Avatar and alleged 'Box Office Gross'

I just received Screen Australia's latest email newsletter, Get the Picture, which states:

Avatar is now the highest-grossing film of all time in Australia. Released on 17 December 2009, it had earnt $108,621,853 at the local box office by 7 March 2010, making it the first film released in Australia to earn over $100 million.

It then provides a link to its website of the top-grossing films of all time. I always have a problem with these sorts of claims, because a dollar in 1960, for example, would be worth $12.07 today according the Reserve Bank's official CPI rates. Crocodile Dundee's takings of $47.7M in 1986 puts it in fifth place as all-time Australian gross box office. However, when inflation-adjusted, that amount is equivalent to a whopping $108.89M in today's currency, putting it just ahead of Avatar. Now, I have no doubt that Avatar will continue to increase at the box office and pip Crocodile Dundee, but you see my point? And look at E.T. - inflation adjustments boosts it from #30 on Screen Australia's list to #3 on mine (below).

The fact is that the publication of box office gross is statistically dishonest and misleading. If, in half an hour, I can put download Reserve Bank rates and Screen Australia's list, and make a quick calculation, why can't we get this sort of comparison? I don't think it's laziness. I think it's a tendency towards sensationalism. There will more often be a film that beat (in unadjusted figures) a previous record gross, allowing for a headline. That's just pure bullshit.

Now, I only have Screen Australia's list of the top 50 grossing films at the Australian box office. It's not a complete list, so I can't compare with say Gone With the Wind, because it's not on that list. From memory, in gross, that film beats them all. And there will be others from way back whose adjusted box office would put them into the top 50.

In case it's not clear, in the following table, the columns are: Screen Australia's rank of each film title, the year of release, the gross box office according to Screen Australia, and my calculation of the inflation-adjusted box office. The list is sorted descending by adjusted box office.
Update: Titles without a Screen Australia rank have been sourced from Movie Marshall.

S.A. Rank	Title	Year released	Box office $M	Inflation adj. $M
	Gone with the Wind	1940	12.22	400.44
	The Sound of Music	1965	13.01	140.38
1	Avatar	2009	108.75	108.75
5	Crocodile Dundee	1986	47.71	101.30
30	E.T.	1982	32.66	89.46
	Star Wars	1977	18.31	80.23
	Dr. Zhivago	1966	7.60	79.97
	The Sting	1974	12.64	79.09
2	Titanic	1997	57.65	78.82
	Grease	1978	18.48	75.16
	Jaws	1975	13.64	74.59
	Towering Inferno	1975	11.27	61.63
6	Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring	2001	47.43	59.37
	South Pacific	1958	4.69	59.08
4	Lord of the Rings: Return of the King	2003	49.37	58.60
3	Shrek 2	2004	50.39	58.30
8	Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	2002	45.65	55.47
	Ten Commandments	1958	4.26	53.69
9	Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone	2001	42.35	53.01
18	Babe: The Gallant Pig	1995	36.78	52.19
12	Star Wars: Ep. I - The Phantom Menace	1999	38.83	51.39
	The Empire Strikes Back	1980	15.13	51.22
28	Jurassic Park	1993	33.00	49.91
	Man from Snowy River	1982	17.23	47.19
7	The Dark Knight	2008	46.09	47.06
	Crocodile Dundee 2	1988	24.92	46.19
17	Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets	2002	37.38	45.42
39	Forrest Gump	1994	30.56	45.15
16	Finding Nemo	2003	37.39	44.39
	Pretty woman	1990	26.16	42.46
14	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	2006	38.05	41.48
24	Star Wars: Ep. II - Attack of the Clones	2002	33.86	41.15
41	Independence Day	1996	29.50	40.95
	Return of the Jedi*	1983	16.21	40.88
10	Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince	2009	40.60	40.60
23	Meet the Fockers	2004	34.98	40.47
11	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	2009	40.34	40.34
19	Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire	2005	35.73	40.22
32	Shrek	2001	32.10	40.18
36	Gladiator	2000	31.12	40.17
48	The Lion King	1994	27.11	40.05
26	The Matrix Reloaded	2003	33.63	39.91
21	Star Wars: Ep. III - Revenge of the Sith	2005	35.46	39.91
	Mrs. Doubtfire	1993	26.24	39.69
22	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe	2005	35.17	39.58
42	The Sixth Sense	1999	29.31	38.79
15	Australia	2008	37.56	38.35
27	Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban	2004	33.14	38.34
13	The Twilight Saga: New Moon	2009	38.22	38.22

Note: my calculations are approximations that make these assumptions for simplicity:

• Box office figures are considered to be amounts at the end of the year of release
• Inflation rates are based on Reserve Bank calculation of CPI as of December of each year. So a 2009 value for gross box office, won't be adjusted by my calculations until the end of 2010.

If anyone can point me to where I'll find gross box office for all Australian releases, I'll update the above table to include the films pre-1982 that may otherwise make the top 50 box office (adjusted).

Update:
I've amended the table above to include titles not included in the Screen Australia list, using the gross box office figures from Movie Marshall, adjusted with my calculations (which unsurprisingly differ slightly from Movie Marshall's, who would obviously be using slightly different arbitrary assumptions). Many thanks to Paranoid Android for pointing out MM's list.

Taking over $400M in today's money, nothing is going to beat Gone with the Wind anytime soon.