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Top 5 highest grossing movies of all time

By WiC Staff

Image: Avatar/20th Century Fox
Image: Avatar/20th Century Fox /
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Avatar: The Way of Water is coming! And it needs to be one of the highest grossing movies of all time to succeed. What is its competition? That comes direct from director James Cameron, who estimates that it needs to be “the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history” just to break even.

So what’s it’s competition? Here are the top 5 highest grossing movies ever, according to Box Office Mojo:

  1. Avatar, $2,922,917,914 (2009)
  2. Avengers: Endgame, $2,797,501,328 (2019)
  3. Titanic, $2,201,647,264 (1997)
  4. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, $2,069,521,700 (2015)
  5. Avengers: Infinity War, $2,048,359,754 (2018)

Yep, Cameron’s own Avatar is the top highest grossing movie of all time. Avatar 2 has some big shoes to fill.

Top 5 highest grossing movies of all time, adjusted for inflation

But looking at the top highest grossing movies of all time doesn’t tell the whole story. Movies have been around for a long time, and the value of money has inflated over the decades.

As it happens, Box Office Mojo also has a list of the top highest grossing movies of all time adjusted for inflation. The dollar figures below represent the adjusted lifetime gross for the movies. Take a look:

  1. Gone with the Wind, $1,850,581,586 (1939)
  2. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, $1,629,496,559 (1977)
  3. The Sound of Music, $1,303,502,105 (1965)
  4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, $1,297,730,421 (1982)
  5. Titanic, $1,240,054,754 (1997)

The first Avatar movie doesn’t even break into the top five on this one, nor the top 10. Adjusted for inflation, it comes in at number 15.

I’ll admit that I don’t completely understand the way Box Office Mojo accounts for inflation, although the explain themselves here if you want to learn more. In any case, Avatar: The Way of Water comes out in theaters on December 16.

dark. Next. When will Avatar: The Way of Water be available on streaming?

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