The biggest box-office hit the year you were born

Universal Pictures

Moviegoing has long been one of America's favorite pastimes, with blockbuster box-office earnings serving as a reliable predictor of cultural staying power.

Using both IMDb's and Box Office Mojo's lists of the highest-grossing films by year, Business Insider has compiled a chronology of the biggest box-office hits every year since 1975.

We adjusted global box-office receipts for inflation through 2016 using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator. We've also included critic ratings from Metacritic (on a scale of one to 100) and fan ratings from IMDb (on a scale of 1 to 10) for each film.

Several franchises are represented — "Star Wars," "Harry Potter," and "Pirates of the Caribbean" each make multiple appearances — as are Academy Award nominees and winners such as "Titanic" and "Rocky."

We used '75 as the cutoff because we found that worldwide figures before then were spotty and inconsistent.

Read on to find out the highest-grossing movie released the year you were born:

2015: "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens"

Adjusted gross: $2.07 billion

Unadjusted gross: $2.07 billion

Critic rating: 81

Fan rating: 8.3

Plot summary: "Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance." 

2014: "Transformers: Age of Extinction"

Adjusted gross: $1.12 billion

Unadjusted gross: $1.1 billion

Critic rating: 32

Fan rating: 5.7

Plot summary: "Autobots must escape sight from a bounty hunter who has taken control of the human serendipity: Unexpectedly, Optimus Prime and his remaining gang turn to a mechanic, his daughter, and her back street racing boyfriend for help."

2013: "Frozen"

Adjusted gross: $1.31 billion

Unadjusted gross: $1.28 billion

Critic rating: 74

Fan rating: 7.6

Plot summary: "When the newly crowned Queen Elsa accidentally uses her power to turn things into ice to curse her home in infinite winter, her sister, Anna, teams up with a mountain man, his playful reindeer, and a snowman to change the weather condition."