Titanic’s nearly 12-year reign as the all-time domestic box office champion fell today as Avatar, the other James Cameron pic, surpassed it with $603.8 million (Titanic’s take was $600 million). Industry experts had seriously doubted any film would ever best that record because of the shortened window between theatrical and DVD, but Avatar’s steeper ticket prices due to its 3D IMAX sales did the trick.




But it’s still no Gone With the Wind.

That’s right; if you actually adjust for inflation, Avatar is only #21 on the all-time box office list, while Gone With the Wind, 70 years later, has still sold more movie tickets than any other film in history. 

Here’s the real box-office champ list after adjusting for inflation: (data from boxofficemojo.com)




1. Gone With the Wind: $1,537,559,600




2. Star Wars: $1,355,490,100




3. The Sound of Music: $1,083,781,000




4. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: $1,079,511,500




5. The Ten Commandments: $996,910,000

6. Titanic: $976,712,20

7. Jaws: $974,679,800

8. Doctor Zhivago: $944,670,800

9. The Exorcist: $841,427,600

10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: $829,490,000

11. 101 Dalmatians: $760,370,300

12. The Empire Strikes Back: $747,154,600

13. Ben-Hur: $745,780,000

14. Return of the Jedi: $715,792,100

15. The Sting: $678,377,100

16. Raiders of the Lost Ark: $670,759,500

17. Jurassic Park: $656,026,500

18. The Graduate: $651,198,300

19. Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace: $645,524,400

20. Fantasia: $631,960,900

21. Avatar: $603,789,300

22. The Godfather: $600,600,700

23. Forrest Gump: $597,732,100

24. Mary Poppins: $594,963,600

25. The Lion King: $587,733,900

–Ellen

I’m still a bit bleary-eyed from this morning’s 5:30 a.m. call, but this year’s Oscar nominees have been announced. Avatar and The Hurt Locker, as expected, tied for the most nominations with nine each. You can see the full list and nab the ones already available for pre-order, and meanwhile ponder these surprises:



1) The Blind Side in the Best Picture race? Really?! Over Star Trek, A Single Man, Invictus, and a host of other films that made the top 10 lists other than this one? (Seriously, I would have been less surprised over The Hangover being mentioned instead.) My big fear here is that this nod will cinch Sandra Bullock the Best Actress crown over Meryl Streep,
whom, it must be said, I am really rooting for this year, because
despite her 16 record nominations, the woman last won in 1982. That’s
also only a 0.125 batting average. There weren’t just gasps this
morning upon the inclusion; there was also a bit of stuttering.



2) No Clint Eastwood in the Best Director category. The awards buzz for Invictus has been slowly fading since its opening, which had strong but not wild reviews. Despite its nods for Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, it was not only shut out of the Best Picture race but copped no nod for the evergreen nominee.



3) Maggie Gyllenhaal edges out Julianne Moore for Best Supporting Actress. There were no late-breaking upsets in the acting categories, but this was the first showing of Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart) in awards season over the four times-nominated Moore. Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds)
also had an outside shot, considering she got the SAG nomination
instead of Moore. Still, it’s a pleasant surprise for Gyllenhaal, who
always does great work.



4) What is The Secret of Kells? The producers of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Ponyo,
and many other overlooked animated films all scratched their heads over
the inclusion of this Irish tale about monks and Vikings.



5) The strength of The Last Station
in the acting categories, especially 1) No one ever talks about this
film, and 2) it also was not nominated for anything else. The Young Victoria’s Emily Blunt is left to watch at home (or perhaps present at the awards) with her adorable fiance as grand dame Helen Mirren instead takes her place in the Best Actress race. And kudos to Christopher Plummer, who, with a nod for Best Supporting Actor has received his very first career Oscar nomination at the age of 80.



–Ellen

As you may have noticed, TV owns the lions’ share of good scripts, good
parts for older women, everything the movies aren’t providing.
(Although staying on TV is tough in of itself).

So it’s no wonder film stars have been enjoying a career resurgence on the small screen: Alec Baldwin, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Bill Paxton, Toni Collette, Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Kyra Sedgwick, Gary Sinise, and Gabriel Byrne
are just a few examples. Even if they don’t want to commit to a series,
you’ll find the television movies/miniseries category littered with
pedigreed actors: Jessica Lange, Joan Allen, Kenneth Branagh, Meryl Streep, and Al Pacino, for example.




