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About this lesson
 grade level: 9-12
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curriculum standards:
19
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author: Council for Economic Education Technology Staff
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posted on: March 9, 1998
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This lesson provides you with the resources that you will need to teach this lesson. We have also provided a link for your students to follow this lesson online. The link below contains only the information your students need:

http://econedlink.org/?a=19

EconomicsMinute

Sinking Feeling about The Titanic

Key Economic Concepts:

Description:

Students examine the reasoning behind, and the implications of, the change in the CPI calculation. News reports are touting the "Titanic" as being the leading box office hit of all time. But is it really? Students use the GDP Deflator (a commonly used price index) or the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis' CPI calculator to determine values of real box office receipts to crown the true winners.

Lesson Objectives:

Students will:

Students examine the reasoning behind, and the implications of, the change in the CPI calculation.

Introduction:

News reports are touting the "Titanic" as being the leading box office hit of all time. MoviesBut is it really? Students use the GDP Deflator (a commonly used price index) or the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis' CPI calculator to determine values of real box office receipts to crown the true winners.

Resources:

Process:

Read the hype surrounding James Cameron's Titanic.

For example: Titanic Main Menu [1]
Also see Lets Sink Titanic Hype [2]

Compute real values for the following figures either using the GDP deflator below or by using the CPI Calculation Machine [3] .

Compare the following figures. Click here when you've got your answers worked out.

Trivia: In 1930, the U.S. population was only 123,202,624, while the current estimated population is (as of 10/02/98) 269,302,312. What are the implications of this increase for the box-office totals below?

The top 50 grossing movies

No.

Gross

Title

Year Released

 

GDP Deflator
Economic Report of the President 1997

1937

13.5

1939

13.7

 

 

1965

25.0

 

 

1970

30.6

1973

35.4

1975

42.2

1977

47.5

 

 

1980

60.4

1981

66.1

1982

70.2

1983

73.2

1984

75.9

1985

78.6

1986

80.6

1987

83.1

1988

86.1

1989

89.7

 

 

1990

93.6

1991

97.3

1992

100.0

1993

102.6

1994

105.0

1995

107.6

1996

109.7

1997

111.9

1998*

110 est.

1.

460

Star Wars

1977

2.

427

Titanic

1998

3.

407

ET

1982

4.

357

Jurassic Park

1993

5.

327

Forrest Gump

1994

6.

313

Lion King

1994

7.

307

Return of the Jedi

1983

8.

306

Independence Day

1996

9.

290

Empire Strikes Back

1980

10.

285

Home Alone

1990

11.

260

Jaws

1975

12.

251

Batman

1989

13.

242

Raiders of the
Lost Ark

1981

14.

242

Twister

1996

15.

242

Men in Black

1997

16.

242

Beverly Hills Cop

1984

17.

229

The Lost World

1997

18.

221

Ghostbusters

1984

19.

219

Mrs. Doubtfire

1993

20.

218

Ghost

1990

21.

217

Aladdin

1992

22.

211

Back to the Future

1985

23.

204

Terminator 2

1991

24.

197

Indiana Jones :
Last Crusade

1989

25.

194

Gone with the Wind

1939

26.

192

Toy Story

1995

 

27.

189

Snow White

1937

 

28.

184

Dances with Wolves

1990

 

29.

184

Fugitive

1993

 

30.

184

Batman Forever

1995

 

31.

181

Liar Liar

1997

 

32.

181

Mission Impossible

1996

 

33.

180

Indiana Jones : Temple of Doom

1984

 

34.

178

Pretty Woman

1990

 

35.

177

Tootsie

1982

 

36.

177

Top Gun

1986

 

37.

175

Crocodile Dundee

1986

 

38.

173

Home Alone 2

1992

 

39.

172

Rain Man

1988

 

40.

168

Apollo 13

1995

 

41.

168

Three Men & a Baby

1987

 

42.

166

Air Force One

1997

 

43.

166

Close Encounters

1977

 

44.

165

Robin Hood

1991

 

45.

163

The Exorcist

1973

 

46.

163

Sound of Music

1965

 

47.

163

Batman Returns

1992

 

48.

158

The Sting

1973

 

49.

157

The Firm

1993

 

50.

154

Fatal Attraction

1987

 

 

Links Used:

1. ^ ^ "Titanic Movie" - (www.titanicmovie.com) The official web page for the Titanic movie.
2. ^ ^ "James Cameron" - (www.jam.canoe.ca) An article on movie director James Cameron.
3. ^ ^ "The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis" - (www.minneapolisfed.org) Homepage for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Teacher Reviews

April 21, 2005
I used this with my senior economics class after we had studied the CPI. I let them do it in groups of 3-4, so looking up all 50 movies wouldn't be so repetitive. They were amazed at the changes and were anticipating which ones would come out on top. They also enjoyed seeing how many of the top 10 they had seen and we speculated where the new Star Wars movie would come out. Afterwords, they used the same CPI calculator to check how much different things cost when in the year they were born, or when their parents were their age.
- Brenda Rush  

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