What boxoffice runs are unbelievable in retrospect?

[ExcelFTW]

That I have followed?

 

Spider-man 1.

 

I don't think anybody thought 100m was even possible. It's 2nd weekend was $75 million. 7 months prior, that same total would have broken the box office weekend record by $5 million.

 

The Dark Knight, Frozen, Pirates 1 (movie wouldn't die), um...sure there are more.

Edited June 18, 2015 by ExcelFTW

[lilmac]

My big fat greek wedding was something very incredible.  You have to remember that this was at the time where a frontloaded movie was still getting a 3.0 multiplier... MBFGW never recorded a week-end over 20M and it broke 200M in total over 6 months. 

 

Shrek 2 was an oddity...everyone was thinking that it would break out real big and it went DOA on its Wednesday opening...People were in "What went wrong" mode and trying to figure out what the F happened for it to open that low until we saw its Friday number and it went on to record the 2nd biggest OW ever at the time (with some demands burned off).

 

Watching Avatar's progress was nice.  Everyone kept saying : this is the Week-end it's gonna drop normally and it would drop 20-25% and we would all say the same thing for the next week-end...Even after the 2nd week-end I was thinking it would end up between TDK and Titanic...never thought it would reach 750M.

 

Not a big fan of Frozen,  but from a numbers point of view,  the box office run and DVD/Blu Ray run was incredible. 

 

I also think any sequels that opens over the entire run of the original movie is something impressive (Austin Powers, Terminator, Pitch Perfect...etc...)

 

Yea, you pretty much nailed it. I would add that tracking Titanic's run on the boxoffice boards at the time was very fun. It was unlike anything we've ever seen and never have since except for MBFGW. Sixth Sense came close.

[Tau Ceti]

Just skimmed this thread and WTF?... Nobody's mentioned Jaws? A billion dollars DOM ajusted with like 500 theatres. The very idea of the blockbuster is based on this movie. I'd call that an unbelievable run in retrospect.

[Aplandg]

My big fat greek wedding was something very incredible. You have to remember that this was at the time where a frontloaded movie was still getting a 3.0 multiplier... MBFGW never recorded a week-end over 20M and it broke 200M in total over 6 months.

Shrek 2 was an oddity...everyone was thinking that it would break out real big and it went DOA on its Wednesday opening...People were in "What went wrong" mode and trying to figure out what the F happened for it to open that low until we saw its Friday number and it went on to record the 2nd biggest OW ever at the time (with some demands burned off).

Watching Avatar's progress was nice. Everyone kept saying : this is the Week-end it's gonna drop normally and it would drop 20-25% and we would all say the same thing for the next week-end...Even after the 2nd week-end I was thinking it would end up between TDK and Titanic...never thought it would reach 750M.

Not a big fan of Frozen, but from a numbers point of view, the box office run and DVD/Blu Ray run was incredible.

I also think any sequels that opens over the entire run of the original movie is something impressive (Austin Powers, Terminator, Pitch Perfect...etc...)

I was totally in that what went wrong mode when I saw Shrek 2 on Wednesday and there was only like 15 other people in my theater other then my group. I was so shocked to see the weekend numbers.

[Tubes]

Avatar was obviously nuts.  Nuttier that Cameron managed another improbable box office run in his first movie back since Titanic, under near identical circumstances (overblown budget, negative press during the summer).

 

I remain amazed at how well Skyfall did, outperforming previous Bond films by nearly 50% in ticket sales and nuking all comers to the UK BO record.  As Bond fans, you heard from the older fans about Bondmania in the 60's, but never really thought you'd experience anything close to it until Skyfall came out.

 

Gravity was fun to track, as it had been a while since a Fall release was so popular.

[DavidBrennan]

Many of the successes cited here weren't shocking at the release date:

 

-The Firm

-T2

-Austin Powers 2

 

Among quite a few others.  These might be shocking in retrospect, but they were only "shocking" at the time insofar as they were considerable hits that were considerably on the right side of their expectation bell curves, but not very far right at all.  (T2, in fact, had the highest budget of all time at its release, although Cameron disputed this, citing 'Cleopatra's inflation-adjusted budget.)

Edited June 18, 2015 by DavidBrennan

[DavidBrennan]

Avatar was obviously nuts.  Nuttier that Cameron managed another improbable box office run in his first movie back since Titanic, under near identical circumstances (overblown budget, negative press during the summer).

 

I remain amazed at how well Skyfall did, outperforming previous Bond films by nearly 50% in ticket sales and nuking all comers to the UK BO record.  As Bond fans, you heard from the older fans about Bondmania in the 60's, but never really thought you'd experience anything close to it until Skyfall came out.

 

Gravity was fun to track, as it had been a while since a Fall release was so popular.

 

Avatar didn't have any special degree of negative press, aside from people disliking the preview.  And that was just phony internet groupthink giggles, not sincere dislike.

[Kalel009Shel]

Easy to say that we understand its success now but Titanic's run was mind blowing. We've covered a lot of this in the "Pretend it's 1997 all over again" thread but look at these facts and figures.

