Final Fantasy... Finally

Apparently 13 years after first setting voyage, Titanic (Dec, 1997) finally sunk to #2 in the universal box office to Avatar (Dec, 2009). But that's not all, while Titanic stayed in theaters for a total of 8 months, Avatar has only been in theaters for 6 weeks before it surpassed Titanic's former record. With that in mind, some Avatar critics are pointing to the notion that Avatar still hasn't yet achieved right to be called box office king; these parties believe that the king is still Gone With the Wind (Dec, 1939).
The metric used to declare GWTW as King is an adjusted box office, which basically takes into account the amount of tickets sold and then through some highly advanced economic formula developed by highly advanced ape like aliens, it adjusts the number to present day inflation numbers. After all the math, GWTW cashes a check of $1,507,252,900... yeah, perhaps another release of the movie should have been our economic stimulus package. GWTW also made 100 times the amount that it cost to produce, officially making it pound for pound, one of the most efficient movies ever made. The only negative in adjusting for inflation is that only one variable is taken into account when there are countless other variables that affect the box office such as population size, movie access (homes videos, movie rentals, download, and the black market), and entertainment (sports, TV, internet, etc.) competition to name a few.

Who the king then becomes is a matter of perspective. Avatar has the total gross record with inflation; but also has to take into account the increased entertainment competition and increased access to a given movie many different ways. Gone With the Wind is pound for pound the best and has the highest inflation adjusted gross; but did this in a time where there were less interactive entertainment forms and less movies created overall.

But sadly this Final Fantasy FINALLY comes to an end and I finally decide to not cop out on the question of who is box office king. My answer between our two above options is... neither, I'll take Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope over both previous options. It's #2 in worldwide adjusted gross and while it stayed in theaters for 44 weeks to claim that number, it also had to deal with media competition and only had one theatrical release as its re-releases came in the form of home videos and not box office numbers. Then take into account that it paved the way for the standard that all fantasy/action movies after it had to live up to and along with Jaws created the notion of the blockbuster film. So there you have it, this is my final fantasy... until next time!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5272713.html