Tuesday, March 15, 2022

RETROSPECT: Adjusted For Inflation or, The 25 Highest-Grossing Films of All-Time


WRITER'S NOTE: This post was originally published on March 15, 2022, but was eventually removed since it was still in very rough form. It has been thoroughly reviewed, updated, and re-posted on August 23rd, 2022.

When reading through the list of the highest-grossing films in the U.S. and worldwide, it's important to remember--or at least consider--that the box-office only tells us how many people went to see these films. It doesn't tell us what those people thought about them. That being said, I've found that examining lists of films adjusted for inflation (that is, what they would make in today's dollars) is a more legitimate examination of the history of cinema and its popularity. 

In keeping with the theme of movies that have endured over the last century (and with the latest re-releases of Steven Spielberg's iconic blockbusters E.T. and Jaws in IMAX), the following is based on in-depth research of the top 25 films that have made the most money at the box-office (in U.S. currency), starting with number 1. Included with their respective grosses and ticket sales (as well as worldwide grosses for select titles, as of 2020) are critical and user scores or ratings from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Rotten Tomatoes (RT), and Metacritic. I've also included accolades from various polls conducted by the American Film Institute (AFI) between 1998 and 2008--which, since 1968, continues to "educate filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States." 


1. Gone With the Wind (1939, dir. Victor Fleming, MGM)

Est. number of tickets: 202,286,200
Lifetime gross: $200,882,193
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,850,581,586

IMDb critical rating: 97
Critical excerpt
Although this epic romantic melodrama is undoubtedly one of the most popular and beloved motion pictures ever to grace the silver screen, it is also arguably the most overrated. Gone with the Wind is a very good movie, perhaps bordering on being great, but its subject matter and running time (which is easily 60 minutes too long) argue against its status as a masterpiece. ~James Berardinelli, ReelViews
IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 ("Top 250," #158) 

RT score/critical consensus: 90% ("Certified Fresh") / Gone with the Wind's epic grandeur and romantic allure encapsulate an era of Hollywood filmmaking -- but that can't excuse a blinkered perspective that stands on the wrong side of history.
RT audience score: 92%

Metacritic metascore/user score: 97 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.3 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #4; 2007 poll, #6
-->100 Greatest Love Stories (2002 poll, #2


2. Star Wars (1977, dir. George Lucas, Fox) 

Est. number of tickets: 178,119,500
Lifetime gross: $460,998,507
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,629,496,559

IMDb critical rating: 90
Critical excerpt
Star Wars, set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” is the most exciting picture to be released this year — exciting as theater and exciting as cinema. It is the most visually awesome such work to appear since 2001: A Space Odyssey, yet is intriguingly human in its scope and boundaries. ~John Wasserman, San Francisco Chronicle [May 25, 1977]
IMDb user rating: 8.6/10 ("Top 250," #28) 

RT score/critical consensus: 93% ("Certified Fresh") / A legendarily expansive and ambitious start to the sci-fi saga, George Lucas opened our eyes to the possibilities of blockbuster filmmaking and things have never been the same. 
RT audience score: 96% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 90 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.8

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #15; 2007 poll, #13
-->25 Greatest Film Scores (2005 poll, #1)
-->100 Most Thrilling American Films (2001 poll, #27)


3. The Sound of Music (1965, dir. Robert Wise, Fox) 

Est. number of tickets: 142,485,200
Lifetime gross: $159,287,539
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,303,502,105

IMDb critical rating: 63
Critical excerpt
The 20th-Fox release will be one of the movies' all-time hits, one of the all-time great pictures. It restores your faith in movies. If you sit quietly and let it take, it may also restore your faith in humanity. It does this with infectious wit, with consistent gaiety, with simple and realistic spirituality, with romance of heartbreak and heartmend. This is set against the most beautiful scenery you have seen in your life. The Sound of Music is quite a picture. ~James Powers, The Hollywood Reporter [March 1, 1965] 
IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 ("Top 250," #243) 

