影片《阿凡达》（Avatar）上映还不到一个月时，就以18.5亿美元刷新了全球票房收入纪录。这既体现了此片的广受欢迎，同时也提醒我们好莱坞给影片加冕的方式是何其古怪。

　　Barely a month into its theatrical run, 'Avatar' set a record for world-wide ticket sales, topping $1.85 billion. That is a reflection of its wide popularity, and also a reminder of the quirky way that Hollywood crowns champions.

　　近几十年来，评判一部影片的影响力的公认的标准是其票房收入，且不考虑通货膨胀的因素。也就是说，《阿凡达》的排名某种程度上得益于对其较有利的比较标准。上一部于1997年推出的创纪录的大片《泰坦尼克号》以及更早的几部票房冠军，其排名方式也是如此。由于票房总收入并不把通货膨胀的因素计入在内，更贵的票价使近年来拍摄的影片在排名榜上名列前茅，比如《黑暗骑士》（The Dark Knight）和《变形金刚》（Transformers）。

　　In recent decades, the agreed-upon benchmark for movie dominance has been box-office revenue, unadjusted for inflation. That means 'Avatar,' like the previous all-time leader, 1997's 'Titanic,' and prior box-office kings benefited in part from favorable comparisons. Since tallies of ticket sales aren't adjusted for inflation, rising ticket prices have helped pave the way for a number of more-recent films, including 'The Dark Knight' and 'Transformers,' to land near the top of box-office rankings.

　　按照Hollywood.com网站的排名，美国电影史上按票房收入排名前25位的电影中，18部是在过去10年内推出的。如果把主要因通货膨胀而造成的票价上涨的因素考虑在内，并对比较的结果进行调整，那《阿凡达》则是18部影片中唯一挤入前25位的影片，到1月28日为止，它名列第24位。此片已在美国和加拿大创下5.645亿美元的票房收入，比《泰坦尼克号》（Titanic's）的在美国票房纪录还差了3,630万美元，况且《阿凡达》仍在吸引着大批观众进入影院。

　　Of the top 25 grossing films of all time on Hollywood.com's U.S. box-office ranking, 18 were released in the past decade. Adjust the totals for higher admission prices mainly due to inflation, and 'Avatar' would be the only one of those 18 to make the list -- at No. 24, as of Thursday. The film has grossed $564.5 million in the U.S. and Canada so far, putting it $36.3 million shy of 'Titanic's' U.S. record. And 'Avatar' is still drawing big crowds in theaters.

　　不同的传媒在统计其受众时，在方法上有很大的不同，而各行业的统计标准在很大程度上影响了破纪录的头条新闻的次数。视频游戏和图书出版商渲染的是销售量，这就剔除了价格上涨的因素，但人口增长的因素仍可以制造出新的榜上佼佼者。

　　How media measure their audience varies widely, and each industry's standard plays a big role in determining how often headline-grabbing records are set. Videogame and book publishers tout units sold, which removes rising prices from the equation but still can create new chart toppers because of population growth.

　　百老汇戏剧的排名也和电影公司一样，它不考虑通货膨胀的因素。按BroadwayWorld.com网站的统计，史上戏剧票房冠军是《歌剧魅影》（Phantom of the Opera）。然而，票房名列第三的《魔法坏女巫》（Wicked）的名次部分归功于如今相对较贵的票价，这部音乐剧卖出的票数还不及票房收入低于它的剧目如《猫》（Cats）和《西贡小姐》（Miss Saigon）。

　　Broadway theaters, like movie studios, don't adjust for inflation. The all-time theatrical box-office king is 'Phantom of the Opera,' according to BroadwayWorld.com, a theater-news Web site. 'Wicked,' however, ranks third at the box office, helped by today's more expensive ticket prices; the musical sold fewer seats than hits with lower box-office revenue such as 'Cats' and 'Miss Saigon.'

　　电视节目的排名方式则对人口增长的因素进行了修正。其排名方法是对某节目播出时调到该频道的有可能观看该节目的观众进行百分比的统计。但如今的收视率冠军的头衔可能会夸大某电视网络节目的文化影响力，因为如今收视率最高的节目相比上一代的当红节目，其所吸引的观众份额更少。

　　Television corrects for population changes when crowning new kings, defining ratings as the percentage of potential viewers who are tuning in. Being the No. 1 hit today can overstate a network television show's cultural impact, however, since today's most-watched programs draw a smaller audience share than hit shows did a generation ago.

　　和电视一样，过去的票房大片在那些时代所拥有的观众基数远远比不上当今的大片。《乱世佳人》（Gone With the Wind）自上映以来的观众数是《阿凡达》至今为止的三倍，而当时的美国人口还不及当今的一半。除了电影票价更高，电影院还通常要加收三美元的三维立体视镜费。《阿凡达》由“20世纪福克斯电影公司”制作，是出版《华尔街日报》的“新闻集团”（News Corp.）属下的一个公司。

　　Like television, older box-office hits drew on far smaller potential audiences than today's movies. Since it first opened, 'Gone With the Wind' has sold more than three times as many tickets as 'Avatar' has so far, even though it was first released at a time when the U.S. population was less than half what it is today. In addition to today's higher ticket prices, theater owners typically tack on $3 for 'Avatar's' 3-D viewings. 'Avatar' was produced by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp., which publishes The Wall Street Journal.

　　一些好莱坞的资深人物则更愿意按售出的总票数而非目前的票房收入这样的标准对电影进行排名。“我一直认为对一部电影观众数量的统计要比对其票房收入的统计更有意义得多，” EDI公司的创立者梅西•波利尔•斯沃茨（Marcie Polier Swartz）说。他的公司自1976年以来一直为电影公司统计票房总收入。“在美国，只有巨额的票房收入数字才能成为吸人眼球的新闻标题，没有人能被说服。”

　　Some Hollywood veterans would prefer a tally of admissions over the current standard of dollars. 'I always felt it was much classier to report on how many admissions there were for a film than on how much money a film made,' says Marcie Polier Swartz, founder of EDI, a company that began counting box-office totals for the studios in 1976. 'But in America, it was the big dollar figures that made headlines, and nobody would be persuaded.'

　　统计票房收入也确有一大优势：即它能简化新老电影之间的历史比较。对老电影来说，只有票房收入的数据可以查到。而一些数据保管人员说，甚至这样的数据也要花上些类似考古般的功夫才能查到。

　　Box-office figures do have one major advantage: They make historical comparisons simpler. Sales totals are all that is available for older films. Even finding these requires some box-office archaeology, as the record keepers call it.

　　要解释清楚随着年月而产生的变化，并进行真正的同类对比，其难度无疑是一场“噩梦”， 史蒂芬•金斯堡（Steven Ginsberg）说。他参与并开启了Variety.com网站的电影票房报告的发布，他目前从事剧本写作和写作教学工作。他认为，考虑到《乱世佳人》那个时代的电影无需与电视与视频游戏竞争，要真正公平地进行新老电影的比较是很困难的。

　　The difficulty of accounting for changes over time would make creating a true apples-to-apples comparison 'a nightmare,' says Steven Ginsberg, who helped launch Variety's box-office reporting and is now a screenwriter and writing teacher. It is difficult to make a truly fair comparison, he notes, when movies in the era of 'Gone With the Wind' didn't have to compete with television and videogames.