What boxoffice runs are unbelievable in retrospect?

[jb007]

Another way to assess the impact of these all-time blockbusters is to check the percent of their grosses against the overall gross of the industry for that year. The actual impact of movies like TFA, Titanic and Avatar may slightly lower, since part of their grosses are earned in the following year. Movies released in summer like TPM's impact are fully realized in the same year of release.

 

BOM has total yearly grosses from 1980. Jaws and ANH may have had bigger impact than the ones listed below.

 

Ranking is as follows:

 

1. E.T. 359.2/3453 = 10.4%

2. Titanic: 600.8/6365.9 = 9.4%

3. TFA: 935(proj)/11126 = 8.4%

4. Avatar: 749.8/10595 = 7.1%

5. JP: 357.1/5154 = 6.9%

6. TPM: 431.1/7448 = 5.8% 

Edited February 6, 2016 by jb007

[jbdu77000]

With inflation the most impressive is TITANIC!!! With his initial run in 1997/1998 Titanic earned 1.843billion dollars!!! With adjustation, Titanic earned about 3.5billion in 2015 (without re-released). 2nd place to E.T. with more 1billion domesticallly adjusted (only behind Titanic) and 3rd place to Star wars or Avatar.... Then there are GWTW Jaws Doctor jivago  ten commandments and TFA

Edited February 6, 2016 by jbdu77000

[lilmac]

On 2/3/2016 at 1:12 PM, No Prisoners said:

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!!!!

 

 

Great post

[Cochofles]

I agree that Greek Wedding was indeed a spectacular run. I can't imagine anyone involved in this film even contemplating anything beyond a run that would make back its budget and maybe a little profit, let alone a friggin 200-million-dollar juggernaut.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Cochofles

[lilmac]

It came out in April of one year and was still making over $1m a weekend in February the next year. Reminiscent of the boxoffice office runs of the early 80s and 70s where movies would be in theaters for almost a year or years (from what I hear). 

 

 

Date (click to view chart)	Rank	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theaters	Change / Avg.		Gross-to-Date	Week #
Apr 19–21	20	$597,362	-	108	-	$5,531	$597,362	1
Apr 26–28	16	$804,683	+34.7%	141	+33	$5,706	$1,626,751	2
May 3–5	16	$666,304	-17.2%	147	+6	$4,532	$2,567,045	3
May 10–12	11	$1,262,562	+89.5%	247	+100	$5,111	$4,112,413	4
May 17–19	10	$1,135,207	-10.1%	275	+28	$4,128	$5,669,706	5
May 24–26	11	$1,247,000 (Estimate)	+9.8%	260	-15	$4,796	$7,300,000 (Estimate)	6
May 24–27	11	$1,590,085	+40.1%	260	-15	$6,115	$7,642,884	6
May 31–Jun 2	11	$910,901	-	236	-24	$3,859	$8,863,863	7
Jun 7–9	12	$1,688,563	+85.4%	443	+207	$3,811	$11,002,602	8
Jun 14–16	12	$1,755,197	+3.9%	455	+12	$3,857	$13,642,098	9
Jun 21–23	14	$1,776,990	+1.2%	444	-11	$4,002	$16,318,140	10
Jun 28–30	13	$2,002,184	+12.7%	493	+49	$4,061	$19,340,988	11
Jul 5–7	11	$2,508,748	+25.3%	499	+6	$5,027	$23,576,174	12
Jul 12–14	12	$2,230,158	-11.1%	495	-4	$4,505	$27,031,170	13
Jul 19–21	14	$2,497,454	+12.0%	530	+35	$4,712	$30,862,103	14
Jul 26–28	10	$3,004,597	+20.3%	569	+39	$5,280	$35,417,552	15
Aug 2–4	9	$3,002,241	-0.1%	657	+88	$4,569	$40,172,975	16
Aug 9–11	8	$3,133,316	+4.4%	723	+66	$4,333	$45,063,979	17
Aug 16–18	6	$5,700,072	+81.9%	1,064	+341	$5,357	$52,777,170	18
Aug 23–25	4	$7,261,842	+27.4%	1,329	+265	$5,464	$63,690,730	19
Aug 30–Sep 1	2	$11,100,764	+52.9%	1,619	+290	$6,856	$78,848,210	20
Aug 30–Sep 2	2	$14,809,546	+104%	1,619	+290	$9,147	$82,556,992	20
Sep 6–8	2	$10,372,316	-6.6%	1,695	+76	$6,119	$95,824,732	21
Sep 13–15	2	$10,772,146	+3.9%	1,764	+69	$6,106	$110,443,668	22
Sep 20–22	3	$9,748,969	-9.5%	1,853	+89	$5,261	$124,052,987	23
Sep 27–29	4	$9,434,602	-3.2%	1,841	-12	$5,124	$136,628,662	24
Oct 4–6	4	$8,223,801	-12.8%	1,971	+130	$4,172	$147,717,828	25
Oct 11–13	5	$8,453,159	+2.8%	2,016	+45	$4,193	$158,954,054	26
Oct 18–20	4	$7,145,309	-15.5%	2,014	-2	$3,547	$169,292,979	27
Oct 25–27	5	$6,209,500	-13.1%	1,967	-47	$3,156	$177,698,447	28
Nov 1–3	6	$5,623,149	-9.4%	1,977	+10	$2,844	$185,244,976	29
Nov 8–10	6	$5,854,005	+4.1%	1,975	-2	$2,964	$192,857,165	30
Nov 15–17	6	$4,713,464	-19.5%	1,812	-163	$2,601	$199,574,370	31
Nov 22–24	8	$3,657,055	-22.4%	1,585	-227	$2,307	$204,520,221	32
Nov 29–Dec 1	11	$3,985,057	+9.0%	1,257	-328	$3,170	$210,585,352	33
Dec 6–8	13	$2,013,029	-49.5%	1,257	-	$1,601	$213,263,148	34
Dec 13–15	12	$1,704,285	-15.3%	1,230	-27	$1,385	$215,640,319	35
Dec 20–22	13	$1,461,534	-14.2%	973	-257	$1,502	$217,765,974	36
Dec 27–29	12	$2,760,697	+88.9%	951	-22	$2,902	$222,517,469	37

