El-Kabong

Are you mad? If you go by tickets sold, a ton of movies make Titanic (and Lord of the Ring, and Matrix) their bitch.

I've always thought that the way that Hollywood tracks movie box office is all backwards. What other industry goes by how much the item made vs how many units sold. But then I guess that Hollyweird couldnt go "Look! We've broken the top money making film record again!" every year or two. It's like stats in baseball - there's a record for EVERYthing, so somebody is going to break something somewhere.

"And the record for most bases stolen on an overcast Tuesday in March by a left hander set back in 1965 was shattered today by Marty Finster!"

Big deal.

rushmore223

I agree Kabong, they go about it all wrong. if you adjust for inflation or simply go by number of tickets sold, Titanic aint that special. I believe #1 is still Gone With The Wind followed by Star Wars.

Here is the ranking adjusted by inflation; the first number is the adjusted gross, the second number is the actual gross and obviously that is followed by the release year.

1
Gone With the Wind
MGM
$1,268,839,894
$198,655,278
1939

2
Star Wars
Fox
$1,118,591,056
$460,998,007
1977

3
The Sound of Music
Fox
$894,368,562
$158,671,368
1965

4
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Uni.
$890,845,225
$434,974,579
1982

5
The Ten Commandments
Par.
$822,680,000
$65,500,000
1956

6
Titanic
Par.
$811,387,059
$600,788,188
1997

7
Jaws
Uni.
$804,334,978
$260,000,000
1975

8
Doctor Zhivago
MGM
$779,570,661
$111,721,910
1965

9
The Exorcist
WB
$694,371,245
$232,671,011
1973

10
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Dis.
$684,520,000
$184,925,486
1937

Patman

I tend to think that ROTK can't sustain the momentum to go over $330 million. Time will tell. Most conclusions to trilogies will have that "satisfied" movie-goer effect working against multiple screenings of the 3rd film in a trilogy.

rushmore223

BTW, ROTK added 15 million Monday to it's total. NOT BAD for a Monday!

matome

Actually 13.9 mil, but who's counting?

johnglass

That would be an incredible record, since they don't play baseball in March.

El-Kabong

Um, well they did back in 1965. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

PixyJunket

I've never seen the movie, but Titanic is still that special. It's the only movie in the last 20 years to be included on this list. The home video market KILLED the number of people that go to the movies, plain and simple. Also take into account that almost every other movie in the list has had (in some cases) SEVERAL theatrical re-releases. Titanic has not (to my knowledge, I'm probably wrong!). I'm honestly not sure we'll EVER see another movie enter this inflated list..

Frank S

Boy your really going out on a limb here aren't you?

Considering the track record that action/sci-fi/fantasy films are always snubbed for best picture at the Oscars you hardly are taking a chance with that prediction!

As for Titanic it just happen to be a film that guys could like that was a HUGE film for women to watch and when you couple that combination along with the fact that the run Titanic had was during a time when there was virtually nothing else decent being released by studios so Titanic was pretty much left by itself as the only film to see of any substance. You can be assured that Titanic would not come anywhere near what it actually did if it had to contend with the likes of LOTR:ROTK.

Jepthah

Your eye-rolling is completely out of place when you recognize just how few critically and commercially successful films of this type there have been. ROTK is considered the 'front-runner' and there are many people who are bold enough to assert that it can and will win Best Picture. All I am saying is that I am highly unsure.

jaeufraser

[QUOTE]Originally posted by rushmore223
[B]I agree Kabong, they go about it all wrong. if you adjust for inflation or simply go by number of tickets sold, Titanic aint that special. I believe #1 is still Gone With The Wind followed by Star Wars.

Here is the ranking adjusted by inflation; the first number is the adjusted gross, the second number is the actual gross and obviously that is followed by the release year.

