Johnny is adept on high seas and at the Box Office |
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The members of MatchFlick's $100 Million Box Office Club are those movies that have earned 100 million or more box office dollars domestically in 2007. This year, as always, the club is an exclusive one. Every producer wants "in,", but precious few of the hundreds of motion pictures released annually ever succeed in being admitted. As of this late August writing, 19 motion pictures have qualified.
Additionally, the motion pictures that comprise membership in the club were first released in the United States in 2007. Flicks released in 2006 that surged past the $100 million mark in 2007 are not included. DREAMGIRLS is last year's prime example. Released on Christmas Day 2006, the multiple Oscar-winning musical hauled in most of its $103 million domestic gross in 2007, but, as a 2006 release, it rightfully belongs in last year's $100 Million Box Office Club.
What follows is a list of the motion pictures that have made it into 2007's elite $100 Million Box Office Club. Following the title of each $100 million plus members is the amount of its total domestic gross thus far, rounded off to the nearest million (as of 08-30-07).
1. SPIDERMAN 3 $337 MILLION
2. SHREK THE THIRD $321 MILLION
3. PIRATES: AT WORLD'S END $308 MILLION
4. TRANSFORMERS $307 
Radcliffe wowed them in EQUUS and HARRY POTTER |
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MILLION
5. HARRY POTTER: PHOENIX $279 MILLION
6. 300 $211 MILLION
7. RATATOUILLE $197 MILLION
8. WILD HOGS $168 MILLION
9. THE SIMPSONS MOVIE $165 MILLION
10. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM $164 MILLION
11. KNOCKED UP $147 MILLION
12. LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD $132 MILLION
13. FANTASTIC FOUR: SILVER $131 MILLION
14. BLADES OF GLORY $118 MILLION
15. OCEAN'S THIRTEEN $116 MILLION
16. GHOST RIDER $116 MILLION
17. CHUCK AND LARRY $110 MILLION
18. RUSH HOUR 3 $110 MILLION
19. HAIRSPRAY $108 MILLION
Nineteen members of the 2007 $100 Million Box Office Club in August is quite impressive. When 2006 ended, only nineteen flicks total had made the grade. It's quite possible that by December 31, 25 movies or more may have gained entrance into this 2007 Box Office Hall of Fame and (Fortune).
It should surprise no one that fifteen of this year's nineteen inductees were released during the summer movie season, if not during calendar summer. Summer, as well as the Winter Holiday Season, are the two times yearly when MatchFlickers most frequently leave the comforts of their Lazy Boys and home theatres in order to patronize a multiplex box office near them.
If we expand our Club to include worldwide grosses - things look different, but only 
Michelle Pfeiffer looks great with or without HAIRSPRAY |
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slightly. Worldwide, the box office's number one champ, with $956 million in box office receipts, is PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END. With a slightly less astronomic $890 million globally is SPIDERMAN 3 and SHREK THE THIRD nails the third spot internationally with a monstrous $736 million.
The $100 million Box Office Club has been around for the past 32 years. Back in the summer of 1975, JAWS became the first motion picture to break the $100 million box office barrier in its original release. Since then several hundred flicks have joined its rarefied ranks.
Right now, three 2007 releases are hovering in the 95 million plus range. Before all is said and done, these three, EVAN ALMIGHTY, NORBIT, and MEET THE ROBINSONS, may possibly join 2007's Golden 19 in the $100 MILLION Winner's Circle.
Twenty years ago, in 1987, only four of the year's motion pictures, THREE MEN AND A BABY, FATAL ATTRACTION, BEVERLY HILLS COP 2, and GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM, made it into the $100 Million Box Office Club. Of course, back then, the average adult admission to a first run motion picture was a scant four dollars.
Before Year's end, this pillar will updates Match-Flickers as to the additional titles that are admitted into this most elite of all box office groups.
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| The Business of Show |
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Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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