2010 at the Box Office - Page 10

Extraordinary Measures tanked.

Long shot, but still potentially possible that "Blind Slide" creeps to $250M (which is one the best ROI in the top 10)

Avatar.. yes, $35M projection, but so far, weekend after weekend, hasn't it beaten projection damn near every time?

Can anybody provide me with a link to a website that makes available the total number of admissions for movies in addition to boxoffice numbers?  I have looked at boxofficemojo but have not seen a link for total number of admissions to movies.

Thanks guys

But let's also say as was pointed out a few pages ago, it's like apples to peanuts.
 

Gone With the Wind will probably always lead in total admissions.  Which is fine.  Then again, when GWTW was in theaters, almost nobody had a television.  So, the competition for the entertainment dollar wasn't nearly as tight.

Hell, we also forget that the number of theaters in existance hasn't gone up in the last decade, it's gone down..

Where I grew up as a kid, there was a drive in and two theaters within 45 miles.  Today?  The nearest theater from my home down is 39 miles.  The other has closed and the drive in is closed.

Even here in KC, many small theaters have basically died, and while there are still plenty of screens, it's all in meg AMC/Cinemark/Phoenix facilities.

Checking # of admissions is interesting.  But I'm amazed now when a film does incredible week after week business.  Factors against it happening today are INTENSE.  Things that didn't exist in the past:

(1) People who wait on DVD / BD
(2) People know a film will come to cable.
(3) Piracy (unfortunately part of the equation)
(4) Cost of a screening

Avatar asked people to pay a price premium in a down economy.  And it pulled it off.  It pulled it off week after week after week.  That is a stunning, absolutely stunning event.


You can't really compare it to Titanic (which didn't really face pressure from DVD even then) and you can't compare it to GWTW (which didn't face pressure from people who could watch TV at home)

We can acknowledge that people pay more, so it's easier to get to very high box office #s.  But the fact that you get people to the box office in big numbers is still a feet.

 

The exact numbers will probably never be known but there are great records as to how long the film was showing and what numbers were being brought in.  It's hard to tell how much is true as there were a lot of hands taking money and not reporting it.  There are at least three sources that say BIRTH made around $90 million. In NYC alone it made $12 million in a 44 week run (according to one source).
 

Ticket prices were $2 for box seats and the rest would range from $1 to $0.25.  Matinee shows were $1 for box and $0.50 to $0.25.  These prices lasted for the first week and then they realized that they had a hit on their hands and prices went up to $2 for all shows, all seats except for one showing on Sunday and that would be $1 for all seats.  Variety reported that $2 million had been made the first two months and the rest came after this. 
 

Boston was the second biggest market and Louis B. Mayer bought the film for $50,000 and "turned in" a profit of $7 million.  I quoted the "turned in" because profits were certainly going directly into his pockets and not everything was being turned over and completely reported since he had plans of buying the rights to the film in smaller cities so that he could continue to make the money.  Reports would surface in 1937 (when DeMille went to remake the film) that Mayer had made over $20 million before starting MGM.  Apparently "private" shows were being sold for upwards of $25,000.
 

Going by Variety, Richard Schickel and Carl Milliken (MPPDA), an estimated 200,000,000 had seen the film by 1918.  The interesting thing about this, with the numbers, is that the film was still banned in two states and was still playing a "road show" type of event with higher ticket prices.  WAY DOWN EAST (1920) was just opening as many people were finally getting a chance to see BIRTH at a lower, normal price tag.  Some people blame the road show of WAY DOWN EAST not doing well on the fact that it was running against BIRTH at a cheaper price  Ohio and Kansas didn't get to see the film until the late 20s where it was beating out the current string of films but no numbers are known here.
 

The film also had a successful return to NYC in 1921 where it played sold out shows for weeks.  It would be re-released again to good numbers in 1925.  Throughout the decade it would be trimmed but more and more revivals were being made up North where good numbers were reported.  The 1930 "sound" version was released across the country and didn't make the numbers people were hoping but it still brought in an estimated $500,000.  Of course, the film would continue to be played for the next three decades. 
 

I personally feel the early numbers are a bit too high as the producers and owners were wanting to hype up the "must see movie" but at the same time they probably add up in the end when one considers how long it was playing and for how many decades.  I think what's most telling is that whenever the film was banned in a city, the local theater owners would fight it in court because they knew if they needed money they could always re-release the film.  These type of showing, bootleg showings in your will, happened all the time and it's doubtful anyone except the theater owner saw the money.   

I'm looking at it from the perspective that the expectation was that films such as "Sherlock Holmes" would knock Avatar off its perch. From strictly that point of view the film is a "dud" because it didn't have the popularity to do so. I'm not saying the film was a dud quality-wise or box office-wise. It was just a dud in relation to knocking Avatar off the throne. So what if "Sherlock Holmes" made 200 million? It still was unsuccessful at dethroning Avatar. It didn't have the muscle or the draw to knock out Avatar, so from the narrow perspective of acquiring the box office crown of #1 it was a "dud". It wasn't good enough to outcompete Avatar.

@ Patrick Sun

When I looked at the release schedule for 2010 I originally thought that Avatar would hold on to the #1 spot until "From Paris with Love"; however, I decided I can't count out Gibson's box office draw, especially if the film receives some good buzz.