borisdisco

According to http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/ "The Bodyguard" is the #50 all-time grossing movie. The world is one movie away from pushing it off of the list. It is the only movie on the Top 50 I have not seen. And I won't.

Groucho

You really should see it. Is it a masterpiece? No. But it is a great film and deserves to be in the top 50.

borisdisco

I just can't stand Whitney. It still bothers me that she pre-recorded the National Anthem.

LBPound

According to WorldwideBoxOffice.com ( http://www.worldwideboxoffice.com/in....com&popups=no ) it's 2 films away from getting bumped.

planetaire

Box office take really has nothing to do with how good a film is. Plus, The Bodyguard had that whole "guys being dragged in with their girlfriends" curve going on, so it really shouldn't be in the top 50 anyway. Box office receipts should directly correlate with how much the person wanted to see the film.

marty888

That has to be one of the weirdest thoughts I I've ever seen posted here. How exactly do you suggest that would work? Do I tell the ticket seller "Hey, I Like the male lead and the director, but I have doubts about the female lead, and the screenplay so only count half my money,"

matome

Good lord, looking at that list is there any way in hell that any movie will beat Titanic in the foreseeable future??? As universally loved as LOTR apparently was, it got DOUBLED in grosses by Titanic.

Sunday Morning

I consider myself to have good taste in film, and I don't feel any need to bash the bodyguard.
Basically, it is a well written picture that suffers from unfortunate casting.
I still enjoy it, I just tend to fade out when the music scenes cue up.

Movie tickets are more expensive then they were in 1992, if you adjust for inflation, i'm sure it still would be in the top 50. It was pretty popular

...Plus it's an R rated film. That's pretty rare.

ToddSm66

I've never really understood why people take such a personal interest in box office totals...I mean, unless you are a producer that passed on The Bodyguard, I don't see why you would care how much money it made.

I see it a lot, and its always seemed odd to me. People bragging because movie A made three times as much money as movie B. If I was getting a percentage of the box office totals, then I might have an interest - otherwise I don't really care that much.

jaeufraser

Well box office has extreme relevance for a few reasons. While whether a movie does well or not means little in enjoying the said film, it does a lot in other respects. If a movie does well, then you'll see the actors, the directors, and the story have a chance to expand and do new things, whether it be sequels or new movies for your favorite actor or so on. I personally follow box office all the time, and while it has no relevance to film quality, if you follow movies beyond just watching them box office is one of the key and crucial points to determine the success of a film. Does that matter? it's interesting to some of us. Not to mention, if say Lord of the Rings grossed less than 100 mil in the US, would we be getting fantastic extended edition DVDs, long running times for the 2nd and 3rd movies, and the freedom for Peter Jackson to do reshoots and add things? Probably not.

planetaire

The weird part is that someone took me seriously. Hah!

bothanspy

Honestly, if you are going to look at box-office gross, you have to look at something that adjusts for inflation and ticket price. But here is the adjusted list: (courtesy of boxofficemojo.com)

Adjusted for Inflation:

1
Gone With the Wind
MGM
$1,181,960,729 (adjusted)
$198,655,278 (unadjusted)
1939 (year of release)

2
Star Wars
Fox
$1,041,999,630
$460,998,007
1977

3
The Sound of Music
Fox
$833,129,950
$158,671,368
1965

4
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Uni.
$829,847,861
$434,974,579
1982

5
The Ten Commandments
Par.
$766,350,000
$65,500,000
1956

6
Titanic
Par.
$755,830,302
$600,788,188
1997

7
Jaws
Uni.
$749,261,086
$260,000,000
1975

8
Doctor Zhivago
MGM
$726,192,415
$111,721,910
1965

9
The Exorcist
WB
$646,826,717
$232,671,011
1973

10
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Dis.
$637,650,000
$184,925,486
1937

11
101 Dalmatians
Dis.
$584,515,918
$144,880,014
1961

12
The Empire Strikes Back
Fox
$573,915,031
$290,475,067
1980

13
Ben-Hur
MGM
$573,300,000
$74,000,000
1959

14
Return of the Jedi
Fox
$550,247,550
$309,306,177
1983

15
The Sting
Uni.
$521,485,713
$156,000,000
1973

16
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Par.
$515,629,852
$242,374,454
1981

17
Jurassic Park
Uni.
$504,552,535
$357,067,947
1993

18
The Graduate
Avco
$500,592,652
$104,397,100
1967

19
The Phantom Menace
Fox
$496,430,421
$431,088,297
1999

20
Fantasia
Dis.
$485,804,348
$76,400,000
1940

21
The Godfather
Par.
$461,697,010
$134,966,411
1972

22
Forrest Gump
Par.
$461,414,548
$329,694,499
1994

23
Mary Poppins
Dis.
$457,363,637
$86,000,000
1964

24
The Lion King
Dis.
$452,523,409
$327,530,876
1994

25
Grease
Par.
$449,992,253
$188,389,888
1978

26
Thunderball
UA
$437,580,000
$63,595,658
1965

27
The Jungle Book
Dis.
$431,027,494
$135,475,556
1967

28
Sleeping Beauty
Dis.
$425,154,928
$51,600,000
1959

29
Ghostbusters
Col.
$413,819,353
$238,632,124
1984

30
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
Fox
$412,763,449
$102,308,889
1969

