How Scarlett O'Hara Stole Titanic's All-Time Box-Office Crown
Even before he directed the box-office record holder Titanic, James Cameron worked with the impunity and swagger of a man who knew someday he would rise to the top of his craft. Today, with a new batch of adjusted numbers culled from the Hollywood record books, he can return to that underdog position -- at least until Avatar arrives this fall to restore his crown. But it has a long, long way to go to catch up with the Southern belle who surpassed him.
Bloomberg reports today that Gone With the Wind is the No. 1 domestic-grossing film of all time when adjusting for inflation, which lifts its 1939 total of $198.7 million to a mindblowing $1.46 billion in 2009 dollars. Star Wars trails it in second place ($1.28bn), followed by The Sound of Music ($1.02bn), E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial ($1.01bn) and even The Ten Freaking Commandments ($940mm). Titanic doesn't even rank in the top five, with its adjusted $600 million gross ($921.5mm in 2009 dollars) earning it a measly sixth-place finish just ahead of Jaws. The Dark Knight slumps somewhere out of the top 25, idling pretty much where it ended last year at $533 million.
Cameron is no doubt brushing off the revised numbers this morning, arguing that you can't adjust 11 Oscars (versus GWTW's eight) for inflation and trash-talking director Victor Fleming's notably downmarket visual effects. I think we can all give him that, as long as we can recalibrate Avatar's eventual billion-dollar-plus windfall for its 30-percent 3D/IMAX premium. In any case, let's not even think of the angry e-mail Michael Bay is probably sending Paramount right now.
· Gone With the Wind Is Top Grossing Film of All Time [Bloomberg via The Guardian]
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Comments
You have to be kidding me. Melanie is right. Besides GWTW, there was Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, Dark Victory, Goodbye Mr. Chips, not to mention The Wizard of Oz. Titanic didn't come close to having any real competition. Cameron had a good and titanic movie but it is NOTHING compared to Gone With the Wind in the scheme of history...when the playing field is totally leveled.
how is this new news?? Anyone who has followed movies for any amount of time knows that Gone With The Wind has been the champ... this report should have just moseyed on over to IMDB and found the information there, where it has been proudly on display forever!
I saw titanic once...that was once too many times
It's always annoyed me that every year, movies are "breaking" box-office records. I've always thought that records should be set by NUMBER of ticket sales, not the price of each ticket, but I like this adjustment for inflation, too.
"measly sixth-place". Yea, how lame is that, 6th biggest movie of ALL TIME.
Yeah, the whole "there was no home video" idea is kind of lame, because radio was a major competitor to movies at the time. In fact, many movies were also adapted for radio dramas, often with the same stars (there was a radio adaptation of Casablanca with Bogart but someone else as Ilsa, I believe), which meant that people could theoretically to get the same stories for free.
And contrary to what Karl Cooper claims, 1939 was one of the greatest years for movies, period. The winter Titanic was released, the only major competition was Tommorow Never Dies, a decent but not substantial James Bond effort. Early 1998 had such stellar movies as Spice World, Sphere, and Blues Brothers 2000.
And this is news how? It's been known all along that GWtW leads domestic box office when adjusted for inflation. There's nothing new here, only that the writer of this article seems to be a little slow. What's next, are we going to finally find out who shot J.R.?
You might see A Christmas Carol making more money than Avatar, depending on how good it is.
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