In my opinion, Gone with the Wind is and will be the number 1 movie ever. I realize it's hard to compare between eras, but if you read in history about the popularity of that movie, it makes Titanic look like Pluto Nash.

I think with India and China's economies growing fast, grosses for Hollywood films over there will in the future, approach Japan's box office grosses (where films have done $100 m +, even $200 m). So with three areas where films have more strong grosses, there is still enormous growth not yet reached in the international box office market. So I can definitely realistically see Titanic's international total get eclipsed, but it will be a number of years. But the non-domestic markets right now are close to 33/66 share with domestic, but I think it will within 15 years be more like 20%/80%.

Of course it doesn't. Gone with the Wind was never as popular as Titanic on a global scale, in large part because the world was far behind the US cinema-wise during the former's release, and because Titanic is much more appealing internationally.

Of course it doesn't. Gone with the Wind was never as popular as Titanic on a global scale, in large part because the world was far behind the US cinema-wise during the former's release, and because Titanic is much more appealing internationally.

I disagree with regard to global popularity, but the whole GWTW vs. Titanic argument is fruitless. The eras are far too different to render any real comparison other than they are by far the dominant films of their times.

I'm quite certain that Titanic was more popular worldwide than Gone With the Wind was during its release Given that the film was released in 1939, most of Europe and much of Asia would probably not have given a damn about any film for a good decade or so.

Given that the film was released in 1939, most of Europe and much of Asia would probably not have given a damn about any film for a good decade or so.

Well movies were invented by the French and by this time the movies were such a force that Triumph of the Will was released in German cinemas in 1935 to great fanfare.

The earliest Indian film was 1899.

The first Chinese film was 1905

I have no idea why you would think Gone with the Wind wouldn't have been of interest to the citizens of these countries during the inital release.

Do you see the number of re-releases? And do you see how it didn't open in France or Germany until the 1950s?

So you are comparing Titanic, a film released at one time all around the world, to a film that wasn't (if IMDB's data is correct)... for what purpose and to what end?

Apples to oranges.

I'm comparing Titanic's popularity at the time of its initial release to the popularity of Gone with the Wind at the time of its initial release.

As shown by your data, you can't do it. For the reason of international distribution, not for these theoretical differences in international film industries and tastes.

Why do we have to discount the fact that Titanic was more popular during its release than any one film was during its initial release?

The fact that times have changed doesn't change the fact that it was more popular, it merely gives you some of the reasons why it was.

Do you define popularity by "money"? Titanic made the most worldwide of any movie ever in real dollars/yen/whatever. Everybody knows this. So are you now trying to quantify "popularity" using a box office number? There are many who would disagree with the way you are defining popularity.

It's not a fact Box, you are making assumptions and guesses based on the single fact of its gross. And the reasoning you gave above to downplay Gone With The Wind's impact was shakey at best.

But of course I am. I never said 'overall popularity', just popularity as measured by a film's theatrical success. Casablanca is probably more popular than Gone With the Wind by now, yet it made a fraction of its theatrical gross. And as I said, those Disney films, they're formidable.



Well, going from my comments above, popularity as determined solely by a film's initial theatrical success can be quantified. I have the GWTW initial gross data somewhere, but I'm not willing to dig through hundreds of files right now. I remember the NYT, in its reviews, however, indicating that around 40-50m people in the US wanted to watch the film. 129m saw Titanic in North America, 100m or so if you discount repeat viewings.

Based on my own calculations of Titanic's overseas admissions, conservatively, some 500m people saw it in theatres worldwide (tickets in India cost 15 cents, and not much more in China, yet the film grosses millions there alone; more than 20m+ people saw it in the UK, Germany, France, and Japan each). The figure could possibly be above 600m or even 700m.

The US population in 1939 was around 131m. Unless 99% of Americans saw Gone with the Wind, it's unlikely it attracted as many people in the same time frame as Titanic did (slice it by half to 65m for an extreme for repeat viewings).