What movie spent the longest time at the top of the box office?
When cinema was invented in the late 1800s, even the most pioneering figures in the industry couldn’t have imagined what the medium would become. Transforming from a novel way to capture moving images into a mode of experimentation and storytelling inspired by theatre, cinema eventually gained colour and sound, with Hollywood becoming a highly profitable industry capable of churning out celebrities as well as films.
As the art form continued to develop at a rapid pace, with distinctive filmmakers emerging with their own unique style – take Alfred Hitchcock, for example – cinema became the dominant mode of entertainment. Icons like Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth, Katharine Hepburn, and Claudette Colbert emerged to widespread acclaim, dominating the box office during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
This was an era of studio-bound contracts and censorship due to the Hays Code, which limited the amount of violence, sexuality, and other taboos on screen. Hollywood looked wildly different from how it does today, but audiences were still the same—they wanted to watch good films and wouldn’t hesitate to spend their spare cash on a trip to the movies.
Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that a Golden Age classic is the highest-grossing film of all time. Gone With the Wind was released in 1939, and while other movies have since gone on to earn more, it still stands as the most successful film of all time when its earnings are adjusted for inflation. The classic film, directed by Victor Fleming, starred Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, and Vivian Leigh, and while it is sometimes labelled as one of the greatest films of all time, it has since been looked at much more critically.
It’s far from a perfect film, with its questionable depiction of race and even an incident between two characters which has since been identified by many as marital rape. That didn’t seem to put viewers off at the time of its release, however, and according to the Guinness World Records, when adjusted for inflation, the film has earned $3.44 billion.
How long was it in the top ten?
It is incredibly hard to find the precise number of years that Gone With the Wind remained at the top, but it appears that the film slipped from the ranking during the 1970s when movies such as The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars all emerged to huge financial success.
However, only Star Wars remains in the highest-grossing movies of all time list (adjusted for inflation), sitting at number four. Avatar and Titanic, both directed by James Cameron, make up spots number two and three, respectively, suggesting that audiences favour lengthy blockbusters. Gone With the Wind might have emerged in 1939 before the ‘blockbuster’ was introduced, but at over three hours in length, the film certainly qualifies as a blockbuster prototype, with its epic yet troubled exploration of love.
While movies like ET the Extra-Terrestrial, The Sound of Music, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens have all made their way into the top ten highest-grossing movies list, it seems likely that Gone With the Wind will always remain in the number one spot.
