With the recent trend of blockbuster films (4 topped 299 million in the past 10 months) it got me to thinking about the all-time highest grossing movies. What got them there? First of all here is one place to find the current list. they really the best films? Titanic is clearly the top dog at 600M, being as it was a look at a fascinating tragedy plus a teenage love story that 13 year olds girls say 20 times it makes sense. The Star Wars series takes 5 of the top 15 spots, proving that geeks can push a movie over the top, especially since 3 of them were re-released.

Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings prove that books can turn into monster movies. Spider Man proved that comics are viable mega blockbusters, as the only other comic top 50 are Batman (#21) and Batman Forever (#50) which is about to be ousted by Goldmember. ET and The Lion King are classic family fun, Jurassic Park is possibly the most original concept of the past 20 years. Forrest Gump was pretty original too, it's hard not to root for him. To me the highest rank surprise is #12 Independence Day which was not a great movie and simply got the "wow aliens are attacking!" crowd.

But with all of that, why are they still going by gross ticket sales? How about number of tickets sold, which makes inflation adjustments unnecessary and doesn't punish a movie for appealing to senior citizens or children, since both pay less for seats. I recently laid down for a ticket, which pretty much explains why the past 10 have produced 8 of the top 10, with both the exceptions have been re-released to earn more money.

Having seen 221 of the top 250 I can say that many made way too much money. Monster, Inc (255M) was a good movie, but #20 all-time? Toy Story 2 (245M) at #23? Too many kids are going to movies, sheesh. Any favorites for movies that way too many dummies went to see?