To nobody’s great surprise, Gone with the Wind has emerged yet again as the most lucrative ever film at the box-office when figures are adjusted for inflation.
The most recent such chart, compiled by the good people at Bloomberg, completes the top five with, in order, Star Wars, The Sound of Music, ET: The Extra-Terrestrialand The Ten Commandments.
Titanic, the leader in the unadjusted chart, turns up at No 6. The Dark Knight, which last year fought its way to the No 2 spot in sheer cash takings, doesn't even make it into the top 20.
What else does the chart tell us about moviegoers' tastes? Nothing much. Virtually every major genre appears in the top 20. You'll find horror ( The Exorcist), musicals ( The Sound of Music, Grease), animation ( 101 Dalmatians, Fantasia), science fiction (four Star Warsfilms), historical romance ( Doctor Zhivago) and – well, just about – romantic comedy ( The Graduate).
A more surprising result emerged a few years ago when the British Film Institute compiled a chart based on the number of tickets sold at British cinemas. It transpired that the all-time champ for getting bums on seats was the nicely spoken, now nearly forgotten English star Anna Neagle. The actor managed four films in the top 50 and one, Spring in Park Lane, placed as high as No 5 (just behind Star Wars).
We hardly need to say which southern epic topped that list.
