It made how many points?!?!

As I was bored and looking at how many points HP will make in the ext few weeks I started wonderind how other huge movies performed in the days before fantasy movie games. There is not a lot of good data from long ago but the 90's and 00's are pretty filled in for the game on BOM. So I started looking at movies that I knew had made a killing and seeing how that would translate to the game. Some of them were astounding.

Take into account that the PTA is using every movie on the list and some of them may not have been in the game had we been playing then (IMAX, not known, etc).

Star Wars Ep III made 377 mil and had 9 PTA and 22 Top 5.

Star Wars Ep I made 402 Mil and had 18 PTA and 22 Top 5.

Finding Nemo made 313 Mil and had 9 PTA and 24 Top 5

Spider-Man made 403 Mil and had 16 PTA and 22 Top 5.

Shrek 2 made 429 Mil and had 8 PTA and 22 Top 5.

The Passion of the Christ made 364 Mil and had 14 PTA and 28 Top 5.

Titanic (ugh) made 402 Mil and had 31 PTA and 45 Top 5 points. It also stayed Number 1 for some time after its 3 month time limit would allow in our game.

Titanic would have been better than some people's entire slates in most seasons other than the IMDB of course. LOL

I actually considered doing this same thing a while back, but I wasn't sure how it would fly. My first example would have been Die Hard (which initally opened in limited release before becoming the definitive action movie of the 1980's).

According to my roughly done numbers Die Hard made 68 Mil and had 11 PTA and 27 Top 5. Those are really impressive numbers for a movie that did not break 100 Mil.

More impressive during this time frame was A Fish Called Wanda. It opened limited and expanded also. 48 Million, 24 PTA and 23 Top 5. Wow.

A Fish Called Wanda has another interesting distinction. It first hit number one in its tenth week, the slowest time between opening and taking the top spot. However, it only held number one for one week because Dead Ringers took number one the next week.

Meanwhile, Die Hard never once hit first in its box office run. Its highest position was second place.

Another impressive feat was My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In the 3 months that it would have been eligible it would have made 18 Million and had Zero points in anything other than IMDB. It finally hit the top 5 in it's 19th week in late august. It would stay in the top 5 until November. The movie was in theaters for almost an entire year and ended with 241 Million.

Buscemi wrote:A Fish Called Wanda has another interesting distinction. It first hit number one in its tenth week, the slowest time between opening and taking the top spot. However, it only held number one for one week because Dead Ringers took number one the next week.

Meanwhile, Die Hard never once hit first in its box office run. Its highest position was second place.

It was number one in our hearts.

Here are some examples from 1982 (or the year of the E.T.):

-Star Trek II had $79 million, 12 Top 5 and 3 PTA
-E.T. had $227 million, 58 Top 5 and 48 PTA
-Blade Runner had $28 million, 6 Top 5 and 2 PTA
-The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas had $67 million, 20 Top 5 and 9 PTA
-First Blood had $44 million (estimate), 29 Top 5 and 19 PTA
-Tootsie had $123 million, 55 Top 5 and 45 PTA

Yes boys and girls, there was a time when comedies could outdo sci-fi epics.

And examples from 1983:

-Flashdance had $51 million, 27 Top 5 and 19 PTA
-Return Of The Jedi had $201 million, 45 Top 5 and 38 PTA
-Superman III had $60 million, 16 Top 5 and 8 PTA
-Mr. Mom had $50 million, 32 Top 5 and 37 PTA (estimate)
-Terms Of Endearment had $65 million, 43 Top 5 and 29 PTA
-Sudden Impact had $65 million (estimate), 28 Top 5 and 13 PTA

Wow Tootsie was number 1 for 17 weeks straight. Holy shit! But it was only making like 3-5 million for the last 8 weeks. I thought that sounded terrible but adjusted for inflation, Tootsie made 408 Million.

Also amazing is the PTA points that Mr. Mom would have racked up. The film opened in limited release then expanded to wide release, in which the word of mouth helped it have a stranglehold on the Top 5 and PTA.