In the middle of her guest arc on 30 Rock, Julianne Moore (complete with Boston accent) has reportedly been courted for TV pilots, including a remake of Prime Suspect. Also on TV networks’ wishlists for new series: Maria Bello, Demi Moore, and Matt Dillon (whose younger bro Kevin has had much success on Entourage).



I scrolled through lists of Oscar nominees in the past decade and found
it hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t at least guest star on a TV
series since then. But who would you love to see make the full-gig jump
to small-screen glory? Perhaps Susan Sarandon or Uma Thurman in an edgy drama for Showtime? Kevin Spacey as the next nemesis on Dexter? Billy Bob Thornton in the next incarnation of CSI? –Ellen

The U.N. Assembly dedicated Wednesday, January 27, as International
Holocaust Remembrance Day, a date which marks the anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Several poignant, yet brilliant films
are set against the backdrop of this horrific era of our history. In
the hands of extraordinary actors and directors, these sensitive, yet
brutal movies have earned numerous awards and critical acclaim.






• Schindler’s List: Director Steven Spielberg won his first-ever Academy Award in 1994 for Schindler’s List and delivered a heartfelt speech paying homage to Holocaust survivors and “the six million who can’t be watching this.” Watch it here. 
  The story of one man’s quest to save the lives of more than 1,000
  Polish Jews who worked in his factory is beautifully shot in stark
  B&W. This was also the first movie I watched in a theater that
  called for an intermission (its run time is 195 minutes), yet Schindler’s List never felt as thought it were a long movie. The film does an incredible job of bringing you into another world.



• Life is Beautiful: Director/star Roberto Benigni, who won the Best Actor Oscar, deftly
  handles the tale of World War II Italy with a sprinkling of humor that
  doesn’t make the audience uncomfortable. Its lighthearted,
  head-over-heels love story at the beginning of the film is an effective
  contrast to the sorrowful ending. At first glance, Life is Beautiful 
  seemed like an odd name for a film on such a painfully, brutal subject,
  but trust me on this one: at the end, the title makes sense.



• The Pianist: This heartbreakingly beautiful tale features Adrien Brody in his 2003 Oscar-winning role as Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew living in German-occupied Warsaw. At times, The Pianist 
  was almost too painful for me to watch, but the audience in the theater
  stood and applauded at the end of this brilliant film. Director Roman Polanski,
  whose mother died in Auschwitz, received the Best Director Award. Say
  what you will about Polanski’s legal troubles; no one could have done a
  finer job directing this film.



• Sophie’s Choice: The always-awesome Meryl Streep picked up a Best Actress Oscar in 1983 for her portrayal of a Holocaust survivor. 
  Using flashbacks, the film delves into Sophie’s terrifying past, but
  fear and brutality cloud her present life in New York City with husband
  Nathan (Kevin Kline). While Sophie’s Choice always
  lands on various “Top 10 Saddest Movies” lists, it also provides an
  eye-opening look at male-female roles in post-WWII America.



• The Diary of Anne Frank: 
  The film, based on the book by the same name, follows the wise and
  courageous titular character (played by Millie Perkins) and her family
  hiding from Nazis in Amsterdam. It has moments where it strays away
  from the book, but that doesn’t ruin the story. Diary, which scooped up several Oscars in 1960, including Shelley Winters’ win for Best Supporting Actress, finally came out on DVD several years ago and it’s worth having in your collection.







And let’s not forget these notables:




• The Reader: Best Actress winner Kate Winslet plays a former Nazi prison guard on trial for war crimes..



• Holocaust: 
  The critically acclaimed and popular 1979 television miniseries follows
  each member of the Jewish Family Weiss throughout Hitler’s reign in
  Germany.



• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: This 2008 film tells the story through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy who befriends a Jewish boy in a concentration camp.



• Uprising: Jon Voight and David Schwimmer star in this 2001 TV miniseries about a group of Jews who rebelled against the Nazis in Warsaw.



• Nuremberg: 
  An Emmy-winning TV miniseries dramatizing the famous war-crime trials
  following the defeat of Germany in World War II, starring Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox.
  





–Francine Ruley