In a world where movies now regularly earn $1 billion at the box office, it may surprise you to learn that only 12 films have held the title of the highest-grossing in history, with two directors accounting for five of them.

Box office data for some of the older pictures featured here is unavailable, and moviegoing habits have changed dramatically over the years. However, it’s still possible to piece together a timeline of the films that have achieved the ultimate financial accolade.

Read on to discover the movies that have worn the highest-grossing crown.

All dollar amounts in US dollars

The first entry on our list is also the most contentious. Released in 1915, The Birth of a Nation is a silent movie set during the American Civil War. It’s considered a landmark in cinema history for its pioneering filmmaking techniques that became standard practice in Hollywood. However, its deeply racist content marks it out as one of the most controversial films ever made.

Despite protests, the film proved popular. While exact box office figures are unknown, estimates suggest The Birth of a Nation had earned around $5 million by 1919, the equivalent of almost $100 million (£75m) in today’s money.

Re-releases and public exhibitions further boosted its gross in the ensuing years, with some cinema historians estimating its total earnings at $50 million, or close to $1 billion (£750m) when adjusted for inflation. It’s generally agreed that it held the highest-grossing crown for at least two decades.

A beloved classic today, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was seen as a gamble at the time. With a stable of successful animated shorts under his belt, Walt Disney had been plotting a full-length animated film for years, but he faced pushback at every turn amid concerns a feature-length cartoon could sustain an audience’s attention. Even his family tried to talk him out of it.

Disney persisted, even going so far as to mortgage his house when the production ran into financial issues. It turns out he was right all along. Snow White was a phenomenal box office success, pulling in an estimated $8 million by the end of its original run, the equivalent of almost $190 million (£142m) in today’s money.

It quickly became the most successful sound film ever, paving the way for countless Disney classics. While it would remain the highest-grossing animated feature for over five decades, its time as the highest-grossing movie ever was short-lived…

The Civil War epic was a global phenomenon on release, smashing cinema attendance records in America and around the world. Like The Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind's exact box office figures are unknown, but the most often quoted figure for its initial run (1939-1942) is $32 million, or around $650 million (£485m) in 2026 money. This sum represents what the movie’s distributors received, not what audiences spent on tickets, which has been estimated at up to $200 million ($4bn/£3bn today). 

Subsequent re-releases have pushed the movie’s lifetime global take past the $400 million mark. Coming up with an adjusted lifetime gross is a tricky business, but that hasn’t stopped various people trying, with Guinness World Records pegging it at an incredible $4.5 billion (£3.4bn) in today’s money.

It took an aspiring nun to finally end Gone With the Wind’s reign as the highest-grossing movie. And, unlike its predecessor, the bulk of The Sound of Music’s gross came from its initial theatrical release. A major hit with audiences, the musical’s original run lasted for over four years with box office records tumbling around the world. 

It became the first movie to take over $100 million on its way to an overall global gross of $286 million. Adjusted for inflation, that’s equivalent to almost $3 billion (£2.2bn) today. 

In today’s world of superhero spectaculars and franchise fare, it seems almost unfathomable that a movie like The Godfather could take the highest-grossing crown. Based on Mario Puzo’s bestselling novel, the gangster epic was adored by critics and remains a fixture on greatest-film lists to this day. Despite its numbing runtime, audiences loved it too.

The movie quickly achieved blockbuster status, and, like The Sound of Music, it surpassed the $100 million mark in a then-record time. Estimates suggest the movie grossed over $290 million worldwide, the equivalent of $2.3 billion (£1.7bn) today.

Now to the movie that changed cinema and the box office forever. The original summer blockbuster, Jaws quickly became a must-see event, thanks in no small part to the unprecedented marketing budget Universal assigned the movie. The studio flooded primetime TV with terrifying teaser spots (despite its PG rating), featuring that John Williams score and the now-iconic movie poster. Early word-of-mouth buzz from people describing it as the most frightening film they’d seen ensured moviegoers were queuing around the block.

