So you think Avatar is the biggest movie of all time? No?, Well it must be in the top 5 at least?… Nope… how about top 10?… Still wrong. Avatar is actually the 26th biggest movie of all time.

It seems like every day now we get yet another story about how much money Avatar has taken at the box office, and how it’s becoming the biggest movie of all time. I usually skim over these stories, as statistics have never really interested me that much, but when it’s a film like Avatar, well it’s hard not to take a look. But what if it’s all BS?

Well okay, Avatar has made a hell of a lot of money at the box office, that’s true, it is the biggest ‘grossing‘ movie of all time, but ticket prices are more expensive than they were 30 or 40 years ago. So what if you look at the actual number of tickets sold?

Thanks to THR, here’s the Top 20 movies of all time … by number of tickets sold:

1 “Gone With the Wind” (1939) 202,044,600
2 “Star Wars” (1977) 178,119,600
3 “The Sound of Music” (1965) 142,415,400
4 “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) 141,854,300
5 “The Ten Commandments” (1956) 131,000,000
6 “Titanic” (1997) 128,345,900
7 “Jaws” (1975) 128,078,800
8 “Doctor Zhivago” (1965) 124,135,500
9 “The Exorcist” (1973) 110,568,700
10 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) 109,000,000
11 “101 Dalmatians” (1961) 99,917,300
12 “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) 98,180,600
13 “Ben-Hur” (1959) 98,000,000
14 “Return of the Jedi” (1983) 94,059,400
15 “The Sting” (1973) 89,142,900
16 “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) 88,141,900
17 “Jurassic Park” (1993) 86,205,800
18 “The Graduate” (1967) 85,571,400
19 “Star Wars: Episode I” (1999) 84,825,800
20 “Fantasia” (1941) 83,043,500

So where’s Avatar?

Avatar has actually only sold 76,421,000… so far.

So remember, when you hear these stories about box office takings, take them with a pinch of salt. As for Avatar, well I hope it does end up on that list eventually, it’s still a great film.

Via