Hollywood blockbusters are generating more and more money every year. It seems almost every month there is a new film, like Furious 7, that is released and quickly races past the $100 million mark.
A big reason for that is the rising ticket prices - or inflation. It is easier to get to $100 million or $1 billion than it used to be because tickets cost more. A dollar is not worth what it was 10 years ago, let alone 50 years ago.
So what happens if the current list of movie box office champions is adjusted for inflation?
Guinness World Records has done this. It is complicated, because it involves having to tally up the grosses from each country and also accounting for the rate at which prices in each country have risen over time. Then the various national totals have to be adjusted into US dollars.
According to Guinness, the current unadjusted top 10 is (in US dollars):
- Avatar (2009) $2.78 billion
- Titanic (1997) $2.18 billion
- The Avengers (2012) $1.51 billion
- Furious 7 (2015) $1.46 billion
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011) $1.31 billion
- Frozen (2013) $1.27 billion
- Iron Man 3 (2013) $1.21 billion
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) $1.12 billion
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $1.11 billion
- Skyfall (2012) $1.10 billion
But adjusted for inflation, the worldwide top 10 looks very different:
- Gone With the Wind (1939) $3.44 billion
- Avatar (2009) $3.02 billion
- Star Wars (1977) $2.82 billion
- Titanic (1997) $2.51 billion
- The Sound of Music (1965) $2.36 billion
- E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $2.36 billion
- The Ten Commandments (1956) $2.18 billion
- Doctor Zhivago (1965) $2.07 billion
- Jaws (1975) $2.02 billion
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) $1.81 billion
Avatar's box office would have been helped by the higher prices charged for tickets for the 3D screenings.
These lists are for cinema releases only; they don't include revenue from TV, DVD, Blu-ray or streaming. It is estimated that Titanic has generated around US$1.2 billion from secondary sources. Avatar has made at least US$345 million from these sources.
Then there are the massive sums generated by merchandise for franchises like Star Wars and the superhero movies.
What about the biggest return on the original budget (return on investment)? Website the-numbers.com has looked at this, and calculated the winner is Paranormal Activity (2009). It was made for US$450,000 and has made $89 million - a return of 19,743 percent.
It seems horror movies have a great rate of return based on the films in the top 10 listed by the-numbers.com.
The complete top 10 is:
- Paranormal Activity (2009) 19,743 percent
- The Devil Inside (2012) 3,633 percent
- Peter Pan (1953) 3,396 percent
- Grease (1978 ) 2,969 percent
- Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) 2473 percent
- Insidious (2011) 2180 percent
- Young Frankenstein (1974) 1953 percent
- It's A Wonderful Life (1946) 1797 percent
- Reservoir Dogs (1992) 1780 percent
- Jaws (1975) 1745 percent
The-numbers.com is a great website for people who love movies and are also fascinated with the money they make - or in some cases lose.
- VIDEO: Talk Money with Tony Field
New Zealand films
The biggest-grossing New Zealand film is Boy. The Motion Picture Distributors' Association lists the top three as (in $NZ):
- Boy (2010) $8.2 million
- The World's Fastest Indian (2005) $6.25 million
- Once Were Warriors (1994) $6.04 million
Film industry analyst Tim Thorpe adjusted the films for inflation, and ranked the top 3 this way:
- Once Were Warriors (1994) $11.52 million
- Goodbye Pork Pie (1981) $9.52 million
- Boy (2010) $8.56 million
Tim Thorpe also adjusted the numbers for both inflation and population. His complete lists can be found here.
Global brands
Coca Cola remains the world's number one brand, but household products like Colgate toothpaste are catching up fast.
Kantar Worldpanel has released its annual list of the world's top brands. It says its Brand Footprint survey measures how many households are buying various products and how frequently, so it is not based purely on consumer sentiment.
The report says that Colgate is the only brand bought by more than half the world's households.
CNBC reports that "the real winners are the 'rising stars' like Dove, who entered the top 10 for the first time with 14 million new buyers, and manufacturers like Unilever and PepsiCo who continue to churn out several beloved brands. P&G's fabric softener 'Downy' (14th) was named the world's fastest-growing brand for the second year."
New Zealand retail spending
The first three months of the year proved to be very strong for New Zealand retailers, with $19.3 billion worth of goods sold by local retailers. That is an increase of over 5 percent on the same period a year ago.
Tourism and the Cricket World Cup helped. So too did lower petrol prices which would have encouraged people to spend on other items. Among the winners were retailers who sell computers, including the cheaper tablets many schools now ask their students to bring to school.
The total volume of sales was up 2.7 percent on the March quarter a year ago. Fuel retailing was the only sector to fall, due to the lower petrol prices.
After adjusting for price changes,the total sales volumes rose 7.4 percent, compared with a year ago. Sales were up by a record 2.7 percent from the December quarter (seasonally adjusted).
Statistics New Zealand's acting business indicators manager Tehseen Islam said: "Electrical and electronics stores had a really strong quarter. Our discussions with retailers suggest that there's no one thing in particular behind this, but there may be a strengthening back-to-school effect. This seems to mean that spending on things like laptops and tablets is having an impact on overall spending at the start of the school year."
The largest seasonally adjusted industry sales volume movements were:
- electrical and electronic goods retailing, up 8.9 percent;
- fuel retailing, up 3.5 percent;
- hardware, building and garden supplies, up 3.9 percent.
The next survey will be closely watched. Petrol prices have risen around 35 cents per litre since the start of the year. That means people will need to spend more filling up their vehicle and won't have as much to spend elsewhere.
3 News
source: newshub archive
