Blockbusters are the movies that everyone has to see, and nothing makes a studio happier. Titanic, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone are just a few of the elite group of films whose tickets sell out again and again. No one knows for sure why certain films make so much money. What is it about Star Wars that touched a nerve in the collective audience?

Approximate box office figures compiled from Box Office Mojo (www.BoxOfficeMojo.com) as of August 2006 showed that the top ten all-time domestic film leaders are:

• Titanic (1997, $600 million)

• Star Wars (1977, $460 million)

• Shrek 2 (2004, $441 million)

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982, 1985, 2002, $435 million)

• Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999, $431 million)

• Spider-Man (2002, $403 million)

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006, $401 million)

• Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005, $380 million)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003, $377 million)

• Spider-Man 2 (2004, $373 million)

The top ten all-time worldwide grosses to date are:

• Titanic (1997, $1.8 billion)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003, $1.1 billion)

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001, $976 million)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002, $926 million)

• Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999, $924 million)

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006, $922 million)

• Shrek 2 (2004, $920 million)

• Jurassic Park (1993, $914 million)

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005, $892 million)

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002, $876 million)

So-called experts have claimed that James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic broke every rule of good screenwriting, that the acting is lazy, the characters are uninspired, and the story is familiar beyond reason. It should have been a very expensive flop. The ticket-buying public disagreed. Costing $200 million to make, the movie grossed over $600 million domestically and almost $2 billion worldwide, making it the number-one hit movie ever, both internationally and domestically. In second place is the original Star Wars; combining its three releases (1977, 1982, and 1997), it grossed over $460 million domestically.