List of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada
The following is a list of the highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada, a market known in the film industry as the North American box office and the domestic box office, and where "gross" is defined in US dollars.
Not adjusted for inflation
This is a list of the highest-grossing films in the U.S. and Canada, a market known in the film industry as the North American box office, or as the domestic box office within the U.S. itself. The chart is ranked by lifetime gross, and for comparison, the figures adjusted for the effects of inflation are also listed, using the U.S. consumer price index; a film's earnings from its initial release are also included to provide a basis for comparison between films released around the same time.These films fall outside the top 100 when considering only initial gross, and would be replaced by Home Alone, , and The Matrix Reloaded.
Adjusted for ticket-price inflation
This chart ranks films by gross adjusted for ticket price inflation to 2019 levels, based on data from Box Office Mojo. It was compiled by multiplying the average ticket price in the current year by an estimate of the total number of admissions. Where the number of admissions in unknown, they are estimated by dividing the nominal gross by the average ticket price in the year of release to provide an estimate. Admissions better reflect the popularity of older films, since they are less susceptible to the effects of inflation.Many of the films on this list were released prior to the availability of home video and have had multiple releases.
Rank | Title | Year | Est. tickets | Adjusted gross |
1 | Gone with the Wind | 1939 | 202,286,200 | $ |
2 | Star Wars | 1977 | 178,119,500 | $ |
3 | The Sound of Music | 1965 | 142,485,200 | $ |
4 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | 1982 | 141,854,300 | $ |
5 | Titanic | 1997 | 135,549,800 | $ |
6 | The Ten Commandments | 1956 | 131,000,000 | $ |
7 | Jaws | 1975 | 128,078,800 | $ |
8 | Doctor Zhivago | 1965 | 124,135,500 | $ |
9 | The Exorcist | 1973 | 110,599,200 | $ |
10 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | 109,000,000 | $ |
11 | ' | 2015 | 108,115,100 | $ |
12 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | 1961 | 99,917,300 | $ |
13 | The Empire Strikes Back | 1980 | 98,105,100 | $ |
14 | Ben-Hur | 1959 | 98,046,900 | $ |
15 | Avatar | 2009 | 97,309,600 | $ |
16 | ' | 2019 | 95,268,900 | $ |
17 | Return of the Jedi | 1983 | 94,059,400 | $ |
18 | Jurassic Park | 1993 | 91,664,200 | $ |
19 | ' | 1999 | 90,312,100 | $ |
20 | The Lion King | 1994 | 89,146,400 | $ |
21 | The Sting | 1973 | 89,142,900 | $ |
22 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | 1981 | 88,543,400 | $ |
23 | The Graduate | 1967 | 85,576,800 | $ |
24 | Fantasia | 1941 | 83,043,500 | $ |
25 | The Godfather | 1972 | 78,922,500 | $ |
26 | Forrest Gump | 1994 | 78,637,100 | $ |
27 | Mary Poppins | 1964 | 78,181,800 | $ |
28 | Grease | 1978 | 77,098,600 | $ |
29 | The Avengers | 2012 | 76,881,200 | $ |
30 | Jurassic World | 2015 | 76,789,600 | $ |
31 | Black Panther | 2018 | 76,272,300 | $ |
32 | Thunderball | 1965 | 74,800,000 | $ |
33 | The Dark Knight | 2008 | 74,506,000 | $ |
34 | The Jungle Book | 1967 | 73,679,900 | $ |
35 | Sleeping Beauty | 1959 | 72,676,000 | $ |
36 | ' | 2018 | 72,419,700 | $ |
37 | Ghostbusters | 1984 | 71,173,700 | $ |
38 | Shrek 2 | 2004 | 71,050,900 | $ |
39 | Spider-Man | 2002 | 70,626,300 | $ |
40 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | 1969 | 70,557,900 | $ |
41 | Love Story | 1970 | 69,998,100 | $ |
