WWTBAM Bored

Shrek 2 earned 400 million at the domestic box office in its first 43 days in release. Until yesterday, it had reached that figure faster than any other movie in history. The Dark Knight hit 400 million yesterday in just 18 days. Of course, I know ticket prices are higher now than they were in 2004 when Shrek 2 came out, but not that much. 400 million in 18 days is amazing...

The Dark Knight is already No. 8 on the all-time U.S. box office list. I know higher ticket prices are one reason, but that is still impressive.

It was always odd to me that there wasn't mechanism to track these things based on total ticket sales rather than just total revenue. Perhaps in the past that would have been difficult but it doesn't seem like it would be these days. Perhaps they do and they just don't want to part with those numbers.

In any case, with all the hype (I haven't seen it yet and doubt I will in a theatre), I am not surprised it has had such record revenue numbers.

tanstaafl2 wrote:It was always odd to me that there wasn't mechanism to track these things based on total ticket sales rather than just total revenue. Perhaps in the past that would have been difficult but it doesn't seem like it would be these days. Perhaps they do and they just don't want to part with those numbers.

In any case, with all the hype (I haven't seen it yet and doubt I will in a theatre), I am not surprised it has had such record revenue numbers.

I thought they did and on that basis Gone With the Wind was still the overwhelming leader. I'll do a quick search and see what I can find.

Here's a site: http://www.filmsite.org/boxoffice.html

This was my source for The Dark Knight being in 8th place all-time (and very close to Spider-Man for 7th):

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/boxoffice/alltime/

Thanks for the sources. Looks like it is still based on total revenue and then adjusted for inflation rather than actual tickets sold. Of course knowing actual tickets sold for most films would be tough. But I would think it would be possible for more current films.

Just doesn't seem to be done as far as I can find. You can guess total ticket sales based on an estimated cost per ticket divided into total revenue but that would still be a guesstimate.

I usually go to www.boxofficemojo.com. They have all kinds of lists including a domestic adjusted for inflation list (Gone With the Wind is way, way ahead on that)...