Highest Grossing Film: The "9" Years Quiz

Answer: Daddy Long Legs

"Daddy Long Legs" was a comedy drama with Mary Pickford that grossed $1.25 million. Pickford plays an orphan who is sent to college by a mysterious benefactor. In the end, she falls in love with him.

"The Miracle Man" starred Lon Chaney, and is based on a 1914 play by George M Cohan. A group of small time crooks seek to use a faith healing scheme to con a small town. The film made $1 million at the box office.

"Male and Female" was a Cecil B. DeMille drama with Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan. It grossed $1.2 million. "Madame DuBarry" is a German silent directed by Ernst Lubitsch, with Pola Negri in the title role. It made $1 million.

"Broken Blossoms" is another notable film from 1919. It was directed by D.W. Griffith and starred Lillian Gish, and was the first film released by United Artists.

Answer: The Broadway Melody

"The Broadway Melody" (1929) was one of the first films to feature a technicolor sequence. It stars Charles King, Bessie Love and Anita Page as entertainers trying to stage a Broadway show. The music was written by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Several of their songs would be recycled in the 1953 musical "Singin' in the Rain". It grossed $4.36 million for Metro Goldwyn Mayer, around $64 million in 2019 terms.

"Gold Diggers of Broadway" was the second biggest picture, grossing around $3.9 million. "Hollywood Revue" is notable for the debut of the song "Singing in the Rain."

"In Old Arizona" set several precedents as the first western to use sound and the first sound picture to be filmed outdoors. Warner Baxter won an Academy Award as Best Actor for playing The Cisco Kid.

Answer: Victor Fleming

"Gone with the Wind" was released December 15, and rapidly became the most popular film of all time. Since the metrics for measuring box office in the late 1930s were different, it is difficult to analyze exactly how much more successful it was. "Gone With the Wind" won the Best Picture award at the 1940 Academy Awards ceremony, and many other awards as well.

1939 was a banner year for Hollywood. Films released that year include "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "Goodbye Mr. Chips", "The Wizard of Oz", "Stagecoach", "Ninotchka" and "Drums Along the Mohawk".

If you think Frank Capra directed "Gone with the Wind" you have never seen a Frank Capra movie. He was nominated for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". John Ford was nominated for his work on "Stagecoach", the film that made John Wayne a movie star. And William Wyler, who won three Directing Oscars, was nominated for "Wuthering Heights."

Answer: Battle of the Bulge

War films were very big in 1949, with "Battleground", "Sands of Iwo Jima" with John Wayne and "Twelve O'Clock High" with Gregory Peck among the biggest box office draws.

"Battleground" (1949) was directed by William Wellman and stars Van Johnson and Ricardo Montalban. It is set around the events of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The film debuted in Washington DC in November 1949, and had Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, commander of the 101st Airborne was in attendance. The film grossed $6.26 million at the US box office, approximately $65.6 million in 2019 terms.

"The Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949) starring John Wayne, tells the story of Iwo Jima from the point of view of a marine platoon. It was one of the bigger films of 1949, earning $4 million.

"Guadalcanal Diary" (1943) starring William Bendix and Lloyd Nolan tells the story of the South Pacific battle.

"The Battle of El Alamein" (1969) is an Italian drama. It stars Michael Rennie as Montgomery.

Answer: Charlton Heston

Heston won for playing Judah Ben Hur, a Jewish prince who is unjustly framed for murder. He survives the galleys, to seek revenge on the man who condemned him. It is one of the biggest epics of all time, and is based on the novel by Lew Wallace, which was one of the most successful books of all time.

Hugh Griffith won Best Supporting Actor for his role as an Arabian Sheik, who assists Ben Hur in his quest for vengeance. Stephen Boyd played Messala, the childhood friend and later nemesis of Ben Hur. Jack Hawkins played Quintus Arrius, a Roman military commander who was saved by Ben Hur when his ship sank in battle.

"Ben Hur" (1959) made $36.92 million, the equivalent of $326 million in 2019 dollars. No other film was close. The comedies "Operation Petticoat" made $9.3 million and "Some Like it Hot" made $8.1 million.

