the IDIOT

the irremediable economics/political retard matt drudge this evening links to a chart at boxofficemojo, via a huge headline declaring, “BIGGEST OPEN IN HOLLYWOOD HISTORY!“, under a pic from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

if you thought the average american was clueless with regard to politics, what do you call the hollywood propaganda-driven pawing at box office gross by the MSM? what’s worse than clueless?

it starts with drudge’s usual dumbass pronouncement*, disregarding real ticket prices and sales, and continues through the “man on the street” and his tired assertions (e.g., “this film made back its budget in two weeks!”, the disregard of a strong world gross when comparing domestic numbers selectively). IMDb is flooded with this crap. if you’re not at least talking adjusted dollars, comparisons are meaningless. and why must it be explained that “gross” does not mean “net”, or that the easter bunny didn’t pay a $30M marketing bill not accounted for in the production number?

it used to be a fair rule of thumb that 55% of a film’s box office gross went to the studio (not the 100% assumed by most idjits). however, that’s only a rough guess, because the studio share typically slides radically with time, ranging as wide as ~90% to ~10% from the opening to the final run in dollar theaters. distribution arrangements have been altered with the strength of the DVD market. i don’t know, but i’m guessing that theater owners have been fighting to stay near the 55% rule of thumb (applied to a film’s full run, not just the opening weeks) amid shortening theater stays.

why does hollywood continue to push the use of dollar figures from an inflated money supply? this article, “How the Motion Picture Industry Miscalculates Box Office Receipts” (.doc), explains that and more. haven’t read the thing with full scrutiny, but it raises important points most “box office gross” fans haven’t noticed or considered (including population). refreshing.

* if you go to the full chart at boxofficemojo.com, you’ll see that the last entry is Batman Returns, with an actual box office gross of $16,071,282. it’s #67 on the list. using a premier pass membership and sorting the chart by date, you see:

Note: This chart only shows $16 million+ days, regardless of sorting.

however, you can adjust the dollars for a selected year (1910—2005). so i picked 1910 and then sorted by year. the caveat changed:

Note: This chart only shows top 25 movies, regardless of sorting.

sorting by year, the earliest is now Batman Forever, with a 1910-adjusted figure of $322,600 from its 6/16/95 opening day.

what does this mean? hell if i know! the generally acknowledged all-time box office gross champ is Gone with the Wind. in adjusted dollars, i don’t think its opening day even came close to the modern top 25 (weekend was $945,000 actual, according to IMDb, and the 25th modern in 1939 dollars is $905,700 for opening day). what’s relevant, however, is that at boxofficemojo, the daily data for this overall blaster seems to be absent. i’m tired of looking at this now, but there’s enough indication to question that drudge’s link represents the whole of “HOLLYWOOD HISTORY”. regardless of the source data’s historical range, his claim is a little hollow (hype) without adjusting for population.

more drudge bashing:
matt drudge: kool-aid vendor
drudge the twit
typical drudge teeter-totter nonsense

Posted 20060708 23:49 under dollar death, drudgebashing, movies. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are closed.