List of Highest-grossing Films - Timeline of Highest-grossing Films

Timeline of Highest-grossing Films

At least ten films have held the record of 'highest-grossing film'. The Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind spent 25 consecutive years apiece as the highest-grosser, with Steven Spielberg holding the record on three occasions and James Cameron—the current holder—twice. Spielberg became the first director to break his own record when Jurassic Park overtook E.T., and Cameron emulated the feat when Avatar broke the record set by Titanic.

Some sources claim that The Big Parade superseded The Birth of a Nation as highest-grossing film, eventually being replaced by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which in turn was quickly usurped by Gone with the Wind. Exact figures are not known for The Birth of a Nation, but contemporary records put its worldwide earnings at $5.2 million as of 1919. Its international release was delayed by World War I, and it was not released in many foreign territories until the 1920s; coupled with two re-releases in the United States, its $10 million earnings as reported by Variety in 1932 are consistent with the earlier figure. At this time, Variety still had The Birth of a Nation ahead of The Big Parade ($6,400,000) on distributor rentals, and if its estimate is correct, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ($8,500,000) would not have earned enough on its first theatrical run to take the record, although it would have been the highest-grossing 'talkie', displacing The Singing Fool ($5,900,000). Although received wisdom holds that it is unlikely The Birth of a Nation was ever overtaken by a silent-era film, the record would fall to Ben-Hur (1925) ($9,386,000) if The Birth of a Nation earned significantly less than its estimated gross. In addition to its gross rental earnings through public exhibition, The Birth of a Nation played at a large number of private, club and organizational engagements which figures are unavailable for. It was hugely popular with the Ku Klux Klan who used it to drive recruitment, and at one point Variety estimated its total earnings to stand at around $50 million. Despite later retracting the claim, the sum has been widely reported even though it has never been substantiated. While it is generally accepted that Gone with the Wind took over the record of highest-grossing film on its initial release—which is true in terms of public exhibition—it is likely it did not overtake The Birth of a Nation in total revenue until a much later date, with it still being reported as the highest earner up until the 1960s. Gone with the Wind itself may have been briefly overtaken by The Ten Commandments (1956), which closed at the end of 1960 with worldwide rentals of $58–60 million compared to Gone with the Wind's $59 million; if it did claim the top spot its tenure there was short-lived, since Gone with the Wind was re-released the following year and increased its earnings to $67 million. Depending on how accurate the estimates are, the 1959 remake of Ben-Hur may also have captured the record from Gone with the Wind: as of the end of 1961 it had earned $47 million worldwide, and by 1963 it was trailing Gone with the Wind by just $2 million with international takings of $65 million, ultimately earning $66 million from its initial release.

Another film purported to have been the highest-grosser is the 1972 pornographic film, Deep Throat. In 1984, Linda Lovelace testified to a United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on juvenile justice that the film had earned $600 million; this figure has been the subject of much speculation, since if it is accurate then the film would have made more money than Star Wars, and finished the 1970s as the highest-grossing film. The main argument against this figure is that it simply did not have a wide enough release to sustain the sort of sums that would be required for it to ultimately gross this amount. Exact figures are not known, but testimony in a federal trial in 1976—about four years into the film's release—showed the film had grossed over $25 million. Roger Ebert has reasoned it possibly did earn as much as $600 million on paper, since mobsters owned most of the adult movie theaters during this period and would launder income from drugs and prostitution through them, so probably inflated the box office receipts for the film.

The Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind, The Godfather, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. and Avatar all increased their record grosses with re-releases. The grosses from their original theatrical runs are included here along with totals from re-releases up to the point that they lost the record; therefore the total for Star Wars includes revenue from the late 1970s and early 1980s reissues but not from the 1997 Special Edition; the total for E.T. incorporates revenue from the 1985 reissue but not from 2002; the total for Avatar—as the current record-holder—includes all its income at the present time. It is unclear how much The Birth of a Nation earned, or indeed how much it had accumulated by the time it lost the record to Gone with the Wind, but its total estimated earnings as of 1932 are included along with its gross from its initial release. Gone with the Wind is represented twice on the chart: the 1940 entry includes earnings from its staggered 1939–1942 release (roadshows/first-run engagements/discount theaters) along with all of its revenue up to the 1961 reissue prior to losing the record to The Sound of Music in 1966; its 1971 entry—after it took back the record—includes income from the 1967 and 1971 reissues but omitting later releases. The Godfather was re-released in 1973 after its success at the 45th Academy Awards, and Jaws was released again in 1976, and their grosses here most likely include earnings from those releases. The Sound of Music, The Godfather, Jaws and Titanic increased their earnings with further releases in 1973, 1997, 1979 and 2012 respectively, but they are not included in the totals here since they had already conceded the record prior to being re-released. Jurassic Park has had just one theatrical run, so its total represents its entire gross.

The Sound of Music was the first film to earn $100 million in rentals, but Gone with the Wind would have been the first to generate $100 million in box office receipts through its reissues, while Titanic was the first $1 billion grossing film.

• RDistributor rental.
• Includes revenue from re-releases. If a film increased its gross through re-releases while holding the record, the year in which it recorded its highest gross is also noted in italics.