2003

Date (click to view chart)	Rank	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theaters	Change / Avg.		Gross-to-Date	Week #
Jan 3–5	13	$2,661,106	-3.6%	1,194	+243	$2,228	$227,898,505	38
Jan 10–12	16	$2,102,547	-21.0%	1,212	+18	$1,734	$230,876,712	39
Jan 17–19	15	$2,173,330	+3.4%	1,171	-41	$1,855	$233,841,212	40
Jan 17–20	15	$2,601,083	+23.7%	1,171	-41	$2,221	$234,268,965	40
Jan 24–26	14	$1,704,430	-21.6%	1,143	-28	$1,491	$236,448,697	41
Jan 31–Feb 2	15	$1,538,527	-9.7%	1,076	-67	$1,429	$238,540,872	42
Feb 7–9	17	$1,003,360	-34.8%	971	-105	$1,033	$239,952,321	43
Feb 14–16	24	$475,282	-52.6%	533	-438	$891	$240,686,319	44
Feb 14–17	25	$531,331	-47.0%	533	-438	$996	$240,742,368	44
Feb 21–23	29	$214,809	-54.8%	353	-180	$608	$241,055,385	45
Feb 28–Mar 2	40	$130,928	-39.0%	260	-93	$503	$241,250,669	46
Mar 7–9	49	$71,321	-45.5%	170	-90	$419	$241,356,536	47
Mar 14–16	70	$20,903	-70.7%	74	-96	$282	$241,406,779	48
Mar 21–23	80	$9,651	-53.8%	36	-38	$268	$241,423,860	49
Mar 28–30	96	$5,587	-42.1%	21	-15	$266	$241,433,282	50
Apr 4–6	133	$1,696	-69.6%	6	-15	$282	$241,437,427	51
Apr 11–13	146	$27	-98.4%	1	-5	$27	$241,438,208	52

[SchumacherFTW]

Even at its biggest, and in limited release, it never passed $10,000 pta! Wtf! 

[Cochofles]

On 2/3/2016 at 1:12 PM, No Prisoners said:

 I don't think we will see another run like MBFGW.

500k OW, 241m gross, with zero hype.

 

It didn't have any pre-release hype, but the beauty of its run was that it built its own hype as it went along. The hype was the film's own WOM...people talked it up incessantly and as the run continued, more and more people wanted to see what this "Greek wedding film that others keep recommending" was about. That's true blue, old fashioned word-of-mouth power right there.

[MCKillswitch123]

If it wasn't for Titanic, I'd straight up say that My Big Fat Greek Wedding had the single most impressive box office run of all time.

 

But yeah, to hit on a newer point. Se7en adjusts to just under $200M DOM. A gory, brutal R-rated horror thriller, starring two at the time not certified BO draws in Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, made nearly 200M DOM adjusted. Over 300M WW actuals. Unbelievable, if you ask me.

[pieman]

Tootsie - almost 500 million adjusted for a smart New York comedy.

[Cochofles]

On 2/2/2016 at 3:47 AM, 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.

 

Which one was the first? Titanic ?

[lilmac]

On 5/21/2016 at 3:10 PM, Cochofles said:

Which one was the first? Titanic ?

 

 

Yes. Although Lion King's $800m+ worldwide back in 1994 was very impressive and probably adjusts to $1bn by the time ROTK did it.  

[Eric Duncan]

This is the one that always amazes me: Forrest Gump.

 

This nearly 2.5 hour-long drama focusing on a mentally slow Tom Hanks going through and experiencing the cultural mood swings of 40s-80s America would probably gross around $100M at most today, and I'm being generous. But not only did it gross almost $330M, not only did it have the legs of 13.5, but it was the biggest movie of the year, beating out Disney's 90s magnum opus, and a Schwarzenegger-Cameron joint. Did Hanks' Oscar goodwill and Zemeckis' BttF success really make it that big of a hit?