RT score/critical consensus: 83% ("Certified Fresh") / Unapologetically sweet and maybe even a little corny, The Sound of Music will win over all but the most cynical filmgoers with its classic songs and irresistible warmth.
RT audience score: 91% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 63 / 8.5

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #55; 2007 poll, #40
-->25 Greatest Movie Musicals (2006 poll, #4


4. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982, dir. Steven Spielberg, Universal) 

Est. number of tickets: 141,854,300
Lifetime gross: $436,895,734
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,297,730,421

IMDb critical rating: 91 
Critical excerpt
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a reminder of what movies are for. Most movies are not for any one thing, of course. Some are to make us think, some to make us feel, some to take us away from our problems, some to help us examine them. What is enchanting about E.T. is that, in some measure, it does all of those things. ~Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times [March 22, 2002] 
IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 

RT score/critical consensus: 99% ("Certified Fresh") / Playing as both an exciting sci-fi adventure and a remarkable portrait of childhood, Steven Spielberg's touching tale of a homesick alien remains a piece of movie magic for young and old.
RT audience score: 72% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 91 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.2

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #25; 2007 poll, #24
-->25 Greatest Film Scores (2005 poll, #14)
-->100 Most Inspiring Films (2006 poll, #6


5. Titanic (1997, dir. James Cameron, Paramount/Fox) 

Est. number of tickets: 135,549,800
Lifetime gross: $659,363,944
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,240,054,754

IMDb critical rating: 75
Critical excerpt
With the ship, with its totality of people, Cameron is wizardly, creating an entire society threading through the various strata of a world that has been set afloat from the rest of the world. ~Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic [Jan. 5, 1998]
IMDb user rating: 7.9/10

RT score/critical consensus: 87% ("Certified Fresh") / A mostly unqualified triumph for James Cameron, who offers a dizzying blend of spectacular visuals and old-fashioned melodrama.
RT audience score: 69% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 75 / 8.4 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (2007 poll, #83
-->100 Greatest Love Stories (2002 poll, #37
-->100 Greatest Songs in American Movies (2004 poll, #14: "My Heart Will Go On"


6. The Ten Commandments (1956, dir. Cecil B. DeMille, Paramount) 

Est. number of tickets: 131,000,000
Lifetime gross: $65,500,000
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,198,431,667

IMDb critical rating: N/A 
Critical excerpt
Charlton Heston would forever be known as Moses and a bigger than life figure after his superb performance in this film.  It is this performance that allows both sections of the story to become believable. ~Chanan Stern, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die [Nov. 24, 2017] 
IMDb user rating: 7.9/10

RT score/critical consensus: 84% ("Certified Fresh") / Bombastic and occasionally silly but extravagantly entertaining, Cecil B. DeMille's all-star spectacular is a muscular retelling of the great Bible story.
RT audience score: 87% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: N/A

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest Heroes & Villains (2003 poll, #43 HERO: Moses
-->100 Most Inspiring Films (2006 poll, #79
-->10 Greatest Films in 10 Categories (2008 poll, #10 EPIC


7. Jaws (1975, dir. Steven Spielberg, Universal) 

Est. number of tickets: 128,159,700
Lifetime gross: $260,758,300
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,172,447,655

IMDb critical rating: 87
Critical excerpt
It was the complete nightmare that invented the "summer blockbuster", launched the genius on a global scale and delivered an astonishingly effective thriller built on a very primal level: fear. ~Ian Nathan, Empire
IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 ("Top 250," #206) 

RT score/critical consensus: 97% ("Certified Fresh") / Compelling, well-crafted storytelling and a judicious sense of terror ensure Steven Spielberg's Jaws has remained a benchmark in the art of delivering modern blockbuster thrills.
RT audience score: 90% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 87 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.7 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #48; 2007 poll, #56
-->25 Greatest Film Scores (2005 poll, #6)
-->100 Most Thrilling American Films (2001 poll, #2


8. Doctor Zhivago (1965, dir. David Lean, MGM) 

Est. number of tickets: 124,135,500
Lifetime gross: $111,721,910
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,135,632,932

