Okay, it’s easy to find the information for greatest box office grossing movies. But is there anywhere that accounts for the dollar inflation. It’s somewhat demeaning to see that the movie “Twister” ranks higher than “Ben-Hur”. So how would they run side to side? hmmm…
Equally easy to find grosses adjusted for inflation. Just google for “box office adjusted inflation” (no quotes) and hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted/
Ben Hur is at 13, sandwiched between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Here is another listing from a site I like:
Top Grossing Films of All Time in the U.S. Adjusted for Inflation
In this listing, Ben-Hur is 11th. Its $70 million actual box-office gross is calculated to have an adjusted gross of $607.9 million in 2004 dollars. Titanic is #6; its $600.8 million actual gross is adjusted into today’s dollars at $747.4.
They obviously “adjust” dollars differently than the site linked in daffyduck’s post, as Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in this list are 14 and 15.
The number 1 film of all time adjusted for inflation? Gone With the Wind.
The highest movie of the past year is LOTR: ROTK at 38th place on the list, even without any “adjusting.”
Passion of the Christ is already up to the 77th highest grossing of all time adjusted for inflation, and I see they have not updated the grosses over the last couple of weeks. At the end of this past weekend, the total gross of Passion of the Christ would place it at about #60. In non-adjusted numbers, Passion of the Christ will pass Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone this week to number 11 all-time, just after Forrest Gump.
And to finish the stats on the two films you used for your example, Twister had a very good box-office run when it was released in 1996: $241.7 million.
On the adjusted for inflation list, it is number 63 of all time (with an adjusted gross of $312.2 million).
On the non-adjusted list, it is the number 33 highest US-grossing film of all-time.
How accurate are those ‘inflation considered’ numbers? Rather, I’m sure the list is accurate, but is there a way a website which details how many people actually went to said movie? For instance, if the price of a movie hasn’t been proportional to the inflation rate, that would skew the numbers right there (if one were using them as a gauge of popularity).
Your question is 100% on the money, no pun intended. Inflation is not accounted for in these figures. Whenever I hear such movie stats quoted, I cringe. I know it is skewed to make the numbers look as big as possible for the latest hot movie to come along…to look as good as possible.
Now, when economists claim inflation hasn’t risen…do they account for shrinking packaging? Like, some ice cream now sells in less than half-gallon sizes? Or, a pack of gum went from 7 down to 5 sticks? (Recently, it jumped from .25 to .30 a pack, as well.) I don’t think this is ever factored into the economic picture as containers get smaller and smaller for the same price. Ouch!
They don’t expect Americans to be critical thinkers…
- Jinx
Reminds of a rant that ManCow had. To really get a good idea of how popular a movie was, you have to count AIS (Asses in seats), not revenue. Of course, movies years ago, didn’t have much of an audience due to the amount of theaters back in the day. Mor theaters, more viewers.
At the how to figure your benefit link here http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/retirebenefit1.html
It has 1964 earnings multilpied by a factor of abt.7. Can’t find an earlier year,but those SS figures are probably a good reflection of the average man’s purchasing power and a decent guide for an inflation adjusted figure for most commodities.
In those long ago days I remember gas at about 26.9,now at over $2 seems about right.
Also by looking at those years it seems about every 4 or 5 years that index factor increases by 1,making a 1939 factor of about 11-13 (GWTW).
In the fifties (early to late) most first run theatres ran from about 50c thru abt.85c.,with the palaces on B’Way a little higher.
I don’t even know what today’s tariff is,it’s been a long time since I needed to go to one.