Answer: Burt Bacharach

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) tells the real life story of notorious outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker (Newman) and Harry Longabaugh (Redford). After a long crime spree in the American West, they eventually fled to South America.

Composer Burt Bacharach won Oscars for his score and for best song. The film earned $102.3 million at the box office, the equivalent of $700 million in 2019 terms.

Remarkably, neither Newman nor Redford were nominated by Academy voters. They were both nominated for BAFTA Awards, and Newman beat out Redford. Katharine Ross, who played love interest Etta Place, was also snubbed by Oscar voters.

"Butch Cassidy" did win four Academy Awards: William Goldman won for his original screenplay, Burt Bacharach won Best Score and for "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" and Conrad Hall won for cinematography. Deservedly so, as "Butch Cassidy" is one of the most beautifully shot westerns ever made.

The other major films of 1969 were not close. "Midnight Cowboy", which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, made $44.7 million for United Artists. "Easy Rider", one of the highlights of the counter-culture era, made $41.7 million. And "True Grit" (1969), which finally won John Wayne an Oscar, made $31.1 million.

Answer: Kramer vs. Kramer

Remarkably, it was the divorce drama "Kramer vs. Kramer" that was the biggest film of 1979, making an impressive $106.26 million ($375 million in 2019 terms). The film stars Dustin Hoffman as a single father raising his son when his wife (Meryl Streep) leaves him. The title refers to their custody battle, which occurs towards the end of the film. Hoffman and Streep both won Academy Awards, as did Robert Benton for his Directing and Screenplay. "Kramer vs. Kramer" was also named the Best Picture of 1979.

The ghost thriller "The Amityville Horror" was second with $86.4 million. "Rocky II", the follow-up to the 1976 Best Picture, was close with $85.1 million. Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War masterpiece "Apocalypse Now" made $83.4 million. And the long-awaited motion picture debut of the "Star Trek" franchise made $82.2 million.

Answer: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is the third installment in the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) teams up with his father (Sean Connery) to quite literally search for the Holy Grail, the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. "Last Crusade" made an impressive $474.1 million at the box office, the equivalent of $981 million in 2019 dollars.

"Batman", the Tim Burton superhero film starring Michael Keaton, made $411 million. The second installment in "Back to the Future" made $331 million, and the follow-up to "Lethal Weapon" earned $227 million. The Best Picture of 1989 was the Jessica Tandy/Morgan Freeman drama "Driving Miss Daisy", which earned a respectable $145 million internationally.

Answer: The Phantom Menace

"Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" was generally viewed as a huge disappointment by fans. That didn't stop it from earning an incredible $924 million ($1.42 billion in 2019 terms).

The film tells the origins of Anakin Skywalker, who would grow up to become the villain Darth Vader. Ewan McGregor plays a younger version of Ben Kenobi, and Liam Neeson plays his mentor Qui-Gonn Jinn. And how can we forget Jar Jar Binks, quite possibly the most annoying character in film history?

"Phantom Menace" far outstripped the second highest grosser, another film with a young lead with mysterious psychic abilities: "The Sixth Sense" (1999) which earned $672 million. The second edition of "Toy Story" brought in $497 million. And the Keanu Reeves science fiction thriller "The Matrix" earned $463 million. Those are all US gross receipts.

Answer: Pandora

"Avatar" takes place on Pandora. It tells the story of a peaceful tribe known as the Na'Vi who are invaded by arrogant Earthlings who want to exploit the planet's natural resources. A young man named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) infiltrates the tribe and eventually sides with the tribe to resist the human invaders. The worldwide gross for "Avatar" is a mind-blowing $2.75 billion (just under $3.3 billion in 2019 terms).

Panem is the dystopian country that is the setting for "The Hunger Games" series. Peladon is part of the "Doctor Who" universe, the site of two of the Third Doctor's (Jon Pertwee) adventures. Polis Massa is familiar to "Star Wars" fans as the birthplace of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa.

While "Avatar" sucked much of the oxygen out of 2009, there were several major blockbuster films as well. The fifth installment of the "Harry Potter" series, "Half Blood Prince", earned $934 million. The biggest animated film of the year was "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" pulling in $886 million. And the sequel to "Transformers" made $836 million. The Disney film "Up" made an impressive $735 million.