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Post by geoffrey on May 9, 2011 20:49:11 GMT -6
Following is the list of 20 movies that sold the most tickets, which is a more helpful list than top-grossing, since inflation keeps devaluing the dollar. By each film title is A) the number of tickets it sold, and B) this number expressed as a percentage assuming that the 1977 Star Wars film is 100%: 1. Gone With the Wind – 202,044,600 113%
2. Star Wars – 178,119,600 100%
3. The Sound of Music – 142,415,400 80%
4. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial – 141,854,300 80%
5. The Ten Commandments – 131,000,000 74%
6. Titanic – 128,345,900 72%
7. Jaws – 128,078,800 72%
8. Doctor Zhivago – 124,135,500 70%
9. The Exorcist – 110,568,700 62%
10. Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs – 109,000,000 61%
11. 101 Dalmatians – 99,917,300 56%
12. The Empire Strikes Back – 98,180,600 55%
13. Ben-Hur – 98,000,000 55%
14. Return of the Jedi – 94,059,400 53%
15. The Sting – 89,142,900 50%
16. Raiders of the Lost Ark – 88,141,900 49%
17. Jurassic Park – 86,205,800 48%
18. The Graduate – 85,571,400 48%
19. The Phantom Menace – 84,825,800 48%
20. Fantasia – 83,043,500 47%
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Notice that Gone with the Wind is at #1 with no near competitors, and Star Wars is #2 with no near competitors. All the rest of the movies are relatively clumped together. I find it especially interesting that the most successful SW sequel (ESB) sold only 55% as many tickets as the original, while the most successful SW prequel (TPM) sold only 48%. The original Star Wars film (as well as Gone with the Wind) is a genuine cultural phenomenon. Films other than those two are only...movies. |
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Post by Professor P on May 9, 2011 20:58:54 GMT -6
Very interesting.
It amazes me that grossing is used to gauge a movie's success, especially in comparison to movies of 5, 10, 15+ years ago. It is simply impossible to compare a movie's gross from the 70's to the 00's.
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Post by kesher on May 12, 2011 10:12:04 GMT -6
I actually find it bizarre that the Exorcist made it on that list...
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Post by Finarvyn on May 12, 2011 19:44:54 GMT -6
Notice also that the first three Star Wars movies rank #2, 12, 14. And if you toss in Phantom Menace then 4 of the top 20 are Star Wars.  Or, you could note that Harrison Ford was in #2, 12, 14, and 16. He's in 4 of the top 20 as well! |
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Post by coffee on May 13, 2011 0:05:33 GMT -6
Or, you could note that Harrison Ford was in #2, 12, 14, and 16. He's in 4 of the top 20 as well! I remember a review of The Empire Strikes Back that said, in pretty much these words: Well that proves it. Harrison Ford cannot act. And he's gone on to have more success than everybody else in the original Star Wars trilogy. So he must be doing something right! (P.S. He'd have been awesome in Gone with the Wind, if he'd have been around then...) (ducks and runs away...) |
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Post by calithena on May 13, 2011 6:12:56 GMT -6
A young Harrison Ford might have done a good Rhett Butler with the right female lead, actually. Not now of course.
While Geoffrey has a point, I'd say all twenty of these movies had a pretty pronounced effect on popular culture.
You have to be a little bit careful with this kind of reasoning though. In music the same thing goes like this: "At #1 and #2 you have Elvis and the Beatles selling a billion records each, with no near competitors. At #3 you have Michael Jackson selling three quarters of a billion records, with no near competitors." The gulf between Michael and everybody else is huge, I think Abba is #4 with about half of MJ's sales.
Would we really want to say that "Elvis, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson are genuine cultural phenomena. Records made by performers other than those three are only...music." ?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2011 7:43:51 GMT -6
When I go to see a movie I always ask myself "on a scale of 1-10, Star Wars being the 10, how good was it..."
No other movies can rate a 10!
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Post by talysman on May 13, 2011 9:42:23 GMT -6
You know, I've seen eight and a half of the top 10 movies on that list, and I can't say any of them impressed me as a great movie. The closest would be Snow White, which I saw for the first time this year; it's pretty good. The most over-hyped is Gone With The Wind; it was OK, but annoying in many ways.
