What boxoffice runs are unbelievable in retrospect?

[John Marston]

the original Scary Movie adjusts to 

$236,549,300

[Lordmandeep]

Signs adjusts to 317 million dollars.

 

No way that makes this much in todays world lol. 

[grim22]

Signs adjusts to 317 million dollars.

 

No way that makes this much in todays world lol. 

 

Signs was made when Mel Gibson and Shyamalan were both at the heights of their box office powers. Now both men are box office poison.

[grim22]

This seems like a really specific record, but I noticed that Home Alone finished #1 on all weekends from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Looking through BOM, I only found one other movie which topped the box office from Thanksgiving through Christmas both weekends inclusive, Rocky IV.

[John Marston]

the following sequels  totally annihilated their predecessors grosses 

 

 

The Terminator - $92,165,600 

Terminator 2 - $395,089,800

 

 

 

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery - $95,324,200

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - $329,339,700

 

 

First Blood -

$130,397,600
 

 

Rambo: First Blood Part II - 

$344,048,800
 

[Moviedweeb]

Gotta say, The Ice Age franchise has put up unbelievable numbers overseas. 

[Vanilla]

Signs was made when Mel Gibson and Shyamalan were both at the heights of their box office powers. Now both men are box office poison.

Sadly.

[lilmac]

It was mentioned before, but Home Alone. Seriously.

 

It was the third biggest movie of all time after its release. That's crazy. It remained in the top 10 until Star Wars Episode 1 bounced it down to 11th in '99.

 

(Fun fact: Until The Lion King broke in there in 1994, all of the 5 biggest films had scores by John Williams: ET, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Home Alone, and Return of the Jedi. Jaws was 6th, too.)

 

Everybody knows trumpets and horns add at least $50-million to the final gross.  Any brass instruments will do actually.

[lilmac]

 

the original Scary Movie adjusts to 

$236,549,300

 

 

Yowza!!  How is that possible?  Answer: parodies were somewhat novel at the time methinks.

 

- The Hunger Games: might surprise some to see it listed here, but it made over $400m when few predicted it to make over $200m. It had a relatively small budget ($78 million), it had no 3D and it opened in March. 

 

- The Avengers: A $207m opening weekend followed by a $103m 2nd weekend? How is that not unbelievable?

 

- Shrek 2: I remember when this opened and people were somewhat disappointed by the opening Wednesday and Thursday grosses thinking it would disappoint, but then it exploded with a $108m OW, and went onto make $441m. 

 

- Avatar: James Cameron does it again with another Titanic like run in 2009 which ushered in the era of 3D.

 

Still not sure how/why Shrek 2 made so much. One of the most surprising boxoffice runs. 

[MovieMan89]

Twister for sure. It adjusts to $442m and it's essentially a movie about bad weather. And the closest any of the cast was to a big name at the time was Bill Paxton.  How in the hell did that happen? It's basically like if Into the Storm had done that well this year.

Edited January 13, 2015 by MovieMan89

[MovieMan89]

Even more perplexing with Twister is that it had a 6x multi on top of a big OW for the mid 90's! Yes I know it was a much better era for multis, but 6x was still exceptional. Did people really think that movie was so amazing back then? I mean it's such a nothing movie. Totally mind boggling to me.

[LexJoker]

Surprised no one mentioned The Sixth Sense yet.

 

$293M UNADJUSTED.

 

$672MM WW, which I believe is still in the top 10 list of completely original property feature film(non-animated).

Edited January 13, 2015 by LexJoker

[Mattrek]

Even more perplexing with Twister is that it had a 6x multi on top of a big OW for the mid 90's! Yes I know it was a much better era for multis, but 6x was still exceptional. Did people really think that movie was so amazing back then? I mean it's such a nothing movie. Totally mind boggling to me.

That was the first movie to have tornadoes in it that actually looked kind of real. It was a huge hit since back then CGI hadn't been around long and the effects were mind blowing at the time.

[baumer]

Even more perplexing with Twister is that it had a 6x multi on top of a big OW for the mid 90's! Yes I know it was a much better era for multis, but 6x was still exceptional. Did people really think that movie was so amazing back then? I mean it's such a nothing movie. Totally mind boggling to me.

 

That was state of the art SPFX back then and the flying cow generated all kinds of buzz.  I know it doesn't seem like much but it really did.  

 

Look, we take for granted everything we see in movies now.  SPFX have spoiled us but 20 years ago, it was different.  Twister was truly one of a kind at that point.

[baumer]

That was the first movie to have tornadoes in it that actually looked kind of real. It was a huge hit since back then CGI hadn't been around long and the effects were mind blowing at the time.

 

You beat me to it.

[Mattrek]

You beat me to it.

Apologize with a like and all is forgiven.

[alisson23]

New moon's run. That bump from Twilight... WOOOW. Unbeliavable for a piece of garbage.

 

How to train your dragon 2 domestic's run. A drop from HTYD1 is unbeliavable. i know the trailer was mediocre but i didn't expect that drop. Less about 6M tickets from first...

 

Hunger Games. i don't need say anything.

[Jessie]

Skyfall, 1.1b for a 2d bond movie, beating out TDKR

 

imo it was by far the most impressive box office performance of 2012

[Jessie]

New moon's run. That bump from Twilight... WOOOW. Unbeliavable for a piece of garbage.

 

How to train your dragon 2 domestic's run. A drop from HTYD1 is unbeliavable. i know the trailer was mediocre but i didn't expect that drop. Less about 6M tickets from first...

 

Hunger Games. i don't need say anything.

 

HTTYD 2's drop wasn;t that much of a shock if im being honest,  i'd  be lying if I say I didn't kind of expect a KFP2 type run. I never felt any buzz for it.

Edited January 13, 2015 by jessie

[Jessie]

Independence Day. 300m domestic (559 adjusted, over 600m 3d included), 800m worldwide in 1996. it became the second highest grossing movie of all time behind Jurassic Park, such an awesome film. Its overseas gross back then is almost as big as Godzilla 14's worldwide gross. Almost 20 years later and people still adore this movie.

Edited January 13, 2015 by jessie