And I think that the movies before our lifetimes that are truly great are the ones that we still know and have heard of. Like, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Snow White, Bonnie and Clyde, etc. The only time I can think of where the box office isn’t indicative of how historical a movie is is for Citizen Kane, but that was largely because of Hearst. I mean, nobody has heard of How Green is My Valley, and yet that movie won Best Picture that year over Kane.

Oh, and Spielberg must be literally swimming in money. The guy definitely knows how to make and sell both high-brow artsy movies and those summer blockbusters (especially since he invented the whole damn category).

Personally, I think we all have a pretty good intuitive sense of when a movie is just really popular – Shrek 2, Transformers, I Am Legend, etc. – or when it is an actual seminal, historical touchstone – Dark Knight, Titanic, Home Alone, Jaws, etc. Unfortunately once we go back before our own lifetimes, there’s not really a good way to distinguish anymore. I wish I knew how!

also, can you imagine how much money Spielberg must have?

And yeah, I completely agree that adding the DVD/VHS/Laser Disk sales to the adjusted totals (also adjusting those sales for inflation) would give a far better, albeit still not perfect, picture. I mean, there are a bunch of variables that are hard to take into account – theater hopping, especially for R-rated movies; the advent of R-rated movies and their restrictions on the audience; renting or checking out the DVD/VHS of the movie; sharing the movie with your friends; watching it on TV; etc.

And I admit, the “people only see a movie more than once if it is absolutely amazing” idea is a bit false (I saw Superman Returns twice in theaters and in no way is that movie good), but the concept of repeated viewing equals a great movie does hold weight when it is a large percentage the original audience repeats viewings (like what happened with the Titanic and the Dark Knight).

And as for the bad movies out-grossing the good ones… I honestly don’t know what to say. I mean, I suspect that the DVD/VHS sales would help make up for it, but its still an odd phenomenon. Perhaps there should be two lists – Before Jaws and After Jaws – to account for the advent of the summer blockbuster, and then use the inflation adjustment accordingly. Because that, IMO, is one of the big turning points in the movie industry that had made it radically different today than forty years ago.

Specifically, I disagree with the idea that nowadays “people only see a movie more than once if it is absolutely amazing.” I’ll point you to this mostly unrelated but still very interesting article from the Economist (http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13167261) which points out that at the time of the last Oscars, only one of the Best Picture nominees had managed to gross more than Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. I’d also be interested in your view on a movie like Shrek 2 outgrossing ET, or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull outgrossing Raiders of the Lost Ark on the unadjusted list.

I agree that an look at the unadjusted list of movies that at some point were the highest grossing ever in the US (Birth of a Nation > The Big Parade > Snow White > Gone With The Wind > The Sound of Music >The Godfather > Jaws > Star Wars > ET > Jurassic Park > Titanic) gives a pretty respectable picture. However, it’s far from a complete picture. For some reason I can’t find a list of the best selling DVDs of all time, but I’d be really interested in an adjusted look at box office gross combined with DVD/VHS sales. I would assume that the more recent movies would receive a much bigger boost from the home rental sales. This still doesn’t account for the Cable (or now internet) alternative, but I think it would at least be a step toward a more accurate equation. Either way, I’m curious what you think of my points here. I hope I haven’t been annoying in this response, I was just interested in continuing a discussion on this topic, since it’s close to my heart.