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Post by aldarron on May 13, 2011 12:24:14 GMT -6
The original Star Wars film (as well as Gone with the Wind) is a genuine cultural phenomenon. Films other than those two are only...movies. Can't agree really, because looking at the popularity of a single movie out of context, doesn't provide enough info on cultural impact. Arguably, the "Harry Potter" franchise or "Star Trek" had more meaningful and lasting cultiral impact than Gone with the wind. Cool list though. |
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Post by crusssdaddy on Jun 1, 2011 1:54:07 GMT -6
I think there are other considerations than raw ticket sales. Jaws innovated the summer blockbuster business model, which remains the primary structural component for the entire commercial film industry 36 years later. Star Wars ushered in merchandising, which now dwarfs ticket receipts. Avatar isn't even on this list (which speaks to audience fragmentation from the massive diversity of choices people have now), but it's the highest-grossing film of all time and has created a boom industry for 3D & digital. There are a lot of other films not on this list that were broad-spectrum phenomena (financial success + industry stature + cultural relevance + technical achievement, all rolled into one) - The Jazz Singer, Citizen Kane, Deep Throat, The Godfather, Toy Story, Blair Witch...
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terrex
Level 4 Theurgist
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Post by terrex on Jun 1, 2011 9:16:55 GMT -6
For me, Ben-Hur is both the greatest film on the list and the greatest I have ever seen. The scope is just so epic, but the care taken in every frame is so impressive and delivers such a complete experience. Charlton Heston is at his best. It is hard to not walk away inspired, every time.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Zhivago at #8. While I wouldn't necessarily consider it one of 20 greatest films ever, it's good to see so many viewed it. The chaos and ill created by authortarianism and central planning are presented so well as the backtrop to the doctor's story. That makes it a favorite of mine.
The Sting at #15 most sold is a shocker. It occurs to me I've never seen it in its entirety. I'll have to fix that.
Of the movies I've seen on the list, I found Titanic and Phantom Menace to be the weakest with very few redeeming qualities. They stand out as the exceptions on the list to what are otherwise, both mega-popular AND fine films.
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Post by geoffrey on Jun 1, 2011 10:15:28 GMT -6
For me, Ben-Hur is both the greatest film on the list and the greatest I have ever seen. The scope is just so epic, but the care taken in every frame is so impressive and delivers such a complete experience. Charlton Heston is at his best. It is hard to not walk away inspired, every time. Ben-Hur is my second favorite film (with Star Wars being my favorite).  |
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Post by ritt on Jan 7, 2012 1:26:00 GMT -6
A weird, hard-to-prove-or-disprove bit of apocrypha: Organized crime insiders have long claimed that, if the truth were known, DEEP THROAT would be somewhere in the top five (Adult theatres at the time were supposedly used to launder mob money, so much of the haul was never officially counted).
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Post by Sean Michael Kelly on Jan 7, 2012 5:28:48 GMT -6
I actually find it bizarre that the Exorcist made it on that list... I know, my head's spinning on that one... Sent from my Transformer TF101 using ProBoards |
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Post by Finarvyn on Jan 7, 2012 13:49:57 GMT -6
You know, I've seen eight and a half of the top 10 movies on that list I just caught this comment and am wondering which of the "great" movies you left halfway though. |
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Post by talysman on Jan 7, 2012 18:40:08 GMT -6
You know, I've seen eight and a half of the top 10 movies on that list I just caught this comment and am wondering which of the "great" movies you left halfway though. Doctor Zhivago. I may have actually watched all of it and just don't remember, or I may have bailed because I was bored (I was about 10 at the time,) or I may have been interrupted/couldn't get control of the TV for the whole time. This was back when cable and home VCRs barely existed and Doctor Zhivago premiered on network TV. I know I made an effort to watch it -- I watched a lot of movies on TV when I was a kid. I still remember that the theme song was "Somewhere My Love" and remember the basic melody. But it was shown in two parts, and if I couldn't get permission from my parents at the time to watch both parts (or if there was another show at the time I decided I wanted to watch,) then that would explain why I don't remember most of the movie. The "great" movie in the top 10 that I didn't watch was The Sound of Music. I've seen the others in the top 10, enjoyed most of them to one degree or another, but most just struck me as "popcorn entertainment", and Gone With the Wind, as I said, is overblown. Of the rest on the list, I haven't seen 101 Dalmatians, Jurassic Park, or the Phantom Menace, have only seen excerpts of Fantasia and The Sting, and I'm not sure if I've seen all of Ben-Hur. Again, I wouldn't rank any of the ones I've seen as a "great" movie except maybe The Graduate. |
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Post by Mr. Darke on Jan 26, 2012 18:05:03 GMT -6