IMDb critical rating: 69
Critical excerpt
It’s impossible not to be swept along and caught by the details: the pompous army officer falling into the barrel, the anarchist (played by a young Klaus Kinski) watching an old couple affectionately cuddling on the train, Zhivago himself suddenly shocked at his own haggard reflection in the mirror. Lean was hunting big game, and catching it. ~Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 

RT score/critical consensus: 84% ("Certified Fresh") / It may not be the best of David Lean's epics, but [Doctor] Zhivago is still brilliantly photographed and sweepingly romantic.
RT audience score: 88% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 69 / 8.3

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #39
-->100 Greatest Love Stories (2002 poll, #7


9. The Exorcist (1973, dir. William Friedkin, Warner Bros.) 

Est. number of tickets: 110,599,200
Lifetime gross: $233,005,644
Adjusted lifetime gross: $1,011,798,348

IMDb critical rating: 81
Critical excerpt
Rarely do movies affect us so deeply. The first time I saw Cries and Whispers, I found myself shrinking down in my seat, somehow trying to escape from the implications of [Ingmar] Bergman’s story. The Exorcist also has that effect--but we’re not escaping from [director William] Friedkin’s implications, we’re shrinking back from the direct emotional experience he’s attacking us with. This movie doesn’t rest on the screen; it’s a frontal assault. ~Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times [Dec. 26, 1973] 
IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 ("Top 250," #226) 

RT score/critical consensus: 84% ("Certified Fresh") / The Exorcist rides its supernatural theme to magical effect, with remarkable special effects and an eerie atmosphere, resulting in one of the scariest films of all time.
RT audience score: 87% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 81 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.7

AFI Accolades
-->100 Most Thrilling American Films (2001 poll, #3
-->100 Greatest Heroes & Villains (2003 poll, #9 VILLAIN: Regan MacNeil


10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, dir. David Hand [supervising director]; William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, & Ben Sharpsteen [sequence directors]; Walt Disney) 

Est. number of tickets: 109,000,000
Lifetime gross: $184,925,486
Adjusted lifetime gross: $997,168,333

IMDb critical rating: 95
Critical excerpt
There has never been anything in the theatre quite like Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, seven reels of animated cartoon in Technicolor, unfolding an absorbingly interesting and, at times, thrilling entertainment. So perfect is the illusion, so tender the romance and fantasy, so emotional are certain portions when the acting of the characters strikes a depth comparable to the sincerity of human players, that the film approaches real greatness. ~John C. Flinn Sr., Variety [Dec. 28, 1937] 
IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 

RT score/critical consensus: 98% ("Certified Fresh") / With its involving story and characters, vibrant art, and memorable songs, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs set the animation standard for decades to come.
RT audience score: 78% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 95 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.2 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #49; 2007 poll, #34
-->100 Greatest Songs in American Movies (2004 poll, #19: "Someday My Prince Will Come"
-->10 Greatest Films in 10 Categories (2008 poll, #1 ANIMATION


11. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015, dir. J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm/Disney) 

Est. number of tickets: 108,115,100
Lifetime gross: $936,662,225
Adjusted lifetime gross: $989,072,973

IMDb critical rating: 80
Critical excerpt
The rollicking, space-opera spirit of George Lucas’s original trilogy (you can safely forget the second trio of cynical, tricked-up prequels) emanates from every frame of J.J. Abrams' euphoric sequel. It’s also got an infusion of modern-day humor that sometimes steers the movie this close to self-parody—but never sarcastically, nor at the expense of a terrific time. ~Joshua Rothkomf, Time Out 
IMDb user rating: 7.8/10

RT score/critical consensus: 93% ("Certified Fresh") / Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series' former glory while injecting it with renewed energy.
RT audience score: 85% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 80 / 6.7

AFI Accolades


12. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961, dir. Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, & Wolfgang Reitherman; Walt Disney) 

Est. number of tickets: 99,917,300
Lifetime gross: $144,880,014
Adjusted lifetime gross: $914,076,766

IMDb critical rating: 83
Critical excerpt
It is the wittiest, most charming, least pretentious cartoon feature Walt Disney has ever made. ~TIME magazine [Feb. 17, 1961] 
IMDb user rating: 7.3/10

