This is a personal pet peeve of mine because I have simply never understood the point of comparing movie profits not adjusted for inflation. 1 billion in profit is <i>not</i> 1 billion in profit, that's the whole point. People seem to occasionally mention adjusting for inflation like its some obscure comparison, but in reality these numbers are otherwise just 100% meaningless. Its like saying "This movie made more rupees than that movie made dollars!" OK, but who knows what that means if you don't know the relative values?<p>If tomorrow we had hyper-inflation and a bus ticket cost 1 million dollars, would anyone still be impressed by a billion dollars in profit? Would the mediocre comedies netting <i>trillions</i> at the box office be given the title of "most profitable movie" of all time?<p>A dollar in 1977 had the buying power of somewhere between 3 to 4 dollars now. $1/3 billion profit in 1977 dollars is a significantly smaller number.