This weekend, as Shrek 3 became the 3rd biggest opening ever, and according to Dreamworks/Paramount, the biggest animated film of all time (I'm not so sure about that - did they see the acting in Spider-Man 3?), it also became the 8th film to make over $100 million in its opening weekend. For what it's worth, I'm sure this list will have 10 films by the end of the summer after Pirates 3 and Harry Potter 5.
Here are the current top box office openings of all time, according to Box Office Mojo:
Spider-Man 3 | $151,116,516 |
Pirates of the Caribbean 2 | $135,634,554 |
Shrek the Third | $122,000,000 |
Spider-Man | $114,844,116 |
Star Wars - Episode III | $108,435,841 |
Shrek 2 | $108,037,878 |
X-Men: The Last Stand | $102,750,665 |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | $102,685,961 |
Looking at these films in a vacuum makes it hard to comprehend how huge they are. Try and remember that most films don't make this much money if you add up their entire domestic, international, DVD/Video/Cable runs. Try to remember that Batman changed the world when it had the first ever opening of $40 million way back in 1989. Spidey 3 made almost 4 times that amount. Inflation and rising ticket prices do NOT make up the difference.
I can't help but feel as is this is the Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire era of blockbuster movie openings, and I'm already numb to their impact. I would love for someone with more time and smarter than I am to try and figure out who are the dealers, what is the steroid, who are the owners, and who are the players (all metaphorically, of course). I'm ready for a Brady Anderson or Luis Gonzales to hit 50 home runs, but in the cinematic world. Basically, when will a Rob Schneider/Andy Dick film open to $100 million? Because at that point, I will be done at this restaurant, and I'm asking for my check.
I just have a few rhetorical questions:
- How has it become "boring" for a film to break $100 million on its opening weekend?
- How in the world has it become commonplace for a film to open on over 4,000 screens?
- And really, how in the world did X-Men 3 only make $234 million in its entire theatrical run after making $102 million in its first 3 days?!?!? Fox should be embarrassed.
My one real question is: how did this all come to pass? Who did the math to figure out the secret formula that would stack the deck completely in the favor of the tentpole films? How did the stars align so that audiences, filmmakers, theater owners, and studios all arrived on the same page? I can't even get my kids to follow me in the mall, much less even begin to understand how to align millions of people and organizations so that those gigantic numbers end up on the chart above.
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