Very interesting. It amazes me that grossing is used to gauge a movie's success, especially in comparison to movies of 5, 10, 15+ years ago. It is simply impossible to compare a movie's gross from the 70's to the 00's. *ahem* www.usinflationcalculator.com/ For example: Gone With the Wind Gross: 202,044,600 Adjusted to 2011 Dollars: 3,269,619,444.56 Star Wars Gross: 178,119,600 Adjusted to 2011 Dollars: 661,155,853.21 |
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Post by talysman on Jan 26, 2012 19:00:26 GMT -6
Very interesting. It amazes me that grossing is used to gauge a movie's success, especially in comparison to movies of 5, 10, 15+ years ago. It is simply impossible to compare a movie's gross from the 70's to the 00's. *ahem* www.usinflationcalculator.com/ For example: Gone With the Wind Gross: 202,044,600 Adjusted to 2011 Dollars: 3,269,619,444.56 Star Wars Gross: 178,119,600 Adjusted to 2011 Dollars: 661,155,853.21 That's a questionable comparison, since you aren't compensating for the different costs of operating a theater, or different ticket prices (two movies in a given year may gross the same, but if one attracted mostly matinee audiences and the other evening audiences, more people will have seen the matinee.) That's why the OP is based on number of tickets instead of gross. One million views is one million views, no matter what the ticket price or inflation rate. |
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rleduc
Level 3 Conjurer
Posts: 75
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Post by rleduc on Jan 26, 2012 20:07:32 GMT -6
Greatest and greatest selling are not the same thing, of course. And Gone With the Wind had popular impact for decades after it was made. Time will tell whether others on the list can say the same, but there is no reason to compare Gone with the Wind to a more recent film in turns of cultural impact _today_.
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Post by DungeonDevil on May 23, 2012 2:29:07 GMT -6
Wizard of Oz isn't on the list? I'd have to argue that movie was a huge cultural phenomenon. As a book I found it decidedly inferior to Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, if we're comparing kid-lit.
Blade Runner is another very influential film, though IIRC it bombed at the theatres. (Due to the E.T. steamroller. *boo, hiss*).
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Post by talysman on May 23, 2012 15:56:10 GMT -6
Wizard of Oz isn't on the list? I'd have to argue that movie was a huge cultural phenomenon. As a book I found it decidedly inferior to Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, if we're comparing kid-lit. Blade Runner is another very influential film, though IIRC it bombed at the theatres. (Due to the E.T. steamroller. *boo, hiss*). See, you're talking about a different meaning of the word "phenomena", one that is harder to quantify. You could get a crude grip on it by selecting a random sample of newspaper and magazine articles, for example, and counting references to film titles or terms unique to the film (character names, gadget names, place names, etc.) You could sort of do this with The Google Books Ngram viewer, comparing instances of the word "Oz" to "Death Star" or "Tin Man" to "Darth Vader". Even then, the estimates would be crude. There's a factoid I've heard about the top three most-quoted English language writers: - translators of the King James Bible
- Shakespeare
- Lewis Carroll
I'm kind of wondering how they determined that, and if it would be feasible to do that with movie quotes. Probably not, because both "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a d**n" and "Luke, I'm your father" have appeared in various parody variants that would be hard to track, and most of the quotes would be embedded in TV shows and films, which would require scripts if you wanted some kind of automated solution. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Sept 2, 2014 19:24:32 GMT -6
You know, I've seen eight and a half of the top 10 movies on that list, and I can't say any of them impressed me as a great movie. The closest would be Snow White, which I saw for the first time this year; it's pretty good. The most over-hyped is Gone With The Wind; it was OK, but annoying in many ways. Interesting list & I agree about Gone With The Wind; I think Casablanca is over-hyped just as bad myself. I can't help but wonder where in the hell is Citizen Kane?! |
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Post by Stormcrow on Sept 4, 2014 8:07:21 GMT -6
Of the movies I've seen on the list, I found Titanic and Phantom Menace to be the weakest with very few redeeming qualities. They were big deals when they were released, which is why they sold so many tickets. The list simply demonstrates that Hollywood has gotten better at convincing people to go to the movies regardless of the quality of a film, and probably that people are willing to spend more of their incomes on movies. The Phantom Menace is so high because a new Star Wars film was so eagerly anticipated, but people soon realized their mistake: notice that the other two prequels aren't on the list. |
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Post by tkdco2 on Sept 5, 2014 2:38:19 GMT -6
I remember feeling really underwhelmed (and a little cheated) after watching Phantom Menace. I actually checked my watch in the middle of the film, wondering what time it would end. The only other movies I felt like that were Star Trek V and the first Transformers movie (I didn't bother to watch the sequels). That last one was particularly bad. At least the combat scenes in Phantom Menace got my attention.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2014 8:57:28 GMT -6
Consider this ...
