The numbers

I have to say that for some time now, I have been rather upset by the way the numbers are reported when a picture is in its first run. It's always about "how much money was made", and how it may have beaten another at the box office. It's never about the spirit of going to the movies. How about instead of "Love of Life" made $15 million in its opening weekend, we change it to "Love of Life" had 20 million movie goers see it on it's opening weekend. It sounds so much more like -why we go.

It really surprises me that the industry hasn't deamnded that along time ago.

Well, it's a business, so it's reported in monetary terms. Really, total number of tickets sold isn't a great barometer for comparison either, because the population is always changing, tickets cost more, etc. There are plenty of problems using dollars instead (though the big one is eliminated if we adjust for inflation), but it still provides a more comprehensive single number to measure both how many people are seeing it, and how enthused they were to see it.

Since when was the movie business about movies? Now that is news.

I totally agree with you on this one, would love to see numbers instead of $$$

I'm sure you could find out somewhere. They got a site for everything.

Dollar totals are certainly important but it's the return on investment that influences investors in any business. If you have an expensive and high risk but hot selling product (movie, widget, whatever) that after costs and taxes are deduct give you a 10% return on the money invested vs. a less hot but lower risk, much less expensive product that gives you a 15% return, which are you going to prefer? Of course, it helps if you can reduce the risk, and that's why the deal is more important to Hollywood than ever.

Yeah, thanks. The movies are about what we do for recreation in this country and it's meant to be good story telling. The movies have helped this country out in bitter times before, and it saddens me that the good energy that is created is side stepped into a "business report".

You should read Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession.
Really breaks it down, there.

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Hollywood has always been about "the money". Glamour (spending) and Hollywood have always gone hand in hand. While ticket numbers can be useful, dollar amounts indicate numbers we can associate with. Not to mention, if you just divide the dollar number by 10, you'll get the average number of tickets sold. I can take it either way, but I do understand the question. I'm an independent filmmaker and the spirit is there, but while the price of a ticket may vary,...a dollar is a dollar.