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In the past, we’ve talked about history’s best-selling books, top rated TV shows, most popular video games, best-selling albums, and the albums that topped the charts the longest.
After reading that The Simpsons notched the seventeenth-best opening day of all time, I was curious about the top sixteen (and subsequent three). Here’s the list, courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1 Spider-Man 3, $59,841,919
2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, $55,830,600
3 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, $50,013,859
4 X-Men: The Last Stand, $45,102,265
5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $44,232,338
6 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, $42,910,392
7 Spider-Man 2, $40,442,604
8 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, $40,118,363
9 Spider-Man, $39,406,872
10 Shrek the Third, $38,426,991
11 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, $38,268,295
12 The Matrix Reloaded, $37,508,303
13 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, $34,450,834
14 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, $32,333,203
15 X2: X-Men United, $31,247,979
16 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, $30,141,471
17 The Simpsons Movie, $30,000,000
18 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, $29,631,453
19 The Da Vinci Code, $28,630,324
20 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, $28,542,349
I took a long lunch on Friday to contribute to that seventeenth-place finish, my second Simpsons-related field trip this month (see Kwik-E-Mart pics here). Actually, I didn’t technically contribute, since I cashed in a Fandango gift card from my good friend –and new father – Matt Hall, the pride of Wantage, NJ. For the record, I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
And for all of you asking about inflation-adjusted figures, here’s the list of the top twenty highest-grossing movies since 1977, adjusted for inflation, courtesy of The-Numbers.com (total, not just on day one):
| 1 | 1977 | Star Wars | $1,066,519,005 |
| 2 | 1982 | ET: The Extra-Terrestrial | $880,433,132 |
| 3 | 1997 | Titanic | $843,845,107 |
| 4 | 1980 | Empire Strikes Back, The | $632,610,253 |
| 5 | 1983 | Return of the Jedi | $609,111,073 |
| 6 | 1981 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | $566,548,217 |
| 7 | 1993 | Jurassic Park | $565,397,493 |
| 8 | 1999 | Star Wars: Phantom Menace | $557,978,204 |
| 9 | 1994 | Forrest Gump | $526,184,163 |
| 10 | 1994 | Lion King, The | $524,626,088 |
| 11 | 1977 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | $487,578,476 |
| 12 | 1978 | Grease | $468,220,626 |
| 13 | 1984 | Ghost Busters | $465,190,596 |
| 14 | 2004 | Shrek 2 | $459,891,823 |
| 15 | 2002 | Spider-Man | $455,909,783 |
| 16 | 1996 | Independence Day | $453,712,356 |
| 17 | 1990 | Home Alone | $444,032,137 |
| 18 | 1984 | Beverly Hills Cop | $441,926,070 |
| 19 | 2006 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest | $423,315,810 |
| 20 | 1989 | Batman | $412,352,748 |
That book’ll have to be rewritten after “Underdog” comes out.
posted by Rich on 7-30-2007 at 7:06 am
i wish they would adjust these things for inflation. i just find it a bit ridiculous that this list is entirely comprised of movies that came out in the last two or threee years. i’d rather see a list that attempted to calculate how many people saw it, not how much they paid.
posted by jenni on 7-30-2007 at 7:29 am
I find these kinds of lists ridiculous. OF COURSE movies are breaking records every third day - tickets cost about ten bucks where I live. I saw Return of the Jedi in the theatre when it came out and I think tickets were about $1.75 or something. Plus, the movie theatre had the Journey arcade game, so BONUS!
Box office receipt records are utterly meaningless.
posted by Rachel on 7-30-2007 at 7:33 am
Even if this were adjusted for inflation, the opening weekend stats would be full of movies from the last few years. The multiplex is a fairly recent innovation, especially in small towns. Twenty years ago, it took months for a first-run movie to be seen everywhere.
posted by Miss Cellania on 7-30-2007 at 8:46 am
Not only were there no multiplexes, films were released in a limited number of theaters. Today big films are released in thousands of theaters simultaneously. That never happened in the past.
posted by Stew on 7-30-2007 at 11:54 am
What I think is odd is how many of those are family pictures. I wouldn’t have predicted the almost total absence of anything more edgy or mature than a PG 13. Are kids driving the movie market? Or is our country that dumbed down? Very strange.
posted by Melissa on 7-30-2007 at 12:14 pm
It would be interesting to see a more comparative list. Say, take the top grossing movies for each year over the last 20 or 30 years, then divide the amount by the average ticket price of the time to get an approximate number of movie-goers for each film to get a decent idea of which movies throughout time have REALLY been the most watched movies.
posted by Jen on 7-30-2007 at 1:55 pm
Melissa, of course kids drive the movie market. They drive most commercial aspects of popular culture. Ever hear of Harry Potter? Top 40 radio? MTV?
However, I’m not sure why you think the number of family pictures on the list is odd, nor would I consider most of the films on the list “family.” Certainly, children might enjoy the Star Wars or Pirates of the Carribean films, but that hardly makes them “family films.” They are simply films with mass appeal. Mass appeal = massive ticket sales = inclusion on this list. “Edgy” films make some people uncomfortable. “Mature” films exclude a large portion of potential moviegoers, including people who don’t want to take their families to see them, as well as those who prefer their entertainment to be more light-hearted. Or as Homer would say (this is a post about the Simpsons), “Less artsy, more fartsy.”
As for movie ratings, the factors that drive movies into “R” ratings tend to be things like sex, violence, and language. While I understand that films which carry the “R” rating are intended for more mature (read “older”) audiences, I fail to see how an increase in the level of violence, sexuality or foul language in a movie is a hallmark of intelligence in its audience.
posted by Amanda on 7-30-2007 at 2:41 pm
Now forgive me if my calculations are wrong, but in the top 20, the Harry Potter series made around $184,583,652…
Anyone else going to try their hand at well written original in depth children’s books?
posted by soops on 7-30-2007 at 7:38 pm
Er… That’s odd. Pirates: Dead Man’s Chest is both 2 and 19 on that list. Maybe it did so well it spilled over into another spot.
posted by Schneh on 7-31-2007 at 8:54 pm