James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar may have sunk Titanic to become the most successful film of all time in terms of the amount of money it has taken worldwide. However, it still has some way to go in order to become the most popular movie of all time with cinemagoers - according to these statistics.
Avatar’s success is a staggering feat considering it’s not a sequel or a remake, but its 'most money ever' box office triumph can be largely attributed to inflation, rising ticket prices and the fact most cinemas are charging extra for 3D movies, thanks to the additional cost of 3D technology and handing out 3D glasses.
If you ignore how much money a film has made, and base its popularity on the number of tickets sold, then Avatar is actually still a long way off number 1. These figures below (based on US cinema attendance) show it's actually the 26th biggest film of all time so far, having sold 76,421,000 tickets.Take a look at the Top 20 movies of all time according to the number of tickets sold, as ranked by US website Hollywood Reporter.
1 Gone With the Wind - 202,044,600
2 Star Wars -178,119,600
3 The Sound of Music -142,415,400
4 ET: The Extra-Terrestrial -141,854,300
5 The Ten Commandments - 131,000,000
6 Titanic - 128,345,900
7 Jaws - 128,078,800
8 Doctor Zhivago -124,135,500
9 The Exorcist - 110,568,700
10 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - 109,000,000
11 101 Dalmatians - 99,917,300
12 The Empire Strikes Back - 98,180,600
13 Ben-Hur - 98,000,000
14 Return of the Jedi -94,059,400
15 The Sting - 89,142,900
16 Raiders of the Lost Ark - 88,141,900
17 Jurassic Park - 86,205,800
18 The Graduate - 85,571,400
19 Star Wars: Episode I - 84,825,800
20 Fantasia - 83,043,500
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