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Can The Dark Knight Truly Top Star Wars At The Box Office?By Scott Gwin: 2008-08-14 00:21:35
The Dark Knight has turned the box office upside down, breaking all kinds of financial records and raking in more cash than any other movie in the last decade. I'm all for giving the movie its due in recognizing its fiscal achievements, but some of the accolades are getting a little out of control.
Sure, the sequel to the Batman franchise reboot is about to beat Star Wars for the second highest grossing film in US box office history. But that's comparing Dark Knight's 2008 dollars with Star Wars' 1977 dollars. If you put the two movies on a level playing field, Batman doesn't look nearly so incredible. In fact, if you look at average ticket prices for the year a movie was released and use that to figure how many people actually went to see the movie, The Dark Knight doesn't even break into the top ten. For that matter it doesn't even score in the top forty. Box Office Mojo has a way with numbers, and one clever function they offer is movie money adjusted for inflation. After all, bread used to be twenty-five cents a loaf, a jug of milk was even less and once upon a time you could get gasoline for less than a dollar a gallon. Movie tickets weren't always $9 a pop, so converting the cash value of the average ticket price in the year a movie was released to the cash value of today's average price of admission gives a much better idea of how well movies did compared to each other. Adjusted numbers really amount to figuring out how many people actually saw a movie. The Dark Knight may end up making $500 million before it's all done, but more people saw Star Wars in theaters... way more people. It's nice to talk about all the cash The Dark Knight is making, but in the big picture of actual movie popularity it's really not all that amazing. Take Ghostbusters for example. It only made $238 million when it hit theaters back in 1984. Of course, in 1984 the average ticket price was $3.36, a distant memory from today's average of $7. Converting Ghostbusters' haul to 2008 cash brings it to over $500 million, a total that The Dark Knight will struggle to beat. The real eye opener? Ghostbusters is only #30 on Box Office Mojo's list of highest grossing adjusted totals films. Where does The Dark Knight fall on this oh-so-humbling chart? As of moment this story was written, it resides at #46, comfortably nestled between Bambi ($451 million, adjusted) and Blazing Saddles ($447 million, adjusted). Other movies that Batman has yet to beat (and never will) include Fantasia ($587 million, adjusted), Mary Poppins ($553 million, adjusted), Dr. Zhivago ($878 million, adjusted) and 101 Dalmations ($707 million, adjusted). How does the caped crusader stand up to Star Wars on the even playing field? Not even close. The original 1977 release, when adjusted, amounts to $840 million. Add in what it made in re-relase several years ago and the total crosses past the billion dollar mark. In case you were wondering what the highest grossing film of all time would be in 2008 dollars, the award goes to Gone With The Wind. If it were released today, and the same number of people bought tickets that did back in 1939, it would gross over $1.4 BILLION. Your records, Mr. Wayne? Frankly, my dear, Scarlet doesn't give a damn.
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