Why did we let E.T. become the highest grossing movie of all time?

I assume the inflation adjusted amounts are the most meaningful and that put Gone With The Wind first - which I would expect. But it's interesting how close some of the others are which I assume reflects the cost of the tickets.
But there seems to be several ways to compile these lists so we'll never get total agreement.

What a strange question...why did we let it become the highest grossing movie?

Its not a question of letting it...its simply that a lot of people went to see it.

Why is that so hard to understand?

There seems to be a plethora of threads lately along the lines of 'I didn't like this movie, and I cannot understand why people do. Therefore there must be something wrong with them.'

Let people like what they like. Why do people feel the need to question why some people like movies they don't, and start threads about it. You are not going to change anyones opinion, you are not going to achieve anything. You will simply have a tedious backwards and forwards argument.

From the list you mentioned, ET had the bigger audience to market to.
I was 7 when ET came out. There was no way my parents would have taken me to Blade Runner and The Thing. They weren't into those Genres either.
My Dad took my brother and me to Star Trek II, My mom and sister stayed home.
Tron we only saw because ET was sold out (I think I was the only one in my family who liked it)
We also saw Annie because ET was sold out.
When we finally saw ET, everyone liked it.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as good as it is, has a more complex story and doesn't appeal to the masses (I think some kids were bored by it). ET was simpler and more family-friendly.

That question is easy to answer. E. T. was one of the first movies which targeted each and every age on a large level. Kids have E. T. and Elliott. And some goofy scenes like the television learning sequence. Teens have Elliotts older brother, his friends and the amazing BMX scenes. And grown up had the story of a divorced mother and her problems handling that situation.

And all of that done by the most famous director of its time (so you had a lot of hype generated at all media cause of that fact).

Spielberg made E. T. simply perfect for all ages.

And thats why it became more successful then Star Wars. Star Wars is an awesome movie .... mainly for teens :) . Kids had their Star Wars toys from Kenner. But the movie itself were made with teens as the target group. Grown ups wanted to follow the hype of this movie. But most of them thought about it as another corny scifi flick (like they knew them from the 50s).