Jaws took less than 80 days to pass The Godfather as America’s highest-grossing film. It held the number one spot domestically for the entire summer, with a September Gallup poll revealing that 21% of Americans had seen it. It was also wildly successful worldwide, racking up an estimated $475 million globally during its initial run, the equivalent of $2.8 billion (£2.1bn) in today’s money.

It launched a franchise, generated millions via merchandising and gave Steven Spielberg his first, but not last, entry on this list.

George Lucas’ Star Wars took the summer blockbuster platform Jaws had created and went interstellar, although it wasn’t all plain sailing to begin with. The movie arrived $3 million over budget and opened in a relatively small number of cinemas, but those people who did see it quickly spread the word. Estimates suggest the space opera went on to gross $775 million worldwide, or around $4.1 billion (£3.1bn) in today’s money.

Its groundbreaking visual effects and vivid world-building helped launch one of the most successful film franchises in history. It also changed the game when it came to merchandising and licensing, with Hollywood quick to take note and adopt the movie’s success as a template for blockbuster filmmaking.

The rivalry between close friends Lucas and Spielberg continued with the release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which snatched the highest-grossing crown from Star Wars after five years. Widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made, E.T. was a huge hit with moviegoers and enjoyed a long theatrical run, racking up several US box office records along the way, including eight weekends with a gross of over $10 million and 16 weekends at number one.

E.T. earned $792 million worldwide, the equivalent of $2.8 billion (£2.1bn) today, edging out Star Wars by $17 million. Subsequent Star Wars re-releases did push its total past E.T.'s. But based on initial-run grosses alone, E.T. held the record for the next 11 years.

In 1993, Spielberg did it again, knocking it out of the park with his dinosaur spectacular. Based on Michael Crichton’s bestselling book, with the author on board to adapt it for the screen, Jurassic Park boasted groundbreaking CGI, life-sized animatronic dinosaurs and a mammoth marketing budget north of $65 million.

Domestically, it raced to the $100 million mark in a record nine days. Internationally, it became the first film to gross over $500 million. All told, it racked up $978 million ($2.3bn/£1.7bn today) globally on its original release, reportedly earning Spielberg close to $300 million. To date, he remains the only director with three movies in this list, although another filmmaker is hot on his heels…

No stranger to ambitious filmmaking and sizable budgets, James Cameron took things to a new level with Titanic. With production costs of $200 million, the movie was the most expensive ever made at the time, with studio executives reportedly panicking that the long run-time would mean fewer showings and a lower chance of breaking even. They needn’t have worried.

Released at the end of 1997, by March of the following year it had become the first movie to earn more than $1 billion worldwide, eventually grossing over $1.8 billion ($3.7bn/$2.8bn today) by the end of its original run. Subsequent re-releases would bring its lifetime gross to a staggering $2.2 billion.

While several movies have passed the $1 billion mark in the ensuing years, Titanic would hold the record for the next decade.

In 2009, Cameron returned with a bolder vision and an even bigger budget. The director began developing Avatar in 1994 but shelved the project until the technology required to bring it to life caught up. Avatar’s groundbreaking 3D CGI graphics and motion capture techniques reportedly pushed the budget to $300 million, with a further $150 million earmarked for promotion. 

Released in December, Avatar grossed over $240 million worldwide in its first five days, hitting the $1 billion mark after just 19 days. By the end of January, a $2 billion worldwide gross was achieved for the first time in history, with the movie eventually earning over $2.7 billion ($4.2bn/£3.1bn today). Avatar would keep the record until 2019, with James Cameron movies holding the top spot for more than two decades.

While Avengers: Infinity War achieved a respectable $2 billion worldwide, Endgame picked up the baton and sprinted with it, earning just shy of $2.8 billion ($3.5bn/£2.6bn today) worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing movie ever. The culmination of the “Infinity Saga”, Marvel had been building towards the ultimate superhero ensemble for years, and moviegoers were unable to resist, pushing it to a $1.2 billion worldwide gross in its first five days.

Subsequent re-releases of Avatar have nudged Cameron’s epic over the $2.9 billion lifetime gross threshold. Still, with Endgame returning to cinemas later this year ahead of a new Avengers outing, there’s every chance it will snatch the lifetime gross crown too.

Now discover the highest-grossing Marvel movies