i'm not sure what you mean by non-blockbuster but Titanic was the most expensive movie ever when it came out, the first $200 million dollar movie. it was as blockbuster as you get (and while not an action film, the whole second half with it sinking was kind of like action) and while it obviously lacked competition during the winter (given that it was #1 with $15M one weekend), it's staggering consistency makes it hard for me to believe it wouldn't have been #1 right now. if competition would've hurt it in later weeks, being released in the summer may have helped it in the early weeks. i was just looking at it's weekend totals before coming to this thread, and somehow it made more in its 9th weekend than it did in its 1st weekend. how does a movie do that? and it was #1 for 15 straight weeks. the explanation always seems to be girls going and watching it over and over, and i guess that's the only explanation that really explains the consistency, but even then i can't comprehend how it actually came together, that virtually every girl in every country decided to make this movie the biggest one ever and then never do it again? given it's imdb and box office mojo grades, it can't just be people liking it, as it scores very well, but not superbly. i mean the numbers are so much higher than everything else that it's almost not fair to count it. $600M when nothing else has crossed $500M, not even 11 years later? that's apparently $900M inflation adjusted according to box office mojo. and while that's only 6th all-time, nothing else after 1983 even makes the top 16. and just its foreign total is bigger than any other movie's combined world-wide total. i just don't get how it made that much damn money. hopefully dark knight can keep up the ~40% drops each week and make it past the $500M mark. edit: i was also amazed at how well The Mummy did. $42M and $101M worldwide. the franchise still had more appeal than i realized.
I meant action blockbuster similar to Star Wars, terminator 2, Independence Day, Batman 89, and Jurassic Park. I really believe if Titanic was released in the summer as originally planned we would be looking at a total between Jurassic Park and The Phantom Menace. Biggest factor for it was a lack of decent competition during the winter. It snowballed because it was on a BO roll for umpteen weeks - folks were interested in it. Had it been #1 for 2 or even 3 weeks from a summer release, there would have been less "WOW buzz" for its BO run, thus resulting in less of a demand to see what all the fuss was about. Then throw in the awards push a month and a half into release, and it just kept on going. I dont hate the film(even though I used to), but I do think it was like the guy for the White Sox hitting his first home run of the season against the Astros in the World Series. Everything was set up for it, nobody saw it coming, and it was the perfect pitch, with the perfect swing to get it over the fence.
Titanic wouldn't do the same box office numbers now because of how the home video market has changed. Front load the box office, and then get the DVD out for sale a few months later.
They would do more due to ticket prices being higher. I read that if you consider ticket prices versus inflation that Gone with the Wind is the largest grosser of all time. DD
Finally watched the film. 1) It was 30-60 minutes too long. 2) Maggie's brother is hotter than she is. 3) Ledger was amazing. Truly amazing. 4) Not enough people around me in the theater showered this week :/ 5) The 'voice' didn't work for me. 6) Ledger was amazing. 7) Did I mention how amazing the Joker was?
Titanic played on over 300 screens for 10 months. Spider-Man, a fairly recent $400+ million blockbuster, played on that many screens for less than 3 months. Today, people would've spent their $15 on the Titanic DVD that's released 3-4 months after the month opened in theaters instead of buying their 2nd, 3rd, etc. ticket to rewatch the movie. Studios gladly sacrifice some box office sales in exchange for millions in DVD sales revenue. Theatrical releases just won't have the same legs with today's buy to own home video market. Adjusted for inflation, Gone With The Wind is the all time number one by far. Nothing will ever be able to touch it. Titanic's numbers are also pretty close to untouchable.
The only movies I see on DVD shelves a few months after their release in the theater are the ones that bombed. If a movie has staying power, it'll stay in the theater until it's made all it can. If people want the dvd it's not gonna matter if its three months later or six. For movies that were largely ignored in the theaters, it makes much more sense to get the dvd out quickly while the film is still somewhat relevant. So that argument doesn't work. Why even argue about whether or not Titanic would have done well if it had been released at a different time. It was indeed the benefit of a perfect storm of circumstances just like the Dark Knight now...it's receiving rave reviews, is a movie that can be watched multiple times and is not facing any stiff competition. ---- On another note, I caught a few minutes of Wedding Crashers this weekend and it hit me. If Katie Holmes wasn't going to return then they should have gotten Rachel McAdams to play Rachel Dawes. Would have been perfect! She fits the look of the character, is attractive and can act. She would have been my choice for Mary Jane too. What could have been.
I saw titanic 9 times in the theater. 6 of them not by choice. Damn female friends and cousins plus back then tried to go through a Titanic marathon to win a trip to some islands.
my friend and I wanted to go see it in imax friday night (second time in imax for me, first time watching the movie for her) but everywhere was nearly sold out. And this was the 115, 130 AM showings. The theaters around here have assigned seating for the imax so we could see where we'd be sitting if we did get tickets and they were all in the first two rows. There was a 2am showing at at an imax about 50 minutes away from my place but we both decided against it because we'd be coming back during sunrise. Hopefully there will be less of a crowd sometime during the week this week. movie is ridiculously good
Wow, just to think how much time was wasted on watching a 3 hour crapfest 9 times. You couldn't pay me enough to sit through that more than once.
well 27 hours at least probably more if you count any time waiting in ticket lines, lines to get into the theater and time spent getting to the theater. titanic was a strange creature though it kept making money because of the repeat and repeat viewings of girls. I remember when it came out the girls at my school would watch it every weekend. because it was breaking all these records (mainly due to massive repeat viewings--not that it is a bad thing, but it wasnt like everyone was going to see it because it was an amazing movie) you had people who were reading it in the news papers who probably went to go see it to know what all the hype was all about. like for example my parents: we're first generation immigrants my parents, especially my mom never watch american movies, let alone seeing them in the theater. They went to go see the titanic because of the hype they were curious as to why it was making so much money. they both said afterwards that it was ok, but they didnt get why it made so much money. This was the last american movie my parents have seen in the theaters. to this day its still the only american movie that my parents have seen that I havent. yeah i said it, i havent seen the titanic I dont see a point to I think I got the plot of the movie from various trailers, history of the ship and of course all the other tv promos and spoilers since then.
I don't know why, but I think there is something about her that is sexy. I know I am amongst the very very small minority that thinks this way.
And then the expense. Suppose it was $6/ticket. That's $54 for the privilege of burning 27 hours of your life away. And, then if you buy popcorn or drinks....
