Most Watched / Highest Grossing Films by Year

Year	Title	Worldwide gross	Budget
1950	Cinderella	$88,000,466	$2,200,000
1950	King Solomon's Mines	$10,050,000	$2,258,000
1951	Quo Vadis	$21,037,000–26,700,000	$7,623,000
1952	This Is Cinerama	$50,000,000	$1,000,000
1952	The Greatest Show on Earth	$18,350,000	$3,873,946
1953	Peter Pan	$145,000,000	$3,000,000–4,000,000
1953	The Robe	$25,000,000–26,100,000	$4,100,000
1954	Rear Window	$36,764,580	$1,000,000
	White Christmas	$26,000,050	$3,800,000
	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	$25,000,134	$4,500,000–9,000,000
1955	Lady and the Tramp	$88,300,200^* ($6,500,000)	$4,000,000
	Cinerama Holiday	$21,000,000	$2,000,000
	Mister Roberts	$9,900,000	$2,400,000
1956	The Ten Commandments	$90,066,230	$13,270,000
1957	The Bridge on the River Kwai	$30,600,000^R	$2,840,000
1958	South Pacific	$30,000,000	$5,610,000
1959	Ben-Hur	$90,000,000	$15,900,000
1960	Swiss Family Robinson	$30,000,000	$4,000,000
	Spartacus	$60,000,000	$10,284,014
	Psycho	$50,000,000	$800,000
1961	One Hundred and One Dalmatians	$215,880,212	$3,600,000–4,000,000
1961	West Side Story	$105,000,000	$7,000,000
1962	Lawrence of Arabia	$75,500,852	$13,800,000
	How the West Was Won	$35,000,000	$14,483,000
	The Longest Day	$33,200,000	$8,600,000
1963	Cleopatra	$40,300,000	$31,115,000
1963	From Russia with Love	$78,900,000	$2,000,000
1964	My Fair Lady	$55,000,000	$17,000,000
	Goldfinger	$124,900,000	$3,000,000
	Mary Poppins	$44,000,000–$50,000,000	$5,200,000
1965	The Sound of Music	$286,214,076	$8,000,000
1966	The Bible: In the Beginning	$25,300,000	$18,000,000
	Hawaii	$34,562,222	$15,000,000
	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	$28,000,089	$7,613,000
1967	The Jungle Book	$170,800,000–199,475,744	$3,900,000–4,000,000
1967	The Graduate	$85,000,000	$3,100,000
1968	2001: A Space Odyssey	$138,000,000–190,000,000	$10,300,000
1968	Funny Girl	$80,000,000–100,000,000	$8,800,000
1969	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	$96,000,000	$6,600,000
1970	Love Story	$80,000,000	$2,260,000
1970	Airport	$75,000,000	$10,000,000
1971	The French Connection	$75,000,000	$3,300,000
	Fiddler on the Roof	$49,400,000	$9,000,000
	Diamonds Are Forever	$116,000,000	$7,200,000
1972	The Godfather	$245,066,411–286,000,000	$6,200,000
1973	The Exorcist	$413,071,011 ($110,000,000)	$10,000,000
1973	The Sting	$115,000,000	$5,500,000
1974	The Towering Inferno	$88,650,000	$15,000,000
1974	Blazing Saddles	$80,000,000	$2,600,000
1975	Jaws	$470,653,000 ($193,700,000)	$9,000,000
1976	Rocky	$225,000,000 ($77,100,000)	$1,075,000
1977	Star Wars	$775,398,007	$11,293,151
1978	Grease	$394,589,888 ($341,000,000)	$6,000,000
1979	Moonraker	$210,300,000	$31,000,000
1979	Rocky II	$200,182,289	$7,000,000
1980	The Empire Strikes Back	$538,375,067 ($413,562,607)	$23,000,000–32,000,000
1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	$389,925,971 ($321,866,000–353,988,025)	$18,000,000–22,800,000
1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	$792,910,554 ($619,000,000–664,000,000)	$10,500,000–12,200,000
1983	Return of the Jedi	$475,106,177 ($385,845,197⁾	$32,500,000–42,700,000
1984	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	$333,107,271	$27,000,000–28,200,000
1985	Back to the Future	$381,109,043	$22,000,000
1986	Top Gun	$356,830,601 ($345,000,000)	$14,000,000–19,000,000
1987	Fatal Attraction	$320,145,905	$14,000,000
1988	Rain Man	$354,825,476	$30,000,000
1989	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	$474,171,806–494,000,000	$36,000,000–55,400,000
1990	Ghost	$505,702,423	$22,000,000
1991	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	$519,843,975	$94,000,000
1992	Aladdin	$504,050,219	$28,000,000
1993	Jurassic Park	$1,029,153,882 ($914,691,118)	$63,000,000–70,000,000
1994	The Lion King	$987,483,777 ($768,155,561)	$45,000,000–79,300,000
1995	Die Hard with a Vengeance	$366,101,666	$70,000,000
1996	Independence Day	$817,400,891	$75,000,000
1997	Titanic	$2,186,772,302 ($1,843,201,268)	$200,000,000
1998	Armageddon	$553,709,626	$140,000,000
1999	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace	$1,027,044,677 ($924,317,558)	$115,000,000–127,500,000
2000	Mission: Impossible II	$546,388,105	$100,000,000–125,000,000
2001	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	$974,755,371	$125,000,000
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	$926,047,111 ($921,780,457)	$94,000,000
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	$1,119,929,521 ($1,119,110,941)	$94,000,000
2004	Shrek 2	$919,838,758	$150,000,000
2005	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	$896,911,078	$150,000,000
2006	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	$1,066,179,725	$225,000,000
2007	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	$963,420,425	$300,000,000
2008	The Dark Knight	$1,004,558,444 ($997,039,412)	$185,000,000
2009	Avatar	$2,782,275,172 ($2,749,064,328)	$237,000,000
2010	Toy Story 3	$1,063,171,911	$200,000,000
2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	$1,341,511,219	$250,000,000
2012	Marvel's The Avengers	$1,511,757,910	$220,000,000
2013	Iron Man 3	$1,215,439,994	$200,000,000

Sources: boxofficemojo.com, wikipedia.org