42 | Independence Day | 1996 | 69,268,900 | $ |
43 | Home Alone | 1990 | 67,734,200 | $ |
44 | ' | 2017 | 67,594,500 | $ |
45 | Pinocchio | 1940 | 67,403,300 | $ |
46 | Cleopatra | 1963 | 67,183,500 | $ |
47 | Beverly Hills Cop | 1984 | 67,150,000 | $ |
48 | Goldfinger | 1964 | 66,300,000 | $ |
49 | Incredibles 2 | 2018 | 66,299,200 | $ |
50 | Airport | 1970 | 66,111,300 | $ |
51 | American Graffiti | 1973 | 65,714,300 | $ |
52 | The Robe | 1953 | 65,454,500 | $ |
53 | ' | 2006 | 64,628,400 | $ |
54 | Around the World in 80 Days | 1956 | 64,615,400 | $ |
55 | Bambi | 1942 | 63,712,400 | $ |
56 | Blazing Saddles | 1974 | 63,239,600 | $ |
57 | Batman | 1989 | 62,972,300 | $ |
58 | The Bells of St. Mary's | 1945 | 62,745,100 | $ |
59 | ' | 2003 | 61,639,700 | $ |
60 | Finding Nemo | 2003 | 61,586,500 | $ |
61 | The Towering Inferno | 1974 | 61,375,700 | $ |
62 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | 2016 | 60,441,600 | $ |
63 | The Lion King | 2019 | 60,322,700 | $ |
64 | Cinderella | 1950 | 60,301,400 | $ |
65 | Spider-Man 2 | 2004 | 60,158,700 | $ |
66 | My Fair Lady | 1964 | 60,062,200 | $ |
67 | The Greatest Show on Earth | 1952 | 60,000,000 | $ |
68 | National Lampoon's Animal House | 1978 | 59,890,300 | $ |
69 | The Passion of the Christ | 2004 | 59,704,800 | $ |
70 | ' | 2005 | 59,324,600 | $ |
71 | Back to the Future | 1985 | 59,240,400 | $ |
72 | ' | 2002 | 57,725,400 | $ |
73 | The Dark Knight Rises | 2012 | 57,581,800 | $ |
74 | The Sixth Sense | 1999 | 57,579,100 | $ |
75 | Superman | 1978 | 57,384,000 | $ |
76 | Tootsie | 1982 | 56,903,900 | $ |
77 | Smokey and the Bandit | 1977 | 56,832,900 | $ |
78 | Beauty and the Beast | 2017 | 56,798,200 | $ |
79 | Finding Dory | 2016 | 56,158,100 | $ |
80 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | 2001 | 56,143,200 | $ |
81 | West Side Story | 1961 | 56,012,800 | $ |
82 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | 1977 | 55,922,700 | $ |
83 | Lady and the Tramp | 1955 | 55,734,900 | $ |
84 | Lawrence of Arabia | 1962 | 55,437,000 | $ |
85 | The Rocky Horror Picture Show | 1975 | 55,069,400 | $ |
86 | Rocky | 1976 | 55,040,000 | $ |
87 | The Best Years of Our Lives | 1946 | 55,000,000 | $ |
88 | ' | 2019 | 54,968,000 | $ |
89 | The Poseidon Adventure | 1972 | 54,902,000 | $ |
90 | ' | 2001 | 54,799,300 | $ |
91 | Twister | 1996 | 54,688,100 | $ |
92 | Men in Black | 1997 | 54,616,700 | $ |
93 | The Bridge on the River Kwai | 1957 | 54,400,000 | $ |
94 | ' | 2009 | 53,900,900 | $ |
95 | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | 1963 | 53,875,400 | $ |
96 | Swiss Family Robinson | 1960 | 53,808,000 | $ |
97 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | 1975 | 53,685,400 | $ |
98 | M*A*S*H | 1970 | 53,684,200 | $ |
99 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | 1984 | 53,532,800 | $ |
100 | 2002 | 53,468,500 | $ |
Factors in determining "adjusted gross"
No one yet has calculated a truly precise and definite referential adjusted gross for a film, since doing so would have to take into account most of the following:- Box office gross on initial release
- Ticket price at time of release, or its relative price to other commodities in a given year, in relation to general inflation and gross domestic product.
- economic conditions that may help or hurt the entertainment industry as a whole
- Population at time of release—to be used to calculate:
- Availability of films
- Competition of other media
- Total number of films in the marketplace at a given time
- Screen quotas
- Price differences: matinee and evening tickets, roadshow tickets, or difference between rural and urban cinemas
- Length of release