The TRUTH behind Box Office records!
 

Mark Twain said it best when he said there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics"

1894
cost of a movie ticket: 25 cents
world population: 1 billion

2006
cost of a movie ticket: $12
world population: 7 billion


now you know why box office sales records get broken, its impossible for them not to get broken. Those box office stats are pretty much irrelevant other than hype up a movie :1orglaugh

very good point

often they use inflation adjusted box office number for comparison though....

:thumbsup

Mr. Romance

yes but how about population growth? globalization? accessability? Its alot easier to go see a movie now then it was in 1894, especially in countries outside of North America

I guess you certainly have the point. :thumbsup

back then you had basically no choice.
you either saw THE movie, or ya didn't.

now you've got 30 movies at any given time to choose from..
not to mention DVD's, cable, pay per view, on demand, and 800 television channels.

Off course the industry got bigger ... but it's always nice to see records beeing broken

There weren't any movies in 1894. Movies don't cost $12. Most areas it's MUCH cheaper. Hell in my area I can get in for half that. Also matinees are cheaper. Kids pay less. You think kids seeing Cars are paying $12?

Box office records are for NORTH AMERICA ONLY. So the world population doesn't matter in this equation.

Titanic is 9 years old and hasn't even been close to having it's reign as #1 be challenged. Were movies cheaper 9 years ago? Yep. Even adjust for inflation Titanic is still #6 all time.

Anywas if you wish to see top movies all time adjusted for inflation here you go

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

It's not THAT clear that population growth causes any significant increase in box office numbers. Sure, there are more movie goers, but at the same time, more movies come out each month, giving people more choice. Accessibility/globalization is perhaps better, but at the same time, there is less incentive to go to the movies. Many younger viewers choose to download a movie off the internet, while some older folks may choose to view some PPV movie on their HD TV, instead of spending double the price on similar experience in the movie theater...

Shrek 2 is the biggest grossing movie of the 21st century?


Could have given me 20 guesses and I wouldn't have gotten it.

Thomas Edison made the first movie in 1894. He charged 25 cents.
Doesn't matter if movies aren't $12, they can be $1, the matter of fact is that there is inflation and population growth each year adding millions more of people able to see movies than the previous year. Accessabilty to movies of 2nd and third world countries grows at an even quicker rate each year. 10 years ago Communist China wasn't even able to watch NA movies. Thats 1 billion more right there that are now able to watch that weren't 10 years ago.

Accessability. What percentage of people had access to theaters in 1894 as opposed to now? If people don't have access to movies, they can't see them.

Are there alot of Movies form the 1800's that are being neglected their box office prestige?

Its all marketing BS anyway you look at it.

1994 50 million people on the web:
price of porn ticket $10

2006 1 Billion on web
price of porn ticket $54

:1orglaugh well, back then the movies weren't that good Hal, but if you were living back then then you'd probably be like "WHOA!...Motion!" :1orglaugh so it all depends on the era you live in.

Titanic will forever be the top grossing movie of all time

Well said.

I hope you're kidding. It's not the top grossing movie of all time if you adjust for inflation, and even if you don't, in 10 years movie tickets are going to be $17 or something and things will be eclipsing Titanic. If not before then...

yeah good point lol

There are a couple other factors as well.

1. length of the movie. If a movie is 1.5 - 2 hours long then they can show it every 2 - 2.5 hours or so and can get 5-6 showings a day in depending on how early the theatre opens. If the movie is 3 hours long they can only get 4-5 showings a day in.

2. number of screens. This weekend I went to see pirates 2. The theatre I went to had 18 screens and 5 of them were playing pirates. the movie literally started every 30 minutes and every show was sold out. If they had devoted another screen to it I know it would have sold out too.

When you factor in how many screens, the number of showings a day and the cost of the ticket, you know movies will continue to break records. And like people have said, somehow it is used a publicity tool. People think that if the movie has a huge opening weekend it must be good so they go see it because everyone else is.

Aquaman 1 will hold all the records before its over. I hear they are rushing Aquaman 2, so it will probably be crap.

Unadjusted worldwide box office (http://www.leesmovieinfo.net/AllTimeWorldwide.php)

# Title Domestic % Total Gross (mil)

1 Titanic 32.8 $1,834.165
2 Return of the King 33.4 $1,129.227
3 Harry Potter 32.6 $975.076
4 The Phantom Menace 46.7 $923.137
5 Two Towers 37.0 $921.328
6 Jurassic Park 38.8 $920.068
7 Shrek 2 47.6 $919.212
8 Goblet of Fire 32.6 $889.994
9 Lord Of The Rings 36.2 $867.069
10 Chamber of Secrets 30.2 $867.025
11 Finding Nemo 40.2 $844.715
12 Revenge of the Sith 45.1 $842.863
13 Spider-Man 49.4 $825.581
14 Independence Day 37.8 $809.169
15 Star Wars 57.8 $797.998
16 Prisoner of Azkaban 31.7 $787.259
17 The Lion King 41.9 $783.738
18 Spider-Man 2 47.9 $780.278
19 ET 57.4 $754.805
20 Chronicles of Narnia 39.6 $737.130

oh really? NORTH AMERICA DOESN'T have population growth like the rest of the world? :1orglaugh

hahaha! now i know... nice point!

It's all about selling, isn't it? :)

This just occured to you?

theres a lot more than just box office sales too... consider PPV, DVD, merchandise, toys, video games, etc. Toys alone could make a big swing for a movie in terms of actual sales/profit.

Price your tickets in ounces of gold and you will see that the price has not changed that much in 100 years.

I believe Gone With The Wind has made more of a prifit than any other movie. Based on how much it cost to make and how much it brought in.

very cool

blah blah fucking blah.
Who cares?

I care dammit!:mad: I want proper stats on my movies :1orglaugh

Numbers mean nothing when they're twisted! Hence the greatest movie of all time is Shawshank Redemption!!!

No, that would be Return of the King worldwide, with $1.12 Billion

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this inflationary thing is bogus too. Gone With the Wind had NO competition way back then. even in the 1970's, when Jaws and Star Wars came out, the studios made hardly any movies. A movie came out and it was virtually the only kid on the block. Nowadays, more than 5 times as many movies are being made and pushed thru the theaters each year due to the home video explosion. movies have less time to make $$$ before they are pushed out of the theaters for newer titles. which makes today's box office more impressive than past years, especially with what Titanic did.

people are just going to and viewing movies at home more. its more a part of what we do now. especially staying at home viewing.