Box Office Mojo has questioned the claims "Avatar" is the best selling film of all time. When adjusted for inflation it is not. Hollywood has raised ticked prices each year to make up for the fact that less people are going to the movie theaters.
Movie tickets used to be $4.50 in the 1980's and now the price has more than doubled to $10.50. They are overcharging the public, while bragging of alleged record-breaking revenues. Some studios also inflate their numbers, to steal the number one on Sundays, when box office tallies are announced. Sony and Warner Bros are notorious for this misconduct.
What this means is, to keep the kind of large profit base they desire, they have raised ticket prices so high, significantly less numbers of people are actually seeing the finished product, which is the film at the theatre. But they only care about the money, not moviegoers on the whole.
It really is not fair to films such as "The Ten Commandments" and "Gone With The Wind" that pulled in far more moviegoers to theaters than current movies claiming to be the best selling of all time.
STORY SOURCES:
http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
http://business.theatlantic.com/2010/01/is_avatar_really_the_biggest_movie_of_all_time.php
