As we continue to see more and more box-office records broken, maybe it’s time for a little historical perspective. Yes, we already have three films grossing $300 million (Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Pirates of the Caribbean), with a potential fourth on its way (Transformers), and Summer 2007 will probably be the biggest summer on record. But right now, ticket prices are at an all-time high, with an average ticket costing about $6.70 (if you live in the city, that may seem a little low, but the price averages out once you factor in costs from rural America and the Midwest and South).
The financially most successful film of all time, 1997’s Titanic, which grossed $600 million domestically, had an average ticket price of about $4.75. If that film were released 10 years later (and, of course, sold the same amount of tickets), that gross would be an astonishing $844 million. 2007’s box-office champ to date, Spider-Man 3, pales in comparison with about $335 million. So does 2006’s box-office champ, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest with $423 million. That’s half!
So before the studios and filmmakers and stars start celebrating that they’re the biggest things since sliced bread, here’s a quick look at some other films whose box-office reception today would stagger the imagination.
Gone with the Wind has sold more tickets than any other film over the years, but that comes from the luxury of four major and four minor reissues. Its first release in 1939, which actually spanned over three years, would have brought in $730 million in today’s dollars. That’s slightly less than Titanic but a still incredible total. Star Wars has sold the second most tickets of all time, with its original run in 1977 and two reissues. Just looking at the first release, today’s gross would be $710 million, and that factors in a higher percentage of lower children’s prices.
There are two films that were more successful than Titanic on their first release: The Sound of Music and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The Academy Award-winning musical was a cultural phenomenon when released in 1965. It played in some theaters for years, and had fans that were going back 10 or 20 or 30 times (there were no DVDs back then). In fact, there was one woman who had paid to see it over 100 times. Today, that 1965 gross would equate to nearly $1 billion. That’s not a typo! Julie Andrews had just won the Oscar for 1964’s Mary Poppins and was riding high, the stage show of Music was a huge success, and with the counterculture just beginning to take shape, mid-America needed something to rally around. Nuns, music and Nazis were just the ticket.
Looking back at that time period, Julie Andrews had an unprecedented record that has yet to be topped. With two films, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, released in back-to-back years, she brought in a combined $1.580 billion in today’s dollars. Only Harrison Ford nears that total, his films The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, released back-to-back in 1980 and 1981, grossing in today’s dollars about $1.077 billion.
Steven Spielberg, however, comes even closer to Andrews’ mark. The two-time Oscar-winning director had two smash hits back-to-back, Raiders in 1981 and E.T. in 1982. The former’s adjusted gross would be $532 million, and the latter, another cultural phenomenon, would bring in $850 million in today’s dollars, for a combined total of $1.382 billion. That’s simply amazing by any standards. Charlton Heston had two films in the 1950s that were mammoth hits, The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, which collectively in today’s dollars would translate to something like $1.345 billion, an astronomical sum, but with 1956 and 1959 release dates respectively, they weren’t back to back. Still, that’s an accomplishment that only a handful of performers have achieved.
So, Johnny Depp, we love you as Captain Jack Sparrow, you’ve created one of the most endearing film characters of all time, and your last two Pirates films, released back-to-back, will bring in collectively about $733 million. That’s a helluva lot of money, but less than half of what Julie did. Tom Cruise, you may be a flake but you’re a big star as well, and you’ve had a slew of box-office hits, but in 1992, 1993 and 1994, your three films A Few Good Men, The Firm and Interview with a Vampire brought in a combined $645 million in today’s dollars. Impressive, yes, but not enough to cause you to start jumping on couches.
With all the focus on box office and money, let’s keep matters in perspective. Even with today’s inflationary ticket prices, for a star to bring in over $100 million for a film is an accomplishment… just ask Steve Carell. But also let’s keep the back-slapping and adulations to a minimum, for no matter how well one star does, there’s always another one who’s done better. And when we focus too much on the celebrity du jour, and forget those how have made the significant contributions, what we wind up with are pages of newsprint and hours of airtime on Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?
© TLA Entertainment Group
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