Top-grossing Films (U.S.)
| Rank | Title | Studio | Actors | Director(s) | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Fiddler on the Roof | United Artists | Topol, Leonard Frey | Norman Jewison | $80,500,000 |
| 2. | The French Connection | 20th Century Fox | Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey | William Friedkin | $51,700,000 |
| 3. | Diamonds Are Forever | United Artists | Sean Connery, Jill St. John | Guy Hamilton | $43,819,547 |
| 4. | Dirty Harry | Warner Bros. | Clint Eastwood, Andy Robinson | Don Siegel | $35,976,000 |
| 5. | Summer of '42 | Warner Bros. | Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Grimes | Robert Mulligan | $32,063,634 |
| 6. | The Last Picture Show | Columbia | Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges and Cloris Leachman | Peter Bogdanovich | $29,133,000 |
| 7. | Carnal Knowledge | Embassy | Jack Nicholson, Ann-Margret, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel | Mike Nichols | $28,623,000 |
| 8. | A Clockwork Orange | Warner Bros. | Malcolm McDowell | Stanley Kubrick | $26,589,355 |
| 9. | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Walt Disney Pictures | Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson | Robert Stevenson | $17,871,174 |
| 10. | Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song | Cinemation Industries | Melvin Van Peebles | Melvin Van Peebles | $15,200,000 |
| 11. | Willard | Cinerama Releasing Corporation | Bruce Davison, Elsa Lanchester and Ernest Borgnine | Daniel Mann | $14,545,941 |
| 12. | The Hospital | United Artists | George C. Scott and Diana Rigg | Arthur Hiller | $14,142,409 |
| 13. | Shaft | MGM | Richard Roundtree | Gordon Parks | $13,000,000 |
| 14. | Klute | Warner Bros. | Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland | Alan J. Pakula | $12,512,637 |
| 15. | The Andromeda Strain | Universal | Arthur Hill, James Olson | Robert Wise | $12,376,563 |
| 16. | Escape from the Planet of the Apes | 20th Century Fox | Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter | Don Taylor | $12,348,905 |
| 17. | Straw Dogs | Cinerama Releasing Corporation | Dustin Hoffman, Susan George | Sam Peckinpah | $11,148,828 |
| 18. | Cold Turkey | United Artists | Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart | Norman Lear | $11,000,000 |
| 19. | Play Misty for Me | Universal | Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter | Clint Eastwood | $10,600,000 |
| 20. | The Big Doll House | New World Pictures | Judy Brown, Roberta Collins, Pam Grier | Jack Hill | $10,000,000 |
| 21. | McCabe & Mrs. Miller | Warner Bros. | Warren Beatty, Julie Christie | Robert Altman | $8,200,000 |
| 22. | Big Jake | National General Pictures | John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara | George Sherman | $7,500,000 |
Read more about this topic: 1971 In Film
Famous quotes containing the word films:
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)