What boxoffice runs are unbelievable in retrospect?

[ShouldIBeHere]

Titanic. Period.

 

Even the history-thread here on the board is entertaining (and more so than most current BO watches).

[ShouldIBeHere]

As someone who followed the making of the LotR movies with quite some worries, it was pretty sick to see RotK become the 2nd movie in history to cross the 1 bn $ mark.

 

Together with the tie of 11 Oscars with Ben Hur and Titanic LotR's era almost felt like a little miracle.

[jb007]

1. Star Wars: ANH

2. E.T.

3. Jaws

4. Titanic

5. Star Wars: TFA

 

 

Coincidentally, my picks almost mirror the adjusted gross list.

 

[peludo]

1 hour ago, ShouldIBeHere said:

As someone who followed the making of the LotR movies with quite some worries, it was pretty sick to see RotK become the 2nd movie in history to cross the 1 bn $ mark.

 

Together with the tie of 11 Oscars with Ben Hur and Titanic LotR's era almost felt like a little miracle.

Sure. And today, 13 years later, it is still very remarkable to make over 1.1b. And it did not need China to achieve it. Great run, no matter how you look at.

Edited February 3, 2016 by peludo

[John Marston]

Titanic is of course the obvious choice but I feel even many smaller movies still make me go WTF when I see their adjusted grosses

 

Rush Hour 2 adjusts to $324 million. A good example

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by John Marston

[Jayhawk the Hutt]

25 minutes ago, John Marston said:

Titanic is of course the obvious choice but I feel even many smaller movies still make me go WTF when I see their adjusted grosses

 

Rush Hour 2 adjusts to $324 million. A good example

 

Just was looking at the adjusted gross list because of your comment. Meet the Fockers is one of the most surprising, it adjusts to $385m.

[HesAPooka]

Didn't go through all the pages, but if it hasn't already been mentioned than you guys should be kicking yourselves. look who's talking adjusts to 303m domestic.

 

 also, Crocodile Dundee 401m domestic

 

 

[shayhiri]

Prince of Persia.

 

It was my first BO disappointment - and it broke my heart. I couldn't sleep for weeks. It should have made 800m WW and gotten at least 4 sequels - but the world is a dumb and cruel place.

 

That's also when the Shay was born. And the Shay doesn't give two shits about the World, really.

Edited February 4, 2016 by shayhiri

[department store basement]

I have no idea how the hell 127 Hours made only 18m domestic given how well known it was at the time even among non-movie buffs.

 

After the movie came out EVERYONE knew about Ralston's story. It was endlessly parodied in pictures at the time.

 

Did it do better on DVD?

Edited February 4, 2016 by department store basement

[baumer]

I know I'm a little late to the game here but yes MBFGW's run is truly unbelievable but I get why it did what it did.  

 

I was married to a Portuguese woman at the time and so obviously all of my inlaws were Portuguese.  That film fucking nailed what it's like to be a white man married to a woman of European decent.  My in laws, some of who had never been to a movie or even spoke English all that well, went to theater to see it and some of them laughed so hard tears rolled down their cheeks.  It was pretty unbelievable to sit next to my mother in law and have her laugh more than I did......and I laughed a lot, because I could relate to it. It was a crazy run but when you examine the target audience, you can understand why it did what it did.

[alisson23]

The Hunger Games and Mockingjay Part 2

Ted 2, Jurassic World

[rustyspoons89]

Frozen. It's 4th - 6th weekends were up there with Titanic's and Avatar's. 

[Biph Shmata]

Rocky Horror Picture show since it's run is still going.

[a2k]

Wedding Crashers did great in 2005

33.9m ow / 209.1m finish - 6.17x

 

http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Wedding-Crashers-The#tab=box-office

[ It released in summer so had great weekdays (look at the consistency in weekedays for 1st 3-4 weeks).

Despite that it dropped in the 20% range for 7 out of the 1st 9 weekends. the other 2 weekend drops were in low 32%]

[POTUS 2020]

MBFGW run is the most amazing since post vcr. 

Titanic was was huge and held amazingly well of course. Sold more tickets than anything else in the last 30 years, but it was a $200m  budget and was expecting to do 200m or more based JCs track record and tripling that expectation was a feat. However...

 

MBFGW was an indie that cost 5m. It made nearly 50 times its budget. That's beats Jaws, ANHand ET at 20-25x ratios. And it ran for a year like those movies making just 5- 10m for many weekends but in a post vcr age. 

 

SW7 JW TA Avatar and Titanic were all tremendous runs but watching that little train that could climb in gross for 20 weekends. Level off for a few weekends and descend just as slowly for 20 weekends was more was incredidible.

Even at 20 weeks into the run 200m was not thought possible and the bar kept getting raised.. In BOM derby so many kept predicting 20% or more drops along the way, and that didn't finally happen until week 32. It dropped more than 20% just 5 weekends out of 40 while above 1m. 

We will see a run that will best SW7 as SW7 bested Avatar. I don't think we will see another run like MBFGW.

500k OW, 241m gross, with zero hype.

That was some Big Fat WOM!!!!

 

Edited February 4, 2016 by No Prisoners

[baumer]

Terrific post @No Prisoners.  It was a film that thrived from adult wom, very rare indeed.

[Maxmoser3]

A surpise is that to me is that Wayne's World is the only SNL film to have made over 100 million unadjusted. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=snl.htm

[Maxmoser3]

Urban Legend's holds back in 1998. A teen horror film that has mixed reception. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=urbanlegend.htm 

[John Marston]

4 minutes ago, Maxmoser3 said:

Urban Legend's holds back in 1998. A teen horror film that has mixed reception. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=urbanlegend.htm 

 

 

I Know What You Did Last Summer is an even better example 

 

 

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=iknowwhatyoudidlastsummer.htm

[department store basement]

4 hours ago, Maxmoser3 said:

A surpise is that to me is that Wayne's World is the only SNL film to have made over 100 million unadjusted. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=snl.htm

 

Why is that surprising?

 

On the topic of SNL movies, I find it funny how the radio single from the Coneheads soundtrack ("Soul to Squeeze" by Red Hot Chili Peppers) is way better known than the movie itself.