Empire's adjusted for inflation gross is: $602,829,100. Unadjusted: $290,475067.
Jedi's adjusted for inflation gross is: $577,524,800. Unadjusted: $309,306,177.
Now let's see Menace's. Adjusted gross is: $520,807,900. Unadjusted: $431,088,301.
Hell, for shi%$ and giggles, let's throw in Hope and Clones (sounds like a soap opera).
Hope's adjusted for inflation gross is: $1,093,654,300. Unadjusted: $460,998,007.
Clones' adjusted for inflation gross is: $328,296,400. Unadjusted: $310,676,740.
Pretty pathetic that Clones made only 19 million more than Empire which came out all the way back in 1980 when it was pretty cheap to go to the movies. I'm glad though because I hate Clones the worst out of the 5 and actually like Menace better. I may be one of the few that feel like that, but at least Menace didn't have a sappy romance and that terrible Hayden Christenson. It also had the best lightsabe duel in all of the films so far IMHO. Menace is still my second least favorite of all of the films. Whenever Episode III comes on HBO, I'll figure out how much I like or dislike it because I certainly not wasting my money on seeing it in the theater.
There you go though. Menace only made more than ESB and ROTJ because tickets costed a lot more when it came out. More people went out and bought tickets for those two films than they did for Menace.
Starkiller beat me to the punch, but you can see how inflation factors has an impact on things. We each have different numbers because we each went to different sites that had different ways to adjust for inflation. Boxoffice Mojo assumes that the average ticket price in 2004 is $6.14. In 1980, the average ticket price was $2.69. In 1999, the average price was $5.08 and $3.15 in 1983.
Patrick