This is an interesting chart

[AugustWest]

Top movies listed by admissions rather than $$$.  Usually you just see movies ranked by how much money they made, which can be kind of misleading, because today it costs like $48 to go see a movie while back in the 30's the studios would pay you a nickel to see their shows.  This guy attempts to calculate how many actual butts were in the seats.

Some things I noticed:  The original Star Wars series in a Nos 1, 12 and 13 (then Raiders at 14 and Phantom Menace at 18 -- George Lucas must have more money than God.)  Spiderman at #34 was the first movie of the new millineum to make the list.  Some favorite comedies made it:  Blazing Saddles at #50, Animal House at #57, Its a madmadmadmadmadmad World at #71 and Young Frankenstein at #96.

The Wizard of Oz is #74 which indicates to me that this list rates the number of paid admissions to movie theaters rather than the total number of people who've seen a film, because god knows everybody has seen TWOOZ.

Odd movies that made the list:  Castaway, Earthquake, Liar Liar,  and Every Which Way but Loose (how can EWWBL be on the list, but not Car Wash?)

[jay-ell]

Actually, I don't think that this is an accurate measure of the popularity of a film, either.  It's closer than the money it made, but since the population increases over time (as the value of a dollar drops) I think it would be more telling to see what percentage of the total American population went to see a particular film.  

Just my $0.02.  This is pretty cool, though.

[AugustWest]

Excellent point, JL, which makes GWTW's dominance at the top of the chart all the more amazing.

[AlohaDawg]

What I thought was amazing was "The Four hossmen of the Apocalypse". I think it was 1921 - seems real early on in the development of the film industry. Maybe it was the novelty of the thing that got so many people in the seats.