31
Bambi
Dis.
$411,892,689
$102,797,150
1942

32
Independence Day
Fox
$409,860,445
$306,169,255
1996

33
Love Story
Par.
$409,489,147
$106,397,180
1970

34
Beverly Hills Cop
Par.
$408,734,761
$234,760,478
1984

35
Spider-Man
Sony
$403,706,375
$403,706,375
2002

36
Home Alone
Fox
$395,201,718
$285,761,243
1990

37
Pinocchio
Dis.
$394,309,501
$84,254,167
1940

38
Cleopatra
Fox
$393,023,255
$57,777,778
1963

39
Goldfinger
UA
$387,855,000
$51,081,062
1964

40
Airport
Uni.
$386,751,009
$100,489,151
1970

41
American Graffiti
Uni.
$384,428,571
$115,000,000
1973

42
The Robe
Fox
$382,909,091
$36,000,000
1953

43
Around the World in 80 Days
UA
$378,000,000
$42,000,000
1956

44
Blazing Saddles
WB
$369,880,954
$119,500,000
1974

45
Batman
WB
$368,284,515
$251,188,924
1989

46
The Bells of St. Mary's
RKO
$367,058,824
$21,333,333
1945

47
The Towering Inferno
Fox
$359,047,620
$116,000,000
1974

48
National Lampoon's Animal House
Uni.
$354,000,000
$141,600,000
1978

49
The Greatest Show on Earth
Par.
$351,000,000
$36,000,000
1952

50
My Fair Lady
WB
$351,000,000
$72,000,000
1964


* Adjusted to the 2002 average ticket price of $5.85. Most pre-1980 pictures achieved their totals through multiple releases, especially Disney animated features which made much of their totals in the past few decades belying their original release dates in terms of adjustment.

rennervision

Bothanspy - I like those statistics!

I always wondered why more emphasis is placed on grosses using current inflation, rather than simply stating how many tickets a movie sold. To me - the number of tickets sold is the ultimate indicator of how popular it was.

atlantamoi

I never ever would have thought "The Bodyguard" was close to that number. Weird.

chanster

Pure box office gross means absolutely nothing. First there is inflation. Then there is a cost of a ticket.

NCMojo

Bothan -- great post. I have always thought that counting box office grosses without accounting for inflation was completely unfair. Gone With The Wind was a major phenomenom, and yet now it doesn't even make the Top 50. Your stats make the list much more interesting.

So out of the list that Bothan posted... which films least deserve to be there? I nominate The Towering Inferno. Not that it is that bad a movie, but most of the films on this list are (or should be) considered institutions.

RoboDad

And lets not forget a couple of variables that NO statistic seems to factor in: the population size, and the number of available locations to see a given movie. If you have three times as many people, and twelve times as many screens showing a movie, isn't it likely to make more money (even adjusted for inflation) than the same movie would make with fewer potential patrons and fewer venues?

In other words, what would the take have been for Gone with the Wind, if the movie had been able to play on 3500 screens for six weeks, with a population of 280 million potential movie-goers?

NCMojo

Also, I see that The Graduate was produced by Avco. What the heck is Avco? And can they save me 15% or more on car insurance?

I also never knew that The Graduate was a runaway box office smash. Huh. Imagine that.

Pants

Avco Embassy was a small studio. I think they got bought by Nelson entertainment who were in turn bought by MGM.

Let's not forget that the Bodyguard will still be the #1 selling soundtrack of all time

bothanspy

I agree to a point and if we were comparing the bottom 50 films I would completely agree with you. I would guess that the top 50 films played pretty wide (even in 1939) and everyone that wanted access to see could reasonable do so. I mean we aren't comparing The Matrix Reloaded to Lost in La Mancha. I would guess that the top 50 played in almost all the movie houses out there.

HistoryProf

wow....you mean the one at the Olympics or whatever? [carson]I did not know that[/carson] Even more reason to hate that crack whore

fyi: I worked at a camelot music store when that came out and we all got so sick and friggin tired of it.....it was horrible.

Daytripper

Wow, I'm surprised that most of you didn't know about this adjusted list. Especially that "Gone With The Wind" was number one. I've also said they shouldn't go by the amount of money a movie makes, but the number of tickets sold. Just seems easier to track and not have to adjust every year or so. Also keep in mind how many times "GWTW" was re-released over the years. Same with all those Disney films.

cupcake jesus

[thread-jack] I actually think that most national anthem singers and halftime show performers pre-record their performances so that they can sync the visual with the audio for TV. The live feed, to my knowledge, is the audio heard in the stadium, but because of the poor acoustics of the giant football stadiums, someone figured out that it looks/sounds better on TV if you don't have to worry about echoes on the soundtrack. I believe U2 did this when they played halftime, the Dixie Chicks did this, Celine did this, Aerosmith/Britney/N*SYNC/Nelly did this, Sheryl Crow did this when she played halftime at the AFC championship game, etc. etc. Personally, I think Whitney's version, pre-recorded or otherwise is the best performance of the song I'll hear in my lifetime, and was performed before the best Super Bowl ever. And I'm a Steelers fan who likes college and alternative rock. [/thread-jack]

I really didn't care for The Bodyguard, but could kind of care less about the box office, except when low returns causes movies I want to see out of the theater (i.e. Willard, Irreversable, Narc, Below, Equilibrium), and makes me wait to see them on my admittedly crappy home theater equipment. I do kind of rubberneck when I see the numbers, though. Some of them are astronomical.

atlantamoi

The only cool thing about that is that Nick Lowe got rich from his song "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding" that someone else recorded on this soundtrack. Don't think it was Costello's version either (?)

johnglass

Damn, has there been that much inflation in 6 years????