Assuming the amount of “real value” people don’t pay stays close to the average, won’t most years have the largest shortfall ever recorded, just because inflation exists?
This is why I don’t pay attention to movies breaking box office records anymore either; if you adjust for inflation, Gone with the Wind is still the recordholder, and not one single movie has broken into the top 10 since Titanic. But every year, some movie touts its status as the highest grossing film of all time because that’s, you know, how money works.