Highest Grossing 1990s Movies

Getting progressively more and more out of date... I'll get around to it some day.

Agreed. That would also make comparisons between different countries meaningful.

If you visit the website Box Office Mojo, they do have charts that account for ticket price inflation.

I think, adjusting for inflation, Gone with the Wind is the best-selling first-run movie of all-time, followed by the original Star Wars movie. Rocky Horror has sold a ton too, but people don't generally count that one because it relies on the ticket sales of the midnight screenings that have been playing regularly around the country for several decades.

You can check out my quiz here for the top ten grossing films of all time, adjusted for inflation.

https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/97423/top-ten-highest-grossing-films-adjusted-for-inflation

I'm so sorry you had to undergo "Ghost."

Thank you!

The Matrix was a pretty huge surprise cult hit, but it only made $174 million in the US. It made twice as much money overseas and also cleaned up in DVD sales. The Matrix Reloaded made significantly more but that didn't come out until 2003.

And then second place is... Jeff Goldblum, I think.

Reservoir Dogs was unknown when it came out. It only gained a following after Pulp Fiction. Jackie Brown is great, but it is not the kind of movie that makes a lot of money. It's slow and very talk-y. Even the violence isn't really violent (especially by Tarantino standards). A couple of people get shot off-screen. The lovebirds don't end up together. Doesn't check any of the boxes (being great is not any indication of making money, from what I've gathered). Pulp Fiction is a classic, but it's got too much personality to attract audiences as wide as the movies on the list (most of which quality as "high concept" -- they attract all different kinds of people from all walks of life).

R-rated indie movies rarely gross high enough to make lists like these.

which one?

Sometimes they're in it just for the paycheck. Jeremy Irons made Dungeons & Dragons, after all. For that matter, Rob Pattinson has been extremely disdainful of the Twilight movies, and he ended up having to make five of those.

A lot of movies on this list require suspension of disbelief. I've seen the aftermath of a few tornadoes and I can guarantee you don't go through a storm like that and emerge without a cut, but I still enjoyed Twister. I'm usually able to enjoy a show in spite of an implausible premise but I know everyone doesn't choose to. (Like my husband, an RN who ruins every medical show I try to watch, telling me how incorrect everything is they are doing.) I don't understand why movies like Toy Story with talking toys, or a robot from the future are plausible, but movies like Armageddon with men landing on a comet aren't. I just mentally block out the silly parts and enjoy the rest. Or are people complaining about the acting? Whatever, I enjoyed most of these.

From that well known franchise,"Star of the Wars?"

It's rare for certain genres of film to make huge box office (comedies, romantic comedies, horror, "found footage," and sports movies, for example), but these types of films are also generally very cheap to produce, making them profitable enough to make more of them.