Mathematical Superiority

[Telan Desaria]

Did you know that, factoring in inflation, Star Wars kicked Titanic's <smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont>?

[Figrin D'an]

And, by the same measure, Gone With The Wind kicks both their butts by a hefty margin.

If memory serves, this was a topic of discussion on the boards waaaaaay back in '99 before TPM opened.

[Telan Desaria]

oops

[JMK]

LOL, yeah this topic was flogged like a rented mule a half decade ago, but the reminder is always nice, until someone mentions GWTW! :)

[Jedieb]

ANH's and Titanic's first runs, adjusted for inflation, are actually fairly close. If I remember correctly, ANH barely edges out Titanic. I doubt Titanic re-releases could ever be as successful as ANH's. But even with inflation, ANH didn't come close to pulling in the kind of international numbers that Titanic did. Fig's right, GWTW was simply a monster. So popular in fact that when it was shown on network TV decades later over a 2 night period, in the 70's I believe, it scored the highest television ratings for a televised motion picture ever. Ratings that will never be broken by another motion picture because of the nature of the business today. All 3 were films were huge. They each have their own bragging rights.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Is this topic been discussed before??? Also I don't really care it doesn't matter, IMO. Also you set up the censor with that word you used, if you could change it be great :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Anyone *else* remember the old EzBoard ID the forums had? swvstitanic, if memory served. The "SW is better than TItanic" (or vice versa) question is what made us who we are today.

*nostalgic* :)

[JMK]

Yeah, that is SO 1999! ;)

[CMJ]

Originally posted by Jedieb
ANH's and Titanic's first runs, adjusted for inflation, are actually fairly close. If I remember correctly, ANH barely edges out Titanic. I doubt Titanic re-releases could ever be as successful as ANH's. But even with inflation, ANH didn't come close to pulling in the kind of international numbers that Titanic did. Fig's right, GWTW was simply a monster. So popular in fact that when it was shown on network TV decades later over a 2 night period, in the 70's I believe, it scored the highest television ratings for a televised motion picture ever. Ratings that will never be broken by another motion picture because of the nature of the business today. All 3 were films were huge. They each have their own bragging rights.

There was an article in Variety in early 1998 that stated that Titanic had the largest gross for a first run ever - even counting inflation. The numbers they listed for ANH and GWTW at that time were in the 570's and higher.

Obviously all 3 were pretty close - Titanic had the benefit of higher population..

[JediBoricua]

I even remember they were selling a t-shirt on the original sw-fans.net website that had George Lucas on top of a Naboo-Starfighter sinking the Titanic.

Dang I was only 15 when that happened....

[Master Yoghurt]

I made some comparisons and research of the 3 movies, and calculated adjusted worldwide gross. This is what I found:

STAR WARS
Domestic: $460,998,007 59.5%
Overseas: $314,400,000 40.5%
Worldwide: $775,398,007

Domestic adj: $1,093,654,300 59.5%
Overseas adj: ~ $744M 40.5%
Worldwide adj: ~ $1.84 billion



TITANIC
Domestic: $600,788,188 32.6%
Overseas: $1,244,246,000 67.4%
Worldwide: $1,845,034,188

Domestic adj: $788,043,700 32.6%
Overseas adj: ~ $1.629B 67.4%
Worldwide adj: ~ $2.42 billion



GONE WITH THE WIND
Domestic: $198,676,459 49.6%
Overseas: $201,500,000 50.4%
Worldwide: $400,176,459

Domestic adj: $1,240,554,000 49.6%
Overseas adj: ~ $1.260B 50.4%
Worldwide adj: ~ $2.50 billion




Now, thats one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it, Star Wars is the most profitable movie in motion picture history.

Consider this..

Star Wars - A New Hope

<font color=red>COST</font>
Production Budget: $11 million

<font color=green>INCOME</font>
$1.84 billion

+

2 sequels ESB (~ $1.1B) + ROTJ (~ $886M)
3 prequels TPM (~ $1.1B) + AOTC (~ $680M) + ROTS (at least 600M worldwide)
DVD releases
Album sales
Lucasarts Games
Toys
Books
Comics
+ other merchandise effects

= :10bux :10bux :10bux

[Charley]

The nostalgia of it all. Makes me want to find one of those DBZ animated gifs for my avatar again :)

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by Figrin D'an
If memory serves, this was a topic of discussion on the boards waaaaaay back in '99 before TPM opened.

Aaaah, the memories. :)

[Jedieb]

I've run the numbers before and here they are:

Year Film Gross (2001)
1977 ANH $210,439,000* (Adj. for Inflation) $ 621,340,000
1980 ESB $198,000,000* (Adj. for Inflation) $ 430,840,000
1983 ROTJ $249,608,768 (Adj. for Inflation) $ 448,250,000

I don't know where Variety got their numbers, but I bet they may have ignored ANH's 78 figures. Which isn't fair because the movie played non stop in many theaters well into 78. Even ROTJ did that. That's something that just doesn't happen today.

[Master Yoghurt]

Actually, its more like this:

First Year, 1977 $202,559,348
Overall Initial Runs $307,263,857
1982 Re-issue $15,476,285
1997 Special Edition $138,257,865
Total domestic lifetime gross (unadjusted): $460,998,007

Average ticket prices:
2004 $6.14 (estimate)
1997 $4.59
1982 $2.94
1978 $2.34
1977 $2.23

(ticket price statistics from MPAA. 2004 estimate from box office mojo)

In 1977 alone, it made:
6.14 : 2.23 = 2.75
$202,559,348 x 2.75 = 557M (adjusted)

In the initial runs, it made made another unadjusted $104,704,509 before the re-issue in 1982.

[CMJ]

Sorry guys - just remembering what Variety quoted. If they screwed it up I'm not to blame. ;)

[Jedi Master Carr]

They probably screwed it up I am confident that GWTW is the highest every adjusted for inflation I have read that in several different places.

[CMJ]

Well....GWTW was been released SOOO many times it's probably impossible to know what it's first run numbers were. It used to be released every few years. My Mom saw it in the theater as a kid...in the 60's. :p

My whole argument was FIRST RUN. That's really the championship as far as I'm concerned.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well back then when did a first run ever end? Movies played for years because there was no video or TV. It was really a different era.

[Jedieb]

Where'd you get your numbers Yog? This is what I was able to dig up a couple of years ago:

Star Wars: A New Hope
1977 $210,439,000*
1978 $63,587,375*
1979 $19,118,466
1981 $15,552,602
1982 $13,855,834
1997 $138,207,268

77 and 78 figures had to be converted from Box Office rentals because that's how B.O. figures were recorded back then. I don't even want to get into the nightmare of explaining that crap again.

[Jedieb]

Here's another set of numbers that to get you to $460:

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1977/0STRW.html

[Master Yoghurt]

Where'd you get your numbers Yog?
here (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars4.htm>Here</a>)

[Jedi Master Carr]

Mojo is probably the most accurate sight when it comes to box office.

[CMJ]

They still do calculate Rentals for movies...but it's harder to find. Variety or Hollywood Reporter usually posts the rental figures for the year in one of their December issues.

[Jedieb]

Mojo's early numbers look like summaries. If you go into the.numbers site you see more detailed weekly grosses. (There's even data on ANH's premiere debut against Smokey and the Bandit) I even called some office in Cali to get some of the numbers I calculated a few years ago. I was surprised I was able to get everything to add to $460. But if you look at Mojo's numbers they don't even have data for 78, 79, or 81. They're obviously rounding some figures. ANH was playing in several theaters well into 78, and then it had theaters added in time for the summer. I'd count that as a first run since it never left theaters.