But alas the film is somewhat obscure now, only remembered nowadays for a time when Michael Keaton was solely a comedic actor.

I remember watching Mr. Mom in theaters when I was young. I doubt I understood much since I was 6. LOL

Buscemi wrote:
-The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas had $67 million, 20 Top 5 and 9 PTA

I've never even heard of this movie...

It was a musical based on a play. It had Burt Reynolds, Dolly Parton and Dom DeLuise. Back when they were relevant names in entertainment. Ah, never mind.

And here are some 1984 examples:

-Police Academy had $70 million, 32 Top 5 and 13 PTA
-Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom had $151 million, 19 Top 5 and 18 PTA
-Ghostbusters had $188 million, 59 Top 5 and 54 PTA
-Gremlins had $137 million, 32 Top 5 and 20 PTA
-The Terminator had $34 million, 25 Top 5 and 7 PTA
-Beverly Hills Cop had $168 million, 60 Top 5 and 21 PTA

Are all your numbers within the 3 month time frame Boush?

Yes. Back then, they were called legs.

Selected from 1985:

-The Breakfast Club had $36 million (estimate), 14 Top 5 and 6 PTA
-Rambo: First Blood Part II had $135 million, 32 Top 5 and 23 PTA
-The Goonies had $61 million, 12 Top 5 and 12 PTA
-Back To The Future had $155 million, 62 Top 5 and 48 PTA
-Rocky IV had $119 million, 35 Top 5 and 11 PTA
-Out Of Africa had $66 million, 22 Top 5 and 16 PTA

I want to see TDK stats again. It had $533 million, 9.1 IMDB, and what else? I think it waas 20 PTA and 32 Top 5.

Buscemi wrote:Yes. Back then, they were called legs.

But think about how many fewer films were released back then. Today you have a few new films coming out ever week, and in the summer they all have potential to be hits.

I have a feeling that the PTA is somewhat inflated... While BOMOJO may have stats for a 1983 film comparative to The Hurt Locker (maybe it doesn't), I highly doubt that they have the stats for a film like Summer Hours which opened in the same timeframe.

Yeah there are very few movies being released in some of these instances. Whether that was all that was available for stat purposes is up for debate. The PTA may be off but the top 5 however are static.

It is incredible how many weeks these movies were number one.

I'm not all that impressed by it. Again, there was far less competition back then, so when a good movie came along, it was the only thing people were going to go see. Could you imagine playing our game back then? How boring would it be? It would be "Everyone grab the one big movie of the time frame and fight for the scraps of what is left." Now with all the different movies that get released and make money, it is so much more interesting. I'm much more impressed by seeing a movie like Transformers 2 hold off another massive film like Ice Age in its second week, than seeing Back to the Future win its 12th week against the world famous "Creator."

Here's the thing: even in the 1980's, you still had your Transformers, Harry Potters, Hangovers and even Watchmens. Some of the films were even major surprise hits at the time of releases (such as Back To The Future and Die Hard).

For example in 1982, E.T. was the year's biggest film. However, Star Trek II was expected to outgross E.T. and be the big film of the summer (it even had the biggest opening ever at that point). In the end, E.T. outdid Star Trek II in a scenario similar to last year's Dark Knight vs. Indiana Jones battle.

Other films that weren't expected to be big hits but were include:

Crocodile Dundee
Top Gun
Three Men and A Baby
Rain Man
Lethal Weapon
Dead Poets Society
Dances With Wolves
Field Of Dreams

But if you had to say how movies are expected to be hits per year, the number now has to be much higher than the number from then, because of the sheer volume of movies we are hit with nowadays.

I believe it's about the same. Hell, this year has been full of surprises and unexpected hits.

Basically, there's the same amount of Top 5 points to go around, but less films to take them, therefore, the big films then will get more T5 than big films nowadays.

Its simple AND uses a law of economics. I knew I went to college for a reason!