RT score/critical consensus: 98% ("Certified Fresh") / With plenty of pooches and a memorable villain (Cruella De Vil), this is one of Disney's most enduring, entertaining animated films.
RT audience score: 76% 

Metacritic critic/audience: 83 / 7.8

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest Heroes & Villains (2003 poll, #39 VILLAIN: Cruella De Vil


13. The Empire Strikes Back (1980, dir. Irvin Kershner, Fox) 

Est. number of tickets: 98,273,100
Lifetime gross: $292,753,960
Adjusted lifetime gross: $899,035,076

IMDb critical rating: 82 
Critical excerpt
The balance between action and mysticism in The Empire Strikes Back provides fascinating energy. It's as if the kids are given one set of delights, the bravado of battles and elaborate warships zooming through exotic space, and adults are given another, a layered explanation of what it all means in the grand scheme of things. ~Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle [Feb. 21, 1997] 
IMDb user rating: 8.7/10 ("Top 250," #15) 

RT score/critical consensus: 94% ("Certified Fresh") / Dark, sinister, but ultimately even more involving than A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back defies viewer expectations and takes the series to heightened emotional levels.
RT audience score: 97% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 82 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 9.1 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest Heroes & Villains (2003 poll, #3 VILLAIN: Darth Vader


14. Ben-Hur (1959, dir. William Wyler, MGM) 

Est. number of tickets: 98,046,900
Lifetime gross: $74,432,704
Adjusted lifetime gross: $896,965,723

IMDb critical rating: 90
Critical excerpt
An extraordinary motion picture, greater in dimension and significance than any similar film of our time . . . . More importantly, [Ben-Hur] is at the same time a highly rewarding dramatic experience, rich and complex in human values: a great adventure, full of excitement, visual beauty, thrills and unsurpassed cinema artistry. ~Jack Harrison, The Hollywood Reporter [Aug. 19, 2016] 
IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 ("Top 250," #181) 

RT score/critical consensus: 85% ("Certified Fresh") / Uneven, but in terms of epic scope and grand spectacle, Ben-Hur still ranks among Hollywood's finest examples of pure entertainment.
RT audience score: 89% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 90 / 8.4

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #72; 2007 poll, #100
-->100 Most Inspiring Films (2006 poll, #56
-->10 Greatest Films in 10 Categories (2008 poll, #2 EPIC


15. Avatar (2009, dir. James Cameron, Fox) 

Est. number of tickets: 97,309,600
Lifetime gross: $760,507,625
Adjusted lifetime gross: $890,220,657

IMDb critical rating: 83 
Critical excerpt
Avatar is all-enveloping and transporting, with Cameron & Co.'s years of R&D paying off with a film that, as his work has done before, raises the technical bar and throws down a challenge for the many other filmmakers toiling in the sci-fi/fantasy realm. ~Todd McCarthy, Variety 
IMDb user rating: 7.8/10 

RT score/critical consensus: 82% ("Certified Fresh") / It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron's singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking.
RT audience score: 82% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 83 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 7.5 


16. Avengers: Endgame (2019, dir. Anthony & Joe Russo, Marvel/Disney) 

Est. number of tickets: 95,268,900
Lifetime gross: $858,373,000
Adjusted lifetime gross: $871,551,653

IMDb critical rating: 78
Critical excerpt
Avengers: Endgame is easily the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most ambitious, emotional, and affecting film to date, somehow managing to tie up more than a decade of storytelling in a confident (and mostly coherent) climax - a hurdle that many other blockbuster franchises have stumbled over in their final runs. ~IGN
IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 ("Top 250," #80) 

RT score/critical consensus: 94% ("Certified Fresh") / Exciting, entertaining, and emotionally impactful, Avengers: Endgame does whatever it takes to deliver a satisfying finale to Marvel's epic Infinity Saga.
RT audience score: 90% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 78 / 7.9 


