just as episode IV was not part of A New Hope). When phantom menace came out, it had Episode I in the title. I'm guessing that was their logic

	Bethannie:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 18:18 GMT	7 points
	What happened to Casablanca!

	checkmike:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 18:24 GMT	5 points
	I typed in A New Hope and didn't get it. It should be acceptable along with Star Wars

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	Kevin:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 19:13 GMT	16 points
	@John2: A) Anything that knocks Titanic down a couple pegs is a good thing, and B) adjusting for inflation gives a much more accurate depiction of the success of a film.

	davidr:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 19:19 GMT	9 points
	@John2: In 1962, the average cinema ticket cost $0.70; in 2008, the average ticket was about $7.20. That means that ten times as many people would have to watch a 1962 movie to take the same amount of money as a 2008 movie. Figures that aren't adjusted for inflation are almost meaningless.

	Jaspers:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 19:19 GMT	9 points
	Food for thought: Rocky Horror Picture Show has been shown in certain theaters continuously for 33 years, but not as an official release. 20th Century Fox doesn't know what kind of record smashing goldmine they're sitting on.

	davidr:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 19:20 GMT	1 point
	By the way, if you divide the quoted earnings by $7.20, you get an approximation of how many people have watched the movie in cinemas.

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	davidr:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 19:29 GMT	2 points
	@bethannie: Sorry — `Casablanca' wasn't gross enough to make even the top 100. ;-)

	Kevin:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 19:30 GMT	5 points
	And I'm just pointing out that this way is preferable. :-)

	TrueNorth:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 19:48 GMT	13 points
	I cannot believe that NONE of the Harry Potter films made the list.

	melissa:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 20:06 GMT	-1 points
	it's weird that some sequels are on the list while the originals are not - e.g. "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" is the third film in that trilogy, and neither of the first two is on the list; "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" is the second film in the trilogy, and the first isn't on here. "Shrek 2" is here but "Shrek" isn't. OK, maybe later movies bring in more $, but given that the #s are adjusted for inflation, it's suprising - I would have thought at least as many people would see the original movie in a series as would see a sequel.

	Tank:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 20:22 GMT	4 points
	Greaat, the movies quizes are always excellent!

	jessbowen:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 21:14 GMT	8 points
	Great quiz! I was surprised that The Wizard of Oz didn't make the list.

	Dorak:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 21:15 GMT	1 point
	Inflation adjustment is all well and good, but I like to see admission figures as well. Great quiz. I forgot to try Bond titles and the old biblical epics...next time!

	EgoTrippin:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 21:16 GMT	1 point
	I tried fellowship of the ring and two towers.. and since none of those worked i didn't try return of the king.. the same with shrek.. i typed shrek and since it wasn't in there it didn't try shrek 2 -.-

	Colomgirl2:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 21:17 GMT	3 points
	@ Melissa- I think what happens is that someone may not have enough of an interest in the trilogy to see it at first but when they notice that it's done well enough for a highly-anticipated sequel, they rent the first one or watch it through some other means besides the movie theater before going to watch the second/third.

	00ZeRo00:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 21:34 GMT	3 points
	Fantasia is one of Disney's greatest movies. It was considered one of the best until a few years ago when they took it off the list. Also, Casablanca, was released in a time where this genre was at its height. So it wasnt THAT special like Gone with the Wind.

	davidr:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 21:48 GMT	2 points
	@Jal D: These figures are calculated (appoximately) assuming that a movie ticket costs $7.20. So if you divide the reported earnings by that figure, you get an approximation of the number of people who watched the movie. For example, the #1 film has been watched by about 200 million people in cinemas; the #50 by about 62 million.

	ripcity:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 22:00 GMT	4 points
	Westwinger, Fantasia did flop when it was first released, and was considered Disney's first failure at the time, but found it's audience when it was released in the '60s.

	ruffnerj:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 22:27 GMT	3 points
	I've always loved this list--it's the purer box office record. You can just imagine how hard it is to top, with all the business that DK did last year, and it didn't even crack the top half of the list...

	klogg:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 22:40 GMT	3 points
	@ Joe: Well, it's only been less than a year since the Dark Knight debuted, so it's still capable of climbing higher on the list, yes? (but i agree w/ your main point)

	frey553:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 23:36 GMT	-1 points
	@klogg: It's been less than a year but I can't imagine that it's playing in many theaters anymore (Yes I know it was rereleased theatrically last month) so I would guess that it wouldn't move that much higher purely on box office earnings. Also I think it'd be interesting to have a quiz that uses the worldwide gross or maybe included DVD sales, I'm just curious to see if/how that would change the order.

	davidr:	Feb 26th, 2009 at 23:40 GMT	0 points
	@klogg: Yes, `Dark Knight' can move up the list. Indeed, since I wrote this quiz (maybe a month ago?), it's earnt another $2 million. A lot of these films earnt much of their money on re-releases.