Opened to 28 million dollars.

When it first opened, Guru said that it could leg it's way to 150 mill because of the holidays.

Second weekend, it increase by almost 24%.

By the third weekend, it had passed Guru's optimistic projection. Meaning in three weeks time, it already had a 5 multiplier.

The most it decreased on the weekend in its first 8 weeks was 13.8%.

It's highest grossing DAY came 58 days into it's run, when it made 13 million on Valentine's Day.

It cleared 400 million on day 66

It cleared 500 million on day 98

It was making at least 1 million dollars a day consecutively for for 92 days.

It was until weekend 16 that it stopped making 1 million a weekend.

Titanic's run was ridiculous.[/quot

e]greatest run in history.when it made a 1.2b and so many territories all time list i was just cheering cameron on. Wow stayed in theaters till summer. Holy shit

[Kalel009Shel]

Just skimmed this thread and WTF?... Nobody's mentioned Jaws? A billion dollars DOM ajusted with like 500 theatres. The very idea of the blockbuster is based on this movie. I'd call that an unbelievable run in retrospect.

many many re-releases and no computer pirating. It cant be compared to this era. Still it was the first to make the 100 m mark at the bo. Awesome

[The Dark Rock]

Jurassic World

[BadAtGender]

Just skimmed this thread and WTF?... Nobody's mentioned Jaws? A billion dollars DOM ajusted with like 500 theatres. The very idea of the blockbuster is based on this movie. I'd call that an unbelievable run in retrospect.

 

It was an amazing run to be sure, but it was prior to most board members even being born. And it was in that pre-1980 era where records of what it was like can't be easily accessed, so there's no way to get a good picture of what it was like from the data. I mean we don't even have an accurate final total, just that flat 260m number, possibly because they never really tracked box office grosses before then, just the rents.

 

Perhaps because of that, it did set up the concept of the modern blockbuster, and the films that followed in the last 70s (Star Wars, Superman, etc.) have a better image of what their runs were like.

[Kalel009Shel]

Titanic most likely sold more tickets than GWTW and didn't need a shit load of re-releases to do it.

amen nothing can match the might of titan in this world. The best bo run of all time. Even pirating couldnt slow it down

[Kalel009Shel]

The amazing battle of tlk and forrest gump. Folks forget. The true king of animation is tlk. My god 330 plus mil andvover 700 mil ww...and forrest gump going neck to neck with it, but loses the ww race. Wow

[Tubes]

Jaws was also an insanely wide release at the time.  The initial intent was to book 900 theaters opening week in an era before multiplexes.

 

I don't know if it ever got there, but Star Wars managed over a thousand theaters in August '77.

[DavidBrennan]

Titanic

MBFGW

Farhenheit 911

Sixth Sense

Hangover

 

These are legit "unbelievable" box office runs that make this thread interesting.  Just repeating tentpole blockbusters (SM, AVTR, T2, etc.) that went appreciably above their ceilings shouldn't qualify for entry.

[Tubes]

Hangover

 

A:

-R rated Comedy

-Whose biggest star at the time was Mike Tyson

-Dumped in a post-Pixar spot against Will Ferrell

 

Somehow made $275 mil plus of a $44 mil weekend.

 

I still don't understand how that happened.  At least Vaughn and Wilson were starts before Wedding Crashers.

[DavidBrennan]

A:

-R rated Comedy

-Whose biggest star at the time was Mike Tyson

-Dumped in a post-Pixar spot against Will Ferrell

 

Somehow made $275 mil plus of a $44 mil weekend.

 

I still don't understand how that happened.  At least Vaughn and Wilson were starts before Wedding Crashers.

Still haven't seen it.  I remember my girlfriend wanting to go see it so bad because everybody was telling her it was just hilarious.  She eventually went with her girlfriends, but I had (and have) no interest in yet another movie about a bunch of (aged) dudes guzzling beer and acting like teenagers.

[Tubes]

They're great if you enjoy living vicariously through characters doing stupid things.  At least the first two, I never bothered to see the third.

[peludo]

What about Matrix? I do not say it is the most unbelievable, but quite remarkable. It had a 6.33 multiplier (27/171). The biggest drop in the first 12 weeks was a 36% and it was because Phantom Menace opening.

[vc2002]

Titanic

MBFGW

Farhenheit 911

Sixth Sense

Hangover

 

These are legit "unbelievable" box office runs that make this thread interesting.  Just repeating tentpole blockbusters (SM, AVTR, T2, etc.) that went appreciably above their ceilings shouldn't qualify for entry.

 

Avatar belongs to the same group as Titanic, not some movie adapted from one of the most popular comics, or a sequel to a beloved predecessor starring one of the biggest draws at his peak. Here's more. Avatar should get more appreciation because while 90's was still good for original movies, (late) 00's was totally dominated by sequels prequels and adaptions, and the fact Avatar as an original movie managed still to claim the boxoffice all time DOM and WW champion is IMO as unbelievable as Titanic.

Edited June 18, 2015 by vc2002