Why Domestic Box Office Records Are Being Broken Annually

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with Optimus Prime, Autobot ruler (voiced by Peter Cullen). Also featuring humans Megan Fox, Shia LaBeouf, and Josh Duhamel, Michael Bay’s actioner was the biggest domestic box office hit of 2009.

Has one more domestic box office record truly been shattered?

Shortly before Christmas, it was announced with much fanfare that despite these painful economic times the American movie business is having a record year, with more than $10.6 billion earned at the domestic box office in 2009 (in addition to $10.7 billion internationally).

Now, although that $10.6 billion figure would be impressive for a number of U.S. industries (definitely not for military contractors or pharmaceutical companies), it’s an official record only because ticket prices have been going up nearly every year.

In fact, Hollywood could go on breaking domestic box office records annually if ticket prices were hiked up a certain percentage each calendar year – with 3D/IMAX premiums providing an extra boost – so as to offset any expected drop (or lack of increase) in ticket sales. (Update: Another domestic box office record broken?)

When box office records aren’t really record-setting

Admittedly, as found in the New York Times, domestic attendance figures are the highest in five years, with 1.42 billion tickets sold at an average price of $7.46.

That’s five years.

As explained in that same Times piece, “when adjusted for inflation, 2002 had sales of $11.21 billion, while the totals for 2001, 2003 and 2004 also exceed this year’s tally.”

Putting things in perspective: As found at boxofficemojo.com, 1.403 billion tickets have been sold in 2009 while in 2002 that figure reached 1.575 billion.

And that’s how this year’s widely heralded record-breaking feat at the domestic box office is made to look considerably less smashing.

Top Ten domestic hits of 2009

For the record, below are this year’s Top Ten domestic box office hits during the calendar year of 2009 (updated to include year-end figures; the total figure [in parentheses] includes 2010 revenues):

• DreamWorks/Paramount’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with $402.1 million.
  Director: Michael Bay.
  Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel.
• Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with $302 million.
  Director: David Yates.
  Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint.
• Walt Disney Studios’ Up with $293 million.
  Director: Pete Docter.
  Voice Cast: Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer.
• Summit Entertainment’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon with $284.5 million. (Total: $296.6 million.)
  Director: Chris Weitz.
  Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner.
• 20th Century Fox’s Avatar with $283.6 million. (Total: $749.8 million.)
  Director: James Cameron.
  Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver.
• Warner Bros.’s The Hangover with $277.3 million.
  Director: Todd Phillips.
  Cast: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha.
• Paramount’s Star Trek with $257.7 million.
  Director: J.J. Abrams.
  Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban.
• DreamWorks Animation’s Monsters vs. Aliens with $198.4 million.
  Directors: Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon.
  Voice Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett.
• 20th Century Fox’s Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs with $196.6 million.
  Director: Carlos Saldanha.
  Voice Cast: John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, Josh Peck.
• Warner Bros.’ The Blind Side with $196.6 million. (Total: $256 million.)
  Director: John Lee Hancock.
  Cast: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron.

Welcome Stranger with Joan Caulfield and Barry Fitzgerald. One of the biggest hits of 1947 – a banner year at the domestic box office – Paramount’s Welcome Stranger reunited Going My Way stars Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald, and Blue Skies stars Crosby and Joan Caulfield.

An actual banner year at the domestic box office: 1947

Putting things in even better perspective: According to the National Association of Theater Owners, an estimated 70 million people went to the movies every week in the United States (population: 144 million) in 1947. (The Wall Street Journal estimated an even higher number: 78.2 million weekly moviegoers.)

That means approximately 3.64 billion tickets* were sold even without multiplexes, 3D/IMAX theaters, mega-budget sequels, and state-of-the-art special effects.

The top movies at the domestic box office in 1947?

Well, nearly all of them were big-studio star vehicles. Few of these movies boasted special effects (Green Dolphin Street has a major earthquake), offering instead – for the most part in commercial, middle-to-lowbrow fashion – a mix of romance, adventure, drama, music, and comedy.

It was a vastly different type of audience then – hardly more sophisticated, but certainly older. Besides, television was just starting out, and there was no digital cable, DVD, pay-per-view options, all-sports channels, video games, or online porn flicks and sex chatrooms to keep people away from movie houses.

On the other hand, competition was fierce among the movies themselves, as the Hollywood studios were far more active back in those days.

* U.S. box office records were truly shattered in 1946, when 4.067 billion tickets were sold.

Top 20 movies of 1947

Below is a list of the Top 20 films of 1947 (including late 1946 releases), via Variety‘s annual year-end estimates of each movie’s domestic rental figures (i.e., what the studios would actually pocket).

• William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
  Cast: Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Harold Russell.
• King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946).
  Cast: Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten.
• Alfred E. Green’s The Jolson Story (1946).
  Cast: Larry Parks, Evelyn Keyes.
• Otto Preminger’s Forever Amber.
  Cast: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene.
• Cecil B. DeMille’s Unconquered.
  Cast: Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard.
• Michael Curtiz’s Life with Father.
  Cast: William Powell, Irene Dunne.
• Elliott Nugent’s Welcome Stranger.
  Cast: Bing Crosby, Joan Caulfield, Barry Fitzgerald.
• Chester Erskine’s The Egg and I.
  Cast: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray.
• Clarence Brown’s The Yearling (1946).
  Cast: Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr.
• Victor Saville’s Green Dolphin Street.
  Cast: Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Donna Reed, Richard Hart.
• Edmund Goulding’s The Razor’s Edge (1946).
  Cast: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, John Payne, Anne Baxter, Herbert Marshall.
• Jack Conway’s The Hucksters.
  Cast: Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner.
• Irving Reis’ The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.
  Cast: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple.
• Richard Whorf’s Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).
  Cast: Robert Walker, Van Heflin. Cameos: Judy Garland, June Allyson, Van Johnson + numerous other MGM stars.
• Walter Lang’s Mother Wore Tights.
  Cast: Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Mona Freeman.
• John Farrow’s California.
  Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Ray Milland.
• William D. Russell’s Dear Ruth.
  Cast: William Holden, Joan Caulfield, Mona Freeman.
• George Marshall’s The Perils of Pauline.
  Cast: Betty Hutton, John Lund.
• Elia Kazan’s The Sea of Grass.
  Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Melvyn Douglas.
• Richard Thorpe’s This Time for Keeps.
  Cast: Esther Williams, Jimmy Durante, Johnnie Johnston.

Not included above are movies that opened late in 1947. Variety specifically mentions the following:

• Henry Koster’s The Bishop’s Wife.
  Cast: Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven.
• Elia Kazan’s Gentleman’s Agreement.
  Cast: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield.
• George Sidney’s Cass Timberlane.
  Cast: Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner.

All three titles would turn out to be sizable box office hits, along with other year-end releases like Henry King’s Captain from Castile (Tyrone Power, Jean Peters, Cesar Romero) and Norman Z. McLeod’s Road to Rio (Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour).

“Domestic Box Office Records” endnotes

Optimus Prime Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen image: DreamWorks | Paramount Pictures.

Barry Fitzgerald and Joan Caulfield Welcome Stranger movie image: Paramount Pictures.

“Why Domestic Box Office Records Are Being Broken Annually” last updated in September 2022.