Universal Pictures
"Back to the Future" was the highest-grossing film in 1985.
Movie-going has long been one of America's favorite pastimes, with blockbuster box-office earnings serving as a reliable predictor of cultural staying power.
Using both IMDb's and Box Office Mojo's lists of the highest-grossing films by year, Business Insider has compiled a chronology of the biggest box office hits every year since 1975. We adjusted global box office receipts for inflation through 2016 using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator. We've also included critic ratings from Metacritic (on a scale of 1-100) and fan ratings from IMDb (on a scale of 1-10) for each film.
The list includes several multi-film franchises - "Star Wars," "Harry Potter," and "Pirates of the Caribbean" each make repeated appearances - as well as Academy Award nominees and winners like "Titanic" and "Rocky."
Read on to find out the highest-grossing movie released the year you were born.
