Box Office
Worldwide box office · 1979
The top-grossing releases of the year. Switch between worldwide, domestic, and international — every figure shown both as reported and adjusted for inflation, so films from any era are directly comparable.
| # | Title | Worldwide | Adjusted for inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kramer vs. Kramer | $106.3M | $483.0M |
| 2 | The Amityville Horror | $86.4M | $392.9M |
| 3 | Rocky II | $85.2M | $387.2M |
| 4 | Star Trek: The Motion Picture | $82.3M | $373.9M |
| 5 | Apocalypse Now | $79.1M | $359.4M |
| 6 | Alien | $79.0M | $359.2M |
| 7 | 10 | $74.9M | $340.3M |
| 8 | The Jerk | $73.7M | $335.0M |
| 9 | Moonraker | $70.3M | $319.6M |
| 10 | The Muppet Movie | $65.2M | $296.4M |
| 11 | The Electric Horseman | $61.8M | $280.9M |
| 12 | The China Syndrome | $51.7M | $235.1M |
| 13 | Meatballs | $43.0M | $195.7M |
| 14 | Escape from Alcatraz | $43.0M | $195.5M |
| 15 | The Main Event | $42.8M | $194.5M |
| 16 | Manhattan | $39.9M | $181.6M |
| 17 | All That Jazz | $37.8M | $171.9M |
| 18 | The Black Stallion | $37.8M | $171.8M |
| 19 | The Black Hole | $35.8M | $162.9M |
| 20 | Starting Over | $35.6M | $162.0M |
| 21 | And Justice for All | $33.3M | $151.4M |
| 22 | 1941 | $31.8M | $144.3M |
| 23 | The Champ | $30.4M | $138.4M |
| 24 | Being There | $30.2M | $137.2M |
| 25 | The Rose | $29.2M | $132.6M |
| 26 | Going in Style | $26.9M | $122.1M |
| 27 | North Dallas Forty | $26.1M | $118.5M |
| 28 | The Warriors | $22.5M | $102.3M |
| 29 | Norma Rae | $22.2M | $101.0M |
| 30 | Buck Rogers in the 25th Century | $21.7M | $98.5M |
| 31 | National Lampoon's Animal House 1979 Re-release | $21.5M | $97.8M |
| 32 | The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again | $20.9M | $95.1M |
| 33 | La Cage aux Folles | $20.4M | $92.8M |
| 34 | Dracula | $20.2M | $91.6M |
| 35 | When a Stranger Calls | $20.1M | $91.6M |
| 36 | Same Time, Next Year | $19.7M | $89.6M |
| 37 | The Seduction of Joe Tynan | $19.6M | $89.1M |
| 38 | Monty Python's Life of Brian | $19.5M | $88.4M |
| 39 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians 1979 Re-release | $19.0M | $86.4M |
| 40 | Prophecy | $18.4M | $83.6M |
| 41 | Breaking Away | $16.4M | $74.7M |
| 42 | Hair | $15.3M | $69.5M |
| 43 | More American Graffiti | $15.0M | $68.2M |
| 44 | Roller Boogie | $13.3M | $60.2M |
| 45 | The Great Train Robbery | $13.0M | $59.2M |
| 46 | The Concorde... Airport '79 | $13.0M | $59.2M |
| 47 | Phantasm | $12.0M | $54.5M |
| 48 | The Promise | $11.6M | $52.8M |
| 49 | The Legacy | $11.4M | $51.7M |
| 50 | Fiddler on the Roof 1979 Re-release | $10.4M | $47.3M |
| 51 | The Onion Field | $9.9M | $45.0M |
| 52 | The Frisco Kid | $9.3M | $42.5M |
| 53 | Meteor | $8.4M | $38.2M |
| 54 | The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh | $8.3M | $37.6M |
| 55 | Bloodline | $8.2M | $37.4M |
| 56 | The Prisoner of Zenda | $7.7M | $34.8M |
| 57 | Agatha | $7.5M | $34.1M |
| 58 | Americathon | $6.2M | $28.1M |
| 59 | Running | $6.0M | $27.3M |
| 60 | Cuba | $5.6M | $25.5M |
| 61 | Butch and Sundance: The Early Days | $5.1M | $23.3M |
| 62 | Players | $4.9M | $22.3M |
| 63 | The Great Santini | $4.7M | $21.4M |
| 64 | Yanks | $3.9M | $17.9M |
| 65 | Lost and Found | $3.2M | $14.7M |
| 66 | Hanover Street | $3.0M | $13.6M |
| 67 | Voices | $2.6M | $12.0M |
| 68 | Wanda Nevada | $2.4M | $11.0M |
| 69 | Sunburn | $2.4M | $11.0M |
| 70 | Rich Kids | $1.9M | $8.4M |
| 71 | Walk Proud | $1.7M | $7.6M |
| 72 | Last Embrace | $1.5M | $7.0M |
| 73 | Goldengirl | $1.2M | $5.7M |
| 74 | The Passage | $1.1M | $5.0M |
| 75 | Winter Kills | $1.1M | $4.9M |
| 76 | City on Fire | $792K | $3.6M |
| 77 | A Man, a Woman and a Bank | $683K | $3.1M |
| 78 | Five Days from Home | $642K | $2.9M |
| 79 | Fast Charlie... the Moonbeam Rider | $444K | $2.0M |
| 80 | The Human Factor | $376K | $1.7M |
| 81 | Real Life | $365K | $1.7M |
| 82 | An Almost Perfect Affair | $85K | $389K |
| 83 | Nest of Vipers | $27K | $124K |
| 84 | The Milky Way | $3K | $13K |
“Adjusted for inflation” restates each gross in today’s dollars using US CPI-U annual averages. Domestic and international views are re-ranked from the year’s top releases; some early years report domestic-only figures.