Brandon Gray

The question was about adjusting for ticket price inflation or estimated attendance... Average ticket price is the relevant stat for that, because we're strictly looking at, well, ticket prices and attendance. Crafting a broader formula to judge, say, relative popularity or cultural impact might employ the stats you mention. That would be really interesting to do... But "Adjusting for Ticket Price Inflation" or "Estimated Attendance" has always been a simple calculation. By the way, is anyone here on Clubhouse? Founded the Box Office Revival there, and it would be great to talk movies and box office with you all there as well: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/box-office-revival?utm_medium=ch_club&utm_campaign=s3vlLDZN_FfUEl3Lyb1m-g-216921 That's my main social media outlet. I just like doing what amounts to a "live podcast" and audio discussion (can only stare at a screen for so long).

Again, just trying to get the baseline facts straight... We try to be as apples-to-apples as possible... Changes in market conditions doesn't mean you start pretending money made on Tuesday and Thursday was made on Friday. You need that baseline to analyze these trends or to judge the "impressiveness" of one movie versus another. (And I agree that Top Gun: Maverick is more "impressive" than Pirates 3.) https://www.clubhouse.com/club/box-office-revival

Came close. Average ticket price was 50% higher in 2007 versus 1997. Also, AWE had the widest release ever at the time: est. 11,500 screens at 4,362 theaters. Lost World was at 3,281 theaters. https://www.clubhouse.com/club/box-office-revival

Nice... So Top Gun takes the "4-day" But Pirates keeps the "3-day" (with previews 128.0 vs. 126.7 OR without previews 114.7 vs 107.4)

Truth is not dependent on how many people care. But I can relate to where you are coming from... It's hard to swim upstream, and that's what I tried to do with Box Office Mojo... We should just always try to keep 'em honest, whenever we have the opportunity... which is where this latest drama started on Friday when I sent that email to Deadline. I didn't claim that it was complete apples-to-apples... The point is that we should make it as apples-to-apples as we possibly can, and the main way to do that is to consistently adhere to reality and definitions. My policy was never to replace the $$$ charts with estimated attendance charts. It was to have estimated attendance as a toggle feature or another chart. When I say At World's End had greater attendance, I didn't say it was more impressive than Top Gun: Maverick... The degree of "impressiveness" is a different topic, taking in that broader context you're referring to... But, as a foundation, all of the facts have to be straight. https://www.clubhouse.com/club/box-office-revival

Glad that Top Gun: Maverick pushed the grosses even further, just like Maverick would... But the issue is far from moot: - Preview grosses should be separated from the weekend grosses for every movie. - Words have meaning: The weekend is defined as Friday, Saturday, Sunday... You don't get to fake reality and pretend that money made on a different day was made on Friday... It is a total joke that we have to have such a term as "True Friday." - The place for those preview grosses is in the Total Gross. - You want to count Thursday previews as Day 0 and let it rank on the Thursday chart? That's fine... These preview movies take showtimes from holdovers and are often No. 1 on their preview days, so they should chart to better reflect reality. - All charts that fold in preview grosses should have those preview grosses sifted out to reflect reality, thus enabling better apples-to-apples comparisons. Absent a true commitment to accuracy/reality, at least pick a side and be consistent... If new movies get to count preview grosses, then all older movies get to as well. If Top Gun: Maverick gets to sit on top listed as $160.5 million (instead of ~$141.2 million), then Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End should be listed as $153 million below it, not $139.8 million. (Then, of course, there's the issue of ticket-price inflation. Estimating tickets sold, etc. is not precise, but it gives a better sense of a movie's popularity. Charts should have that feature as well, because it's not accurate to say Top Gun: Maverick had the "Best" or "Biggest" Memorial weekend ever either... Just saying things like "Top" or "Best" or "Biggest" without qualification implies that a movie was the most popular, when it usually wasn't: in this case, At World's End had much higher attendance out-of-the-gate than Maverick did.)

Same... The quick HBO Max release cost them repeat business from me... and I imagine many others.

My fear now is that there could be some funny business to save face... Hope everything is above the board. Don't want to have any shadows cast upon Top Gun: Maverick and its amazing box office.

Agree... Let the windows match the movies! That's right, streaming is forever... so let the movies live in theaters as long as they can... some movies will be fruit flies, some will be tortoises... it's all good... just live and let live

Pirates' Thurs was always included in the TOTAL gross on the site... Besides, Deadline wasn't even claiming to use Box Office Mojo as the source. Quite the contrary, their goal was to discredit Box Office Mojo. But they ended up exposing their own lack of "authority." I agree that Box Office Mojo should be updated to clarify this whole issue of preview grosses, but I do not have the access to make those updates. Back in 2007, I don't think Disney liked that I sifted out the Thursday preview gross, but my policy was to exclude preview grosses for every movie... because the weekend is Fri-Sat-Sun, to keep comparisons apples-to-apples, etc... That's still my policy. BUT if someone's going to claim a new record using preview grosses, you better be damn sure I'm going to say something to correct that record... Again, if Top Gun: Maverick gets to count preview grosses, then so does At World's End and every previous movie... Apples-to-apples... Live by the sword, die by the sword... and such.

Great points. We saw the signs in The Batman run... As general audiences get hip to these movies being basically free 45 days later, how can that not have a deleterious effect during the actual 45-day theatrical windows?

If Top Gun clears 153 (or 140 without previews), then it claims the Memorial $ record... But it does matter to have an accurate record. We need to sort this out: If newer movies get to include previews, then older movies do as well... My preference has always been to keep previews out of the weekend gross. In other words, I want previews excluded from the newer movies. By the way, talking Top Gun now on Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/room/mZqove2k?utm_medium=ch_room_merc&utm_campaign=s3vlLDZN_FfUEl3Lyb1m-g-213752

It wasn't Disney pointing this out... It was me. I sent the email to Deadline to correct them... They responded by saying Box Office Mojo (and by extension me) was wrong, when I wasn't... Then they update, without really admitting that they (and their sources) were wrong... sigh Funny to have this behind-the-scenes drama when the real story is how amazing Top Gun: Maverick's box office is, even if it doesn't actually beat the Memorial weekend gross record. There's more to the drama, but this is my first post here... This forum is awesome. Appreciate how you all are keeping the box office torch alive. More detail on this story: I saw Deadline claiming the record when the estimate was $142 million, so I wrote to them and told them that "If Top Gun gets to count Thursday previews etc, then so does At World's End." Then they accuse me of double-counting At World's End's $13.2 million previews back in the day, which could easily be fact-checked... Their so-called "box office authorities" just assumed I was wrong. After further exchanges, I believe Deadline reached out to Disney. They even used some of my email as part of their story, yet they still didn't get it fully right... Anyway, there's more to this behind-the-scenes drama. Posting here because it came up in the thread, and I thought you all might be interested. Again, appreciate this forum. Thank you! Regards, Brandon Gray