This Weekend @ the Boxoffice: 2008.Jan.22

[Hand of Evil]

Do you need to know? Cloverfield!
Domestic: $46,037,000 (91.3%) + Foreign: $4,388,568 (8.7%) = Worldwide: $50,425,568

Can you believe that Cloverfield's budget is listed at 25 million, no named stars! It has just gone up in my rating!

 

[Angel Tarragon]

27 Dresses?

Never even heard of it.

 

[Hand of Evil]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2446&p=.htm

On approximately 4,300 screens at 3,411 locations, Cloverfield's estimated $40 million Friday to Sunday was the highest grossing January opening weekend ever, soaring past an eleven-year-old benchmark set by Star Wars (Special Edition). However, Star Wars' $35 million would equal over $53 million adjusted for ticket price inflation, making it the real champion. Cloverfield also logged the biggest-grossing MLK weekend, toppling Titanic. However, like Star Wars, Titanic retains the record when it comes to attendance.

 

[Hand of Evil]

27 Dresses?

Never even heard of it.

Chick flick

 

[Krug]

Chick flick

Katherine Heigl.

SCHWING!

 

[TheLe]

On approximately 4,300 screens at 3,411 locations, Cloverfield's estimated $40 million Friday to Sunday was the highest grossing January opening weekend ever, soaring past an eleven-year-old benchmark set by Star Wars (Special Edition). However, Star Wars' $35 million would equal over $53 million adjusted for ticket price inflation, making it the real champion. Cloverfield also logged the biggest-grossing MLK weekend, toppling Titanic. However, like Star Wars, Titanic retains the record when it comes to attendance.

Those numbers actually have no meaning at all. The fact is that ticket prices are ever increasing, so it is only a matter of time before someone beats out that record too. Which means decades from now "Norbit 4" will also beat out that number.

An apples-to-apples comparison would be "total tickets sold" rather than total gross.

~Le

 

[Hand of Evil]

Those numbers actually have no meaning at all. The fact is that ticket prices are ever increasing, so it is only a matter of time before someone beats out that record too. Which means decades from now "Norbit 4" will also beat out that number.

An apples-to-apples comparison would be "total tickets sold" rather than total gross.

~Le

I do not disagree and a old disagreement with a number of us, so here you go:
SW:SE Est Tickets Sold: 7,822,800
Cloverfield Est Ticket Sold: 5,870,500

 

[Aaron2]

An apples-to-apples comparison would be "total tickets sold" rather than total gross.

The only true apples-to-apples comparison would be "percentage of total populations that bought tickets".

 

[Mistwell]

If a movie is actually cheaper in real dollars to see, more tickets will be sold (and often to multiple-viewers). For example, if you take two movies which are both about as good as each other, and you charge $3.00 a ticket to see one and $6.00 a ticket to see the other (all adjusted for general inflation and not specifically ticket price inflation), the $3.00 a ticket will sell more tickets (and sometimes to multi-viewers). So adjusting for inflation instead of tickets sold has some merit.

Measuring percentage of the population that sees a movie would also eliminate multi-viewers, which seems a bit unfair since a movie that inspires people to see it multiple times should have some recognition of that as well (but how much recognition is up for debate).

Comparing date of release, economic conditions at the time of release, competing films at the time of release, and other factors are all also valid issues for apples to apples comparison.

So really, there is no "true" measuring stick. You have ticket price, inflation, tickets sold, percentage of the population, conditions at release time, date of release, competition, etc. all being valid factors which can not really be all measured in one calculation without people subjectively arguing about what factor deserves more or less recognition.

So pick your favorite factor and measure off of that, and try not tell others that their favorite measure is somehow objectively less important than your favorite. It all has "some meaning" and it all plays some role in being a "true measure" of apples to apples comparison.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Glad to see Juno still on there. It was also being previewed when I saw I Am Legend.