Hollywood’s Bitch, Part 2: Die Bitchier

Some commentary on Tom’s original post lamented the fact that these “top grossers” lists always use unadjusted dollars in their compilations. Conveniently enough, Box Office Mojo has gone to the trouble of assembling (and, what’s more, maintaining) a list in “ticket price inflation”-adjusted dollars. No, that’s not quite the same as inflation-adjusted, but it’s at least fair to argue that by focusing on the specific inflation of movie ticket prices, Box Office Mojo’s list is more accurate than a simpler adjustment.

As before, I won’t reprint the full list here (I’ll assume you’re capable of linking there yourself), but I will add the changes from the previous list. I won’t bother with rankings, though it’s worth remarking how different the two lists are; not only are the films that remain on the list often in radically different places, but fully 49 out of 100 films differ. Do check it out the list for yourself.

Added to the previous list (in descending order of adjusted gross dollars) are:

• The Sound of Music (1965)
  
• The Ten Commandments (1956)
  
• Doctor Zhivago (1965)
  
• 101 Dalmatians (1961)
  
• Ben-Hur (1959)
  
• The Sting (1973)
  
• The Graduate (1967)
  
• Fantasia (1941)
  
• The Godfather (1972)
  
• Mary Poppins (1964)
  
• Thunderball (1965)
  
• The Jungle Book (1967)
  
• Sleeping Beauty (1959)
  
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
  
• Love Story (1970)
  
• Pinocchio (1940)
  
• Cleopatra (1963)
  
• Goldfinger (1964)
  
• Airport (1970)
  
• American Graffiti (1973)
  
• The Robe (1953)
  
• Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
  
• Bambi (1942)
  
• Blazing Saddles (1974)
  
• The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
  
• The Towering Inferno (1974)
  
• My Fair Lady (1964)
  
• The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
  
• National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
  
• Superman (1978)
  
• Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
  
• West Side Story (1961)
  
• Lady and the Tramp (1955)
  
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
  
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show* (1975)
  
• Rocky (1976)
  
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  
• The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
  
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
  
• It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
  
• Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
  
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
  
• M.A.S.H. (1970)
  
• Duel in the Sun (1946)
  
• House of Wax (1953)
  
• Rear Window (1954)
  
• Sergeant York (1941)
  
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)

Dropping off the list are:

• Meet the Fockers (2004)
  
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
  
• The Incredibles (2004)
  
• Monsters, Inc. (2001)
  
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
  
• Bruce Almighty (2003)
  
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
  
• Cast Away (2000)
  
• Signs (2002)
  
• Rush Hour 2 (2001)
  
• Mission: Impossible II* (2000)
  
• X2: X-Men United (2003)
  
• Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
  
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me* (1999)
  
• The Mummy Returns (2001)
  
• Armageddon (1998)
  
• Pearl Harbor (2001)
  
• Toy Story (1995)
  
• Men in Black II (2002)
  
• Gladiator (2000)
  
• The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
  
• Dances With Wolves (1990)
  
• Batman Forever (1995)
  
• The Fugitive (1993)
  
• Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
  
• What Women Want (2000)
  
• The Perfect Storm (2000)
  
• Liar Liar (1997)
  
• Jurassic Park III (2001)
  
• Mission: Impossible (1996)
  
• Planet of the Apes (2001)
  
• Hitch (2005)
  
• Pretty Woman* (1990)
  
• There’s Something About Mary (1998)
  
• Ice Age (2002)
  
• The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
  
• Apollo 13 (1995)
  
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
  
• Elf (2003)
  
• National Treasure (2004)
  
• Air Force One (1997)
  
• Rain Man (1988)
  
• Madagascar (2005)
  
• The Matrix (1999)
  
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)
  
• Tarzan (1999)
  
• A Beautiful Mind (2001)
  
• Chicago (2002)
  
• Three Men and a Baby* (1987)

In the end, I’m down a total of 14 films seen, down three liked, and down another three that I originally liked. So given the differences in this list, and my substantially smaller viewing percentage, it might appear that I’m not as much of a Hollywood hanger-on as it might have originally seemed.

Of course, that conclusion is plain wrong. If anything, this list — which deemphasizes the formulaic dreck of modern Hollywood — demonstrates the opposite. Here, where there’s a substantially larger proportion of real quality films, I’m falling short.

Time to start hitting TCM.