Since the advent of the Blockbuster Era in 1975, when Steven Spielberg’s box-office juggernaut Jaws changed the movie industry forever, the significance of Hollywood’s annual summer movie season has grown exponentially. Today, studio fortunes — and, by extension, the fates of the high-profile executives running them — are now largely determined by the performance of films released during the lucrative May-August time window.
30 years ago, a $100 million box-office gross was enough to earn a film the title of “blockbuster.” Nowadays, that sum barely covers the CGI budget of the average studio tentpole release. But if you factor in inflation and the ever-increasing cost of ticket prices (the average ticket cost $4.69 in 1998; by last year it had climbed to $7.45), most of today’s so-called “blockbusters” don’t come close to matching the titanic tallies of the hits of yesteryear.
Below is a list of the highest-grossing summer movies of all time, adjusted for inflation (it should be noted that Star Wars and a few other titles have padded their numbers with recent theatrical re-releases):
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