Gross Me Out

I just read George Lucas's Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success.  It's almost a 1000 pages on the biggest movies from the start of Hollywood almost till today.

Most of the book is two-page descriptions of particular movies, decade by decade, though each chapter also includes mini-essays on various aspects of the every-changing film industry.  There's plenty of interesting stuff, but it's marred by the fact this is one of the most indifferently edited books I've ever read: typos, incorrect facts, bad math (particularly serious in this book), improper layout--it's got 'em all.

One thing I like is it attempts to equalize everything by adjusting all figures in terms of 2005 dollars.  However, looking at grosses through the years, obvious problems arise, including changes in the population, competition from TV, different releasing patterns and competition from home video.  This might work in comparing, say, the 70s and the 80s, but there's no way to look at the 90s the same way you look at the 30s.