Top 10 Highest-Grossing Films of All Time (Worldwide Box Office)

Every film here is from 2009 or later, and that's not a coincidence: nominal box office totals aren't adjusted for ticket price inflation or the growth of international markets, especially China, which barely factored into box office totals before the 2010s. A film like Titanic looks less dominant here than it felt at the time only because ticket prices have roughly doubled since 1997 and the pool of moviegoing markets has grown substantially since.

James Cameron directed three of these ten films (Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Titanic), and three more belong to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, and Spider-Man: No Way Home). That's not a coincidence either — both represent the same bet: spend enough on a theatrical event that people who don't normally go to the movies decide to show up anyway.