Woochifer
08-08-2008, 12:50 PM
I'd been posting the box office updates for The Dark Knight because I sensed that it had a chance at breaking some box office records. Right now, it's well on its way to becoming only the second movie to ever break $500 million at the domestic box office. I doubt that it will break Titanic's record of $600 million.
Of course, this does not factor inflation or any other adjustments. Box Office Mojo does a lot of breakdowns, and today I found their estimate for the number of actual tickets sold for each of the top grossing movies. It's interesting to see how the box office chart flips when the estimate accounts for tickets sold rather than just the dollar volume.
In unadjusted revenue, The Dark Knight is currently #7 all-time with $411 million at the box office. By the end of the weekend, it will likely move up to #4, right behind Shrek 2 and Star Wars.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm
But, if you run the calculations based on ticket sales, The Dark Knight has got a long way to go. On this measure, The Dark Knight currently ranks #58 with about 58 million tickets sold so far. For reference, the #1 movie of all time based on tickets sold is Gone With The Wind with 202 million tickets sold, and the #1 box office champ Titanic is #6 in tickets sold with 128 million.
Some of the interesting/unexpected titles on this list include The Exorcist (#9, 111 million tickets sold), 101 Dalmatians (#11, 100 million tickets sold), The Sting (#15, 89 million tickets sold), and The Graduate (#19, 86 million tickets sold).
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm?adjust_yr=1&p=.htm
So, even if The Dark Knight passes Titanic's box office total, it's still less than halfway there when looking at the tickets sold. All this just leads me to wonder whether any movie coming out nowadays will ever challenge for a spot in the top 10 in tickets sold. Most of the movies in the top 20 came out when movie theaters were still the primary or only means of watching a movie.
Before home video, it was normal for hit movies to play in theaters for months or even more than a year at a time. But now, with the money made from DVD sales far eclipsing movie ticket sales, the studios no longer have as much incentive to keep a movie in theaters for an extended run. With all this factored in, I think The Dark Knight would be lucky if it broke into the top 25.
Of course, this does not factor inflation or any other adjustments. Box Office Mojo does a lot of breakdowns, and today I found their estimate for the number of actual tickets sold for each of the top grossing movies. It's interesting to see how the box office chart flips when the estimate accounts for tickets sold rather than just the dollar volume.
In unadjusted revenue, The Dark Knight is currently #7 all-time with $411 million at the box office. By the end of the weekend, it will likely move up to #4, right behind Shrek 2 and Star Wars.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm
But, if you run the calculations based on ticket sales, The Dark Knight has got a long way to go. On this measure, The Dark Knight currently ranks #58 with about 58 million tickets sold so far. For reference, the #1 movie of all time based on tickets sold is Gone With The Wind with 202 million tickets sold, and the #1 box office champ Titanic is #6 in tickets sold with 128 million.
Some of the interesting/unexpected titles on this list include The Exorcist (#9, 111 million tickets sold), 101 Dalmatians (#11, 100 million tickets sold), The Sting (#15, 89 million tickets sold), and The Graduate (#19, 86 million tickets sold).
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm?adjust_yr=1&p=.htm
So, even if The Dark Knight passes Titanic's box office total, it's still less than halfway there when looking at the tickets sold. All this just leads me to wonder whether any movie coming out nowadays will ever challenge for a spot in the top 10 in tickets sold. Most of the movies in the top 20 came out when movie theaters were still the primary or only means of watching a movie.
Before home video, it was normal for hit movies to play in theaters for months or even more than a year at a time. But now, with the money made from DVD sales far eclipsing movie ticket sales, the studios no longer have as much incentive to keep a movie in theaters for an extended run. With all this factored in, I think The Dark Knight would be lucky if it broke into the top 25.