Half a century later, the box office is alive with ‘The Sound of Music’

The movie has raked in $158 million in worldwide box-office sales since its release, according to Box Office Mojo. When that box-office total is adjusted to reflect current ticket prices, the film’s overall gross is the equivalent of nearly $1.2 billion today.

Singer Lady Gaga, left, pays tribute to Julie Andrews after performing songs from the Sound of Music at the 87th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California last month.Photograph by Mike Blake — Reuters

That total is enough to put The Sound of Music, produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, in third-place on the list of highest-grossing movies ever (again, adjusted for inflation). It comes in just behind 1977’s Star Wars, which made nearly $1.5 billion and was also distributed by Fox (FOX), though it was made by George Lucas’ Lucasfilm. The movie with the biggest box-office ever was 1939’s Gone with the Wind, whose ticket sales would be worth almost $1.7 billion today, factoring in inflation.

What’s more, The Sound of Music’s box-office domination isn’t over yet. To honor the film reaching the half-century mark, a restored version the movie will be re-released in more than 500 U.S. theaters for two days in April.

Released March 2, 1965, the film – shot for a little over $8 million – was the big-screen adaptation of the stage musical by Broadway legends Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein. The original Broadway production was released six years earlier and won five Tony Awards, which meant much of the movie-going public was already familiar with now-standard tunes like “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” and the title song.