In this chart, all the box office takings for the opening weekend have been adjusted for inflation to the level of the US dollar in 2019.

In 1979, Jaws 2 was dominating.

And it wasn't long before a wave of sci-fi movies overtook it.

First Star Trek, then Superman 2.

Then Star Wars, Return of the Jedi

appeared wiping out all previous records, rapidly overtaken

by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom which

held the top slot for three years

until Tim Burton's Batman broke through in 1989.

Nothing else could beat Batman, not

lifelike CGI dinosaurs, or even Jeff Goldblum,

nor Disney's Lion King, until 1995 when

Batman Forever finally tops it.

In 1998 the somewhat mediocre sequel to Jurassic Park

managed to do what the original could not, and took

the top position.

This is the era when the Star Wars franchise is rebooted.

Pixar are hitting their stride with Toy Story 2,

but still, nothing can take over until Harry Potter waves

his wand in 2002, only to be immediately overtaken

by Spider Man.

The Spider Man franchise holds the top spot, only

to be briefly usurped by Johnny Depp playing a pirate,

before Spider Man 3 regains the top spot.

Superheroes continue to dominate,

as Batman returns to number one, this time with Christian

Bale as The Dark Knight.

In 2012, Marvel's Avengers finally knocks Batman

off his perch, continuing the parade

of superheroes in the top position,

until Star Wars takes over in 2016.

Finally, this year, Avengers: End Game

does battle with Star Wars and takes the top spot,

with the largest ever opening weekend of $350m.

I made this animation using the open source

coding platform Observable.

The data came from the website, Box Office Mojo,

and you can see stats for all sorts of films there.

If you have any comments on the video, or any questions,

or things you'd like us to look at in this format

in the future, let us know on social media.