17. Return of the Jedi (1983, dir. Richard Marquand, Fox) 
 
Est. number of tickets: 94,059,400
Lifetime gross: $309,306,177
Adjusted lifetime gross: $860,486,744

IMDb critical rating: 58 
Critical excerpt
Brings things to an almost cheesy conclusion. Given the gripping, dark elements that creator George Lucas introduced in the two previous films, the third movie’s outcome smacks of PG-rated populism rather than artistic fulfillment. But the experience is still highly entertaining. ~Desson Thomson, Washington Post
IMDb user rating: 8.3/10 ("Top 250," #88) 

RT score/critical consensus: 83% ("Certified Fresh") / Though failing to reach the cinematic heights of its predecessors, Return of the Jedi remains an entertaining sci-fi adventure and a fitting end to the classic trilogy.
RT audience score: 94% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 58 / 8.4 


18. Jurassic Park (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg, Universal) 

Est. number of tickets: 91,799,700
Lifetime gross: $404,214,720
Adjusted lifetime gross: $839,814,255

IMDb critical rating: 68
Critical excerpt
For dinosaurs to rule the earth again, the monsters needed majesty as well as menace. And Spielberg got it all right. ~Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine [June 14, 1993] 
IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 ("Top 250," #148) 

RT score/critical consensus: 92% ("Certified Fresh") / Jurassic Park is a spectacle of special effects and life-like animatronics, with some of Spielberg's best sequences of sustained awe and sheer terror since Jaws.
RT audience score: 91% 

Metacritic critic/audience: 68 / 8.8 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Most Heart-Pounding American Films (2001 poll, #35


19. Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace (1999, dir. George Lucas, Fox) 

Est. number of tickets: 90,312,100
Lifetime gross: $474,544,677
Adjusted lifetime gross: $826,205,195

IMDb critical rating: 51 
Critical excerpt
Good enough, but only just. It's got the hardware, but neither the characters, the imagination, nor the resonance one had hoped for. ~Jay Carr, Boston Globe
IMDb user rating: 6.5/10 

RT score/critical consensus: 51% / Burdened by exposition and populated with stock characters, The Phantom Menace gets the Star Wars prequels off to a bumpy -- albeit visually dazzling -- start.
RT audience score: 59% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 51 / 6.2 


20. The Lion King (1994, dir Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff, Disney) 

Est. number of tickets: 89,146,400
Lifetime gross: $422,783,777
Adjusted lifetime gross: $815,540,983

IMDb critical rating: 88 
Critical excerpt
There are moments of fun and humor, to be sure, but the undercurrent is of a far more serious, "adult" nature. The Lion King is primarily about guilt and redemption. ~James Berardinelli, ReelViews
IMDb user rating: 8.5/10 ("Top 250," #36) 

RT score/critical consensus: 93% ("Certified Fresh") / Emotionally stirring, richly drawn, and beautifully animated, The Lion King is a pride within Disney's pantheon of classic family films.
RT audience score: 93% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 88 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.8

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest Songs in American Movies (2004 poll, #99: "Hakuna Matata"
-->10 Greatest Films in 10 Categories (2008 poll, #4 ANIMATION


21. The Sting (1973, dir. George Roy Hill, Universal) 

Est. number of tickets: 89,142,900
Lifetime gross: $156,000,000
Adjusted lifetime gross: $815,508,963

IMDb critical rating: 83 
Critical excerpt
The Sting has all the signs of a blockbuster. Paul Newman and Robert Redford are superbly reteamed, this time as a pair of con artists in Chicago of the ’30s, out to fleece a bigtime racketeer brilliantly cast with and played by Robert Shaw. George Roy Hill’s outstanding direction of David S. Ward’s finely-crafted story of multiple deception and surprise ending will delight both mass and class audiences. Extremely handsome production values and a great supporting cast round out the virtues. ~A.D. Murphy, Variety [Dec. 11, 1973] 
IMDb user rating: 8.3/10 ("Top 250," #108) 

RT score/critical consensus: 92% ("Certified Fresh") / Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and director George Roy Hill prove that charm, humor, and a few slick twists can add up to a great film.
RT audience score: 95% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 83 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.3 


22. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, dir. Steven Spielberg, Paramount) 

Est. number of tickets: 88,543,400
Lifetime gross: $248,159,971
Adjusted lifetime gross: $810,024,538

IMDb critical rating: 85 
Critical excerpt
Raiders of the Lost Ark is, in fact, about as entertaining as a commercial movie can be. What is it? An adventure film that plays like an old-time 12-part serial that you see all at once, instead of Saturday-to-Saturday. It's a modern Thief of Baghdad. It's the kind of movie that first got you excited about movies when you were a kid. ~Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune [June 12, 1981]
IMDb user rating: 8.4/10 ("Top 250," #56) 

RT score/critical consensus: 96% ("Certified Fresh") / Featuring bravura set pieces, sly humor, and white-knuckle action, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most consummately entertaining adventure pictures of all time. 
RT audience score: 96% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 85 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.9 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #60; 2007 poll, #66
-->100 Most Thrilling American Films (2001 poll, #10
-->100 Greatest Heroes & Villains (2003 poll, #2 HERO: Indiana Jones


23. The Graduate (1967, dir. Mike Nichols, United Artists) 

Est. number of tickets: 85,576,800
Lifetime gross: $104,945,305
Adjusted lifetime gross: $782,885,092

IMDb critical rating: 83 
Critical excerpt
The Graduate is not subtle in its writing off of the parental generation as hopelessly corrupt. ~Jay Carr, Boston Globe
IMDb user rating: 8.0/10 

RT score/critical consensus: 87% ("Certified Fresh") / The music, the performances, the precision in capturing the post-college malaise -- The Graduate's coming-of-age story is indeed one for the ages.
RT audience score: 90% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 83 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 7.4 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #7; 2007 poll, #17
-->100 Funniest American Movies (2000 poll, #9)
-->100 Greatest Songs in American Movies (2004 poll, #6: "Mrs. Robinson"


24. Fantasia (1940, dir. James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe Jr., Norman Ferguson, David Hand, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, & Ben Sharpsteen; Walt Disney) 

Est. number of tickets: 83,043,500
Lifetime gross: $76,408,097
Adjusted lifetime gross: $759,709,619

IMDb critical rating: 96 
Critical excerpt
A masterpiece of the art of animation. The concept and some of the episodes are tainted with kitsch, but there's no other animated film with its scope and ambition—it is, in Otis Ferguson's words, “one of the strange and beautiful things that have happened in the world.” ~Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader [Oct. 26, 1985]
IMDb user rating: 7.7/10 

RT score/critical consensus: 95% ("Certified Fresh") / A landmark in animation (and a huge influence on the medium of music video), Disney's Fantasia is a relentlessly inventive blend of the classics with phantasmagorical images.
RT audience score: 83% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 96 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 8.3 

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #58
-->10 Greatest Films in 10 Categories (2008 poll, #5 ANIMATION


25. The Godfather (1972, dir. Francis Ford Coppola, Paramount) 

Est. number of tickets: 78,922,500
Lifetime gross: $136,381,073
Adjusted lifetime gross: $722,009,337

IMDb critical rating: 100 
Critical excerpt
Overflowing with life, rich with all the grand emotions and vital juices of existence, up to and including blood. And its deaths, like that of Hotspur in Henry IV, Part I, continue to shock no matter how often we've watched them coming. ~Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times [16 Mar 1997]
IMDb user rating: 9.2/10 ("Top 250," #2) 

RT score/critical consensus: 97% ("Certified Fresh") / One of Hollywood's greatest critical and commercial successes, The Godfather gets everything right; not only did the movie transcend expectations, it established new benchmarks for American cinema.
RT audience score: 98% 

Metacritic metascore/user score: 100 (Metacritic "Must-See") / 9.2

AFI Accolades
-->100 Greatest American Films (1998 poll, #3; 2007 poll, #2
-->25 Greatest Film Scores (2005 poll, #5)
-->50 Greatest American Screen Legends (1999 poll, Marlon Brando #4 MEN

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