Most Attended Movies

[KramBerries]

With all the talk that Avatar is going to break box office records, it's interesting to see how it compares in ticket sales. It had two big advantages in total box office - ticket prices are higher now than ever before (in nominal dollars) and they charged a premium for the glasses. If you set aside the dollars and just look at tickets sold, how is it doing?

Pretty good, but not at the top levels...yet. Most of the movies with really historic ticket sales have the advantage of having been through the theaters multiple times.

Here are the leaders in US/Canada ticket sales (in millions):
196 Gone With The Wind
169 Star Wars
141 Sound of Music
140 ET
131 Ten Commandments
128 Jaws
128 Titanic
120 Dr. Zhivago
109 Snow White
100 101 Dalmations

Avatar? It's at 59 million so far, but it's still in the theaters.

This is from the article Reel Dollars in the WSJ.

 

[MIGrandma]

I think movies today have a harder time getting ranked like that, because so many people wait for them to come out on DVD to either buy themselves or rent from Netflix or a video store, so those don't get counted as ticket sales at a theater.

Movies like Gone With the Wind had to be seen in a theater, or you didn't get to see it.

Just like with Avatar, I wouldn't mind seeing it but won't pay to see it at the theater. Too expensive, too noisy (people talking, kids, etc.), too much cell phone usage, etc. so I will wait and just rent it from Netflix.

 

[KramBerries]

Here's an interesting factoid. If you sort the list in the article by inflation adjust box office, it matches almost perfectly with ticket sales. This implies that movie ticket prices have been relatively constant once adjusted for inflation. If prices were rising faster than inflation, you would see newer movies with higher inflation adjusted box office rankings than ticket sales rankings.

When I did the sorting, there was only one exception - Avatar. I think it is the only 3D movie on the list. When the listed is sorted by inflation adjusted box office, it is just ahead of The Dark Knight despite having been outsold 74 million to 59 million. Given the huge revenue premium, I'm guessing that Hollywood is going to go gaga over replicating the formula of a blockbuster 3D movie.

 

[lovemygoofy]

I don't do 3-D movies. I'm cheap for one thing and don't like to pay for the extra cost of glasses but more importantly I get such motion sickness from 3D I can't even explain it. It happens watching the muppets 3D or the 3D wrap around show in Magic Kingdom. I have to take my glasses off and watch it that way.

I saw Disney's Scrooge in Novemeber. I was happy to see the option without 3D. I really want to see Toy Story 3 but I guess its going to be 3D also. I hope they also provide an option without 3D or I'll wait for the dvd release.