 

There's also Pirates of the Carribean 1. Think about it: This was a movie based on a theme park ride and a genre that was completely abandoned after Cutthroat Island crashed and burned, it was Disney's first foray into the PG-13 rating (excluding Touchstone of course), and it costed $140M to make, at a time when that budget wasn't the Hollywood norm. And yet, it made over $305M off of a $70.6M 5-day opener, and didn't drop above hard until week 22. It even grossed more than movies with bigger brand recognition at the time (Matrix Reloaded, Terminator 3, X-Men 2, etc.) Now that's something you don't see everyday.

Edited October 10, 2016 by CoolEric258

[Maxmoser3]

Crocodile Dundee's adjusted OW and adjusted domestic total. In particular with its fall release a film like that would under $100 million, and behaves like a Christmas release. The film adjusts to $18 million OW and $400 million domestic which is a great multipler for an adventure comedy! 

[Maxmoser3]

Also Animal House nearly adjusting to $445 million domestic. That's very solid for an original R-rated comedy, and solid for an college themed comedy. It is also a rarity for an SNL alum which for most films adjusted they range from $200 million to $165-$170 million to $148 million. To under $110 million. The rest made decent to dissapointing results. 

[robertman2]

Best run of this year?

[filmlover]

2 minutes ago, robertman2 said:

Best run of this year?

Gotta be between Deadpool, Zootopia, The Jungle Book, and The Secret Life of Pets.

[robertman2]

2 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Gotta be between Deadpool, Zootopia, The Jungle Book, and The Secret Life of Pets.

I'd say Deadpool or Zootopia

[Webslinger]

2 hours ago, CoolEric258 said:

This is the one that always amazes me: Forrest Gump.

 

This nearly 2.5 hour-long drama focusing on a mentally slow Tom Hanks going through and experiencing the cultural mood swings of 40s-80s America would probably gross around $100M at most today, and I'm being generous. But not only did it gross almost $330M, not only did it have the legs of 13.5, but it was the biggest movie of the year, beating out Disney's 90s magnum opus, and a Schwarzenegger-Cameron joint. Did Hanks' Oscar goodwill and Zemeckis' BttF success really make it that big of a hit?

 

There's also Pirates of the Carribean 1. Think about it: This was a movie based on a theme park ride and a genre that was completely abandoned after Cutthroat Island crashed and burned, it was Disney's first foray into the PG-13 rating (excluding Touchstone of course), and it costed $140M to make, at a time when that budget wasn't the Hollywood norm. And yet, it made over $305M off of a $70.6M 5-day opener, and didn't drop above hard until week 22. It even grossed more than movies with bigger brand recognition at the time (Matrix Reloaded, Terminator 3, X-Men 2, etc.) Now that's something you don't see everyday.

 

Forrest Gump hit at the perfect time in terms of reaching adults. It depicted significant events that most American adults of the time could remember and relate to, and it did so in a manner that was gentle rather than vicious in its satire. Furthermore, it took advantage of a huge star name (considering that Hanks had numerous hits to his name and was coming off an Oscar win for Philadelphia - which, itself, made more money in 1993 than most LGBTQ+ films could hope to make nowadays) in a time when stars could still drive films to huge grosses. It also opened in mid-summer and got such strong word-of-mouth that it stayed in theatres long after its more standard competition (e.g. True Lies, The Mask) had faded away, and it got a second theatrical wind back in an era when Oscar nominations actually meant something as far as theatrical earning potential was concerned. It was really a perfect storm in terms of factors leading to audience appeal within its time.

 

Pirates of the Caribbean's run still astonishes me. I wasn't posting on forums at the time, but I was still well aware of the fact that The Matrix Reloaded was expected to run away with the summer box office title, and that a domestic gross of $300 million for Pirates of the Caribbean should have been a pipe dream irrespective of how cool the trailer looked to 12-year-old-Me. Seeing the film hold on well week after week and even make a run at reclaiming the #1 spot (which it came within $1.39 million of doing during the post-Labor Day weekend) blew my mind.

[Joel M]

9 hours ago, Webslinger said:

 

Pirates of the Caribbean's run still astonishes me. I wasn't posting on forums at the time, but I was still well aware of the fact that The Matrix Reloaded was expected to run away with the summer box office title, and that a domestic gross of $300 million for Pirates of the Caribbean should have been a pipe dream irrespective of how cool the trailer looked to 12-year-old-Me. Seeing the film hold on well week after week and even make a run at reclaiming the #1 spot (which it came within $1.39 million of doing during the post-Labor Day weekend) blew my mind.

 

Pirates was completely an afterthought at the start of that summer. It wasn't just Matrix Reloaded ahead of it. Expectations for T3, Hulk and even the Charlie's Angels sequel were bigger than whatever POTC was expected to make. It sounds crazy in hindsight but it looked very risky at the time. 140m budget, based on a theme park ride, part of an infamously dead genre and starring weirdo Johnny Depp. Many even saw it as nothing more than an uber-expensive Disney ad for their theme parks.

[filmlover]

Yeah, most people had Pirates of the Caribbean as being one of the big flops that summer at the start of the season.