2
Procedures
This short activity uses the website www.boxofficemojo.com to teach students about the difference between real
and nominal values using something they all know about—movies.
1. Ask students, “What is the largest-grossing movie of all time?” (Answers will vary, but students will
probably respond with one of the highest-grossing films of the current year. For example, this activity was
posted in 2016, so students are likely to say Finding Dory or Captain America: Civil War. Box Office
Mojo will provide information for the current year at http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/.)
2. Display the following chart from the Box Office Mojo website:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm. (As of September 2016, Star Wars: The Force
Awakens held the top spot for all-time domestic grosses.)
3. Tell students that Star Wars: The Force Awakens only holds the top spot when measuring the movie’s
gross receipts in current dollars. Ask students if they can think of another way to measure the top-grossing
movie of all time. (Answers will vary, but a student may say that the gross receipts should be adjusted for
inflation, which is a change in the overall price level of goods and services in the economy. It is important
to emphasize that an increase in movie ticket prices alone is not inflation, but a change in the “cost of
living.”)
4. Tell students that when gross receipts are adjusted for inflation, another film rises to the top of the list.
Display the chart found at the following link: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm.
5. Explain that when box office receipts are adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind is number one. When
news reports say that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is number one, they are counting receipts in current
dollars. In economics, this is called the “nominal” value. Ask students how much movie tickets cost
today, and how much they think they cost in 1939, when Gone with the Wind was made. (The website
uses an average U.S. ticket price for the calculations. In September 2016, this was $8.66. Remind students
that ticket prices in their area may differ from the current national average. Tickets were 23 cents in 1939.
See the method used here; http://www.boxofficemojo.com/about/adjuster.htm.) Multiple releases of older
movies are accounted for on the site.
6. Tell students that when we adjust a value, such as a ticket price, for inflation, we are calculating the “real”
value. When we adjust gross box office receipts for inflation, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is no longer
in the top spot.