1
Gone With the Wind
MGM
$1,268,839,894
$198,655,278
1939

Still, isn't it kind of pointless to make these comparisons? If these numbers hold true, then in all truth Titanic is STILL number one since this only takes into account domestic numbers. Truth be told the foreign market in older times was a fraction of what it is now. But Titanic made 1.8 billion, which is was more than 1.2. Again, tons of variables to take into consideration. I could argue for both. But quite frankly, there is no denying the enormous popularity of Titanic. It is special, and I think the time frame in which it accomplished its feat is something to note.

I have to admit, there's something entertaining about box office numbers.

Deftones

BTW, it made another $12+ million on Tuesday, bringing the total take up to $150 million for the 7 days of it's release.

Seeker

wonder how many days till 200 million?

Spiderman was 9, Star Wars Ep 2 was 11

I'm betting it'll be 11.

rushmore223

Hmmmmm... It is at $157 million today so I'll say by Saturday it will definitely pass 200. that would be 11 days. I'm not sure how many people go to the movies on XMAS, Now that I think of it, I will be daring and go out on a limb and bet 10 days.

kmac

This can't be right. Maybe I am missing something. How can the adjusted gross for 10 be less than the adjusted growth for 5?

I do not know what formula they use, but it looks like bullshit to me.

I still do not think that you can compare older movies to newer movies in terms of ticket sales. If you are going to adjust for ticket prices, you should also have to adjust for no televisions, cable, DVDs or VHS tapes. The movies were a much bigger draw back then.

rushmore223

Good catch there Kmac, I didnt even notice it. I copied it off of Boxofficemojo. Looks like a mistake was made somewhere, might be worth checking another site with similar features to see what they list the adjusted gross as being.

PixyJunket

Could also be that Snow White has had SEVERAL rereleases, and that those releases are adjusting according to ticket prices during the rerelease.. though I'd imagine that'd be hard t keep track of.

Pants

LA Confidential, Tommorrow Never Dies, As Good As It Gets, Austin Powers, Face/Off, Good Will Hunting, Men In Black, Private Parts, The Fifth Element, The Rainmaker, Absolute Power, Amistad, Waiting For Gufman

DRG

I would guess that the Snow White gross includes several re-releases over the years.

From IMDB:

Release dates for
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

USA 21 December 1937 (premiere) (Los Angeles, California)
USA 4 February 1938
USA February 1944 (re-release)
USA February 1952 (re-release)
USA April 1958 (re-release)
USA June 1967 (re-release)
USA December 1975 (re-release)
USA July 1983 (re-release)
USA July 1987 (re-release)
USA 2 July 1993 (re-release) (This re-release is listed as having made $41,634,000 alone)

Ten Commandments is listed as having only one re-release, in 1966, so most of that is in 1956/1957 dollars. I'm guessing Snow White made a large chunk of those dollars in the more recent rereleases, which are adjusted much less than the old ones.

Troy Stiffler

Those BoxOfficeMojo #'s are correct.

I remeber laughing when I heard that Titanic only made 20 million it's first weekend. I was thought that James Cameron would never be allowed to work with that kind of money again. And I'll bet you that James Cameron thought that he was in trouble, too.

And if anyone cares for some useless trivia... Both Titanic and Fellowship of the Ring opened on the same day.

Gilgamesh1082

There, fixed it for you.

Pants

If you're suggesting that Waiting For Guffman isn't a brilliant film then you're just nuts.

Deftones

ROTK made another $14 million and change on Christmas day, to bring it's 9 day take to $172 million. Barring any weird circumstances, it should easily reach $200 million by Saturday.

Seeker

yep sounds like 11 days to 200 mm

jaeufraser

I think his point is that save for those three films, everything else you mentioned was either released six months prior to Titanic (Face/off, Fifth Element) or wasn't really a mainstream wide release (Waiting for Guffman). Honestly, in early 1998, there wasn't much competition. But the "no competition" thing is but one reason for Titanic's success. I don't think that will ever make a movie a hit that big alone.