:Turner Classic Movies] says Modern Times grosed $1.5 billion in rental, while Variety puts the figure slightly higher at $1.8 million. There is no way a Chaplin film in the 1930s would have earned as little as $168,000 so I would say the Numbers is incorrect in this case. As for which is correct out of TCM and Variety, that is anyone's guess, although Variety's figure was clearly an estimate at the time.