In the mid 70s, 40 years after Gone with the Wind, my parents had to explain to me a Carol Burnett skit where she makes a dress out of curtains. I had never heard of the movie.
Today is about 40 years after Star Wars. My girls, who've never even seen the movies, know who Darth Vader is and can recognize most Star Wars characters as being from Star Wars.
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premmy
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
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Post by premmy on Sept 5, 2014 12:59:31 GMT -6
Am I the only one who thinks that Gone with the Wind just doesn't deserve its stellar fame and success? It's been quite a while since I've seen it, but I remember that my first reaction at the end was "This really wasn't that good, actually."
Of course, Clark Gable is great, but that's beside the point.
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Post by Falconer on Sept 5, 2014 20:35:53 GMT -6
It’s a historical romance. The ultimate chick-flick. I find it very watchable in parts, but I can’t sit through the whole thing. It’s looooong, and I get frustrated at the heroine.
For me, personally, the movie that stands at the top of the list with Star Wars is Sleeping Beauty. Freakin’ amazing.
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Post by geoffrey on Sept 6, 2014 0:02:06 GMT -6
I remember feeling really underwhelmed (and a little cheated) after watching Phantom Menace. I actually checked my watch in the middle of the film, wondering what time it would end. Yeah, I remember watching The Phantom Menace for the first time and being shocked when I realized (during the Tatooine scenes), "I'm actually bored during a Star Wars movie." For me, both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones commit the cardinal sin of movies: being boring. Revenge of the Sith has all kinds of problems and can't hold a candle to any of the films of the original Star Wars trilogy...but at least it doesn't bore me. Star Wars: great Empire Strikes Back: great Return of the Jedi: good The Phantom Menace: unwatchable/boring Attack of the Clones: unwatchable/boring Revenge of the Sith: watchable |
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Post by ritt on Sept 6, 2014 12:15:02 GMT -6
Star Wars: great Empire Strikes Back: great Return of the Jedi: good The Phantom Menace: unwatchable/boring Attack of the Clones: unwatchable/boring Revenge of the Sith: watchable ATTACK is a pretty crapazoid movie as a whole, but the "Arena" scene was awesome and pure Edgar Rice Burroughs. I agree with you that SITH is not terrible and/or underrated. Yes, it's dumber than dirt and poorly acted, but it's breathless manic pace and sheer mad spectacle make it feel like an old pulp space opera paperback brought to life. It's the first Star Wars movie that really gave you the WARS. If I were to be completely honest, it's my favorite after the '77 original. |
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Post by aldarron on Sept 6, 2014 14:36:44 GMT -6
I remember feeling really underwhelmed (and a little cheated) after watching Phantom Menace. I actually checked my watch in the middle of the film, wondering what time it would end. Yeah, I remember watching The Phantom Menace for the first time and being shocked when I realized (during the Tatooine scenes), "I'm actually bored during a Star Wars movie." For me, both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones commit the cardinal sin of movies: being boring. Revenge of the Sith has all kinds of problems and can't hold a candle to any of the films of the original Star Wars trilogy...but at least it doesn't bore me. Star Wars: great Empire Strikes Back: great Return of the Jedi: good The Phantom Menace: unwatchable/boring Attack of the Clones: unwatchable/boring Revenge of the Sith: watchable Its always a little amazing to me when grown men expect a new installment in a kids movie franchise to thrill them as much as it did when they were 10. C'mon gentlemen. On the whole, I think Lucas did pretty well balancing complex plot with comic book entertainment. Except for Return of the Jedi. The killer teddy bears were just too silly even for kids, and the scene at the end where Luke temporarily embraces the dark side and brings balance to the force was poorly directed and not well understood by the audience. That's the only one of he series that's really unwatchable. |
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