1997's TITANIC sold most first-run admissions ever |
|
Its challenges, problems, and shortcomings notwithstanding, the Box Office is in excellent health. Americans may be anxious about Iraq, health care, and a waning real estate market, but our collective concerns apparently are not deterring us from frequent trips to multiplexes and neighborhood movie houses. For the box office in general, everything's coming up roses, sunshine, and lollipops.
Calendar summer is over - and the dust has finally settled on Box Office Summer (May 1 through Labor Day). Guess what, Match Flickers? With $4.18 billion in box office receipts, 2007 was a record-shattering summer. The summer movies may have lacked freshness, originality, and great variety, but they were muscled up – resulting in the buffest summer in box office history.
2004 was the previous Summer Season record holder when flicks including SHREK 2, SPIDER-MAN 2, and THE INCREDIBLES, propelled the May 1 through Labor Day take to a then record $3.95 billion. But that record has been shattered and now Hollywood is already hoping that the Summer of 2007's landmark box office record will be bested during 2008's May 1 through Labor Day Summer 
PIRATES: DEAD MAN'S CHEST sold almost as many first-run admissions as GWTW |
|
Season.
A record-breaking summer is only the beginning of the good news for the box office. Contrary to popular belief, movie-going is not weaker in these opening years of the 21st Century than it was before the coming of that "vast wasteland" also known as television. During the early 1950s, when televison sets were first appearing in millions of American homes, the Doom and Gloomers were certain that the small, black and white television screens would soon spell the end of the motion picture box office. "The handwriting is on the wall – and on the screen," the aforementioned Doomsayers predicted.
Au contrare. Television and the motion picture box office have, for the most part, peacefully co-existed for more than half a century. Apparently the Boob Tube hasn't sated Match Flickers' thirst for filmed entertainment as the motion picture industry once feared. Just one example of how well a 21st Century B.O. giant fared as opposed to a pre television classic: 64 million tickets were sold to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST. That's only three million shy of the number of tickets sold to GONE WITH THE WIND during its 1939 
TV didn't quench Match Flickers' thirst for entertainment after all |
|
first run, in what movie buffs, historians, and your grandparents call "The Golden Age of Motion Pictures."
However, "The Golden Age's" GONE WITH THE WIND doesn't hold the record for the number of admissions sold in first run. That distinction goes to 1997's TITANIC. It set an all-time box office record of selling 130 million first-run admissions.
This surprises many Match Flickers because a motion picture admission ticket doesn't buy the entertainment value that it did in bygone decades. During the so-called "Golden Age of Motion Pictures (1930-1950)," Match Flickers got much more for their box office money: Most commonly, there was a second feature, a cartoon, and a newsreel. That's a lot of show for a little dough. Today's Match Flicker's admission buys one motion picture, about 20-minutes of on-screen ads, and then five or six Previews of Coming Attractions (Translation, more advertising). On the plus side, modern Match Flickers enjoy bigger screens, better projection and sound, and stadium seating.
In conclusion, movies may, or may not, be better than ever, but the box office is as hardy as in any time of its more than 100-year history.
 email this column to a friend
|
| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
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.
|
| 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.
|
| Contact |
If you have a comment, question, or suggestion, you can send a message to Christopher Stone by clicking here.
|
|
