15 Most Highly-Anticipated Blockbuster Movies In History

It may be true that the word 'blockbuster' didn't enter the Hollywood lexicon until the release in Jaws of 1975, but looking at how we define the term today Gone with the Wind fulfills virtually all of the criteria that we've come to expect from populist studio filmmaking.

Based on well-known source material, produced by a major studio at huge expense (the $3.85m budget made it the second most expensive movie in history at the time), helmed by a well-known director and led by an A-list movie star, the 1939 classic certainly fits the criteria.

To say that Gone with the Wind was highly anticipated would be a massive understatement. The film's premiere was the culmination of three days of festivities in Atlanta, with a mind-boggling 300,000 people gathering outside the theater. It was so popular that it played in cinemas for four years, by which time it had comfortably become the most successful movie in history.

Winning eight Academy Awards from thirteen nominations only increased demand for the movie, and it held onto the title of highest-grossing movie of all time for decades. Gone with the Wind sold so many tickets at theaters across the world that adjusted for inflation its $390m box office total makes it the most successful movie in the history of cinema.