Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales)

This article ranks the best movies of all-time across all genres based on inflation-adjusted domestic gross box office sales, according to Boxoffice, the official publication of the National Association of Theatre Owners.

The ten biggest box office hits of all-time have collectively earned more than $11 billion. Comprising six different primary genres, these blockbusters have collected 50 Academy Awards. Four of these films are rated G, three PG, and three PG-13. Two people have directed and/or produced four of these ten films.

Listed below for each of the best movies of all-time are inflation-adjusted gross box office sales, primary genres, directors, producers, writers, main casts, ratings, running times, distributors, and number of Academy Awards earned.

After reading "Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales)," return here to read "Best Action Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales)," "Best Animated Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales)," "Best_Comedy_Movies_of_All_Time_(Box_Office_Sales)," "Best Drama Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales)," and "Best Romance Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales)."

1. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): Gone with the Wind (1939)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $1.84 billion
Primary Genre: Epic
Director: Victor Fleming
Producer: David Selznick
Writer: Sidney Howard
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Ernest Haller, and Max Steiner
Rating: G
Running time: 3 hours, 58 minutes
Distributor: MGM
Academy Awards: 10

2. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): Star Wars (1977)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $1.34 billion
Primary Genre: Epic
Director: George Lucas
Producer: Gary Kurtz
Writer: George Lucas
Main Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, David Prowse, Peter Cushing, Alec Guiness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew
Rating: PG
Running time: 2 hours, 1 minute
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Academy Awards: 7

3. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): The Sound of Music (1965)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $1.21 billion
Primary Genre: Musical
Director: Robert Wise
Producer: Robert Wise, Saul Chaplin
Writer: Ernest Lehman, Howard Lindsay, Russel Crouse
Main Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, Heather Menzies, Nicholas Hammond, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright
Rating: G
Running time: 2 hours, 54 minutes
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Academy Awards: 5

4. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $1.1 billion
Primary Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Steven Spielberg
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg
Writer: Melissa Mathison
Main Cast: Drew Barrymore
Rating: PG
Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Academy Awards: 4

5. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): Titanic (1997)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $1.03 billion
Primary Genre: Romance
Director: James Cameron
Producers: Rae Sanchini, James Cameron, Pamela Easley, Jon Landau, Sharon Mann, Al Giddings, Grant Hill
Writer: James Cameron
Main Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, Kathy Bates
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 3 hours, 14 minutes
Distributors: Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox
Academy Awards: 11

6. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): The Ten Commandments (1956)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $1.03 billion
Primary Genre: Epic
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Producers: Henry Wilcoxon, Cecil B. DeMille
Writers: Jack Gariss, Jesse Lasky Jr., Aeneas MacKenzie, Dorothy Clarke Wilson, A.E. Southon, J.H. Ingraham, Frederic M. Frank
Main Cast: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Martha Scott, Nina Foch, Cedric Hardwicke, John Derek, Debra Paget, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Edward G. Robinson.
Rating: G
Running time: 3 hours, 40 minutes
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Academy Awards: 1

7. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): Jaws (1975)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $991 million
Principal Genre: Horror
Director: Steven Speilberg
Producer: David Brown, Richard D. Zanuck
Writers: John Milius, Robert Shaw, Peter Beachley, Carl Gottlieb, Howard Sackler
Main Cast: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gray, Murray Hamilton, Jonathan Filley, Susan Blackline, Jeffrey Kramer, Carl Gottlieb
Rating: PG
Running time: 2 hour, 5 minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Academy Awards: 3

8. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $934 million
Principal Genre: Animation
Director: David Hand
Producer: Walt Disney
Writers: Webb Smith, Dorothy Ann Black, Merrill De Maris, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Otto Englander, Richard Creedon, Ted Sears, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
Main Cast: Adriana Caselotti, Lucille La Verne, Harry Stockwell, Pinto Colvig, Roy Atwell, James MacDonald, Otis Harlan, Billy Gilbert, Marion Darlington, Eddie Collins
Rating: G
Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes
Distributor: Disney/RKO
Academy Awards: 1

9. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $800 million
Principal Genre: Romance
Director: David Lean
Producer: Arvid Griffin, Carlo Ponti
Writers: Boris Pasternick, Robert Bolt
Main Cast: Omar Shariff, Jeffrey Rockland, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay, Siobhan McKenna, Ralph Richardson, Rita Tussingham
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 3 hours, 17 minutes
Distributor: MGM
Academy Awards: 5


10. Best Movies of All Time (Box Office Sales): Avatar (2009)

Adjusted gross box office sales: $796 million
Principal Genre: Science Fiction
Director: James Cameron
Producer: James Cameron, Jon Landau
Writer: James Cameron
Main Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver
Rating:PG-13
Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Academy Awards: 3

Source(s):

" All Time Domestic Gross (Adjusted) ," BOXOFFICE.COM
" Search ," IMDb
" The Official Academy Awards Database ," The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences