Poll: Most Surprising Box Office Fact
Which of these box office facts do you find the most surprising? Facts accurate as of December 2014. Discuss it here
Vote:
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Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)
Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) made more in its U.S. opening weekend than Titanic (1997) did. -
Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, and Lucas Grabeel in High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) made over $90m in the U.S. and over $250m worldwide despite its two predecessors being made for T.V. movies. -
Robin Williams, Jonathan Freeman, Gilbert Gottfried, Linda Larkin, Scott Weinger, and Frank Welker in Aladdin (1992)
Aladdin (1992) was not #1 until its 8th weekend at the U.S. box office. It was also #1 in its 10th, 11th and 12th weekend. Despite that, its 3rd weekend was its highest weekend gross. -
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic (1997)
Titanic (1997)'s highest grossing day at the U.S. box office was its 58th day of release. -
Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Strong, and Rachel McAdams in Sherlock Holmes (2009)
December 25th-27th 2009 is the highest grossing weekend of the all time in the U.S. All the others in the top 15 are either in the summer or at Thanksgiving. -
#6
Death Wish (1974), Magnum Force (1973) and Viva Las Vegas (1964) all held the U.S. opening weekend record at some time. -
Adam Sandler at an event for 50 First Dates (2004)
Adam Sandler has the most non-animated $100 million U.S. grossers in the past 20 years. -
#8
No sequel has ever been the highest grossing movie of all time. -
#9
Four Batman movies, Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Batman Forever (1995) and The Dark Knight (2008), broke the U.S. opening weekend at the time of their release. -
Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rex Harrison in Cleopatra (1963)
Cleopatra (1963), despite being widely regarded as a flop, was the highest grossing movie of 1963 and the fourth highest grossing sound movie of all time at the time. -
Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) is the only movie that has ever opened above $75 million and finished with less than $200 million at the U.S. box office. -
Janeane Garofalo, Ian Holm, Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy, John Ratzenberger, James Remar, Will Arnett, Brad Garrett, Kathy Griffin, Brad Bird, Lindsey Collins, Walt Dohrn, Tony Fucile, Michael Giacchino, Bradford Lewis, Danny Mann, Teddy Newton, Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Peter Sohn, Jake Steinfeld, Stéphane Roux, Lori Richardson, Thomas Keller, Julius Callahan, Marco Boerries, Andrea Boerries, and Jack Bird in Ratatouille (2007)
Ratatouille (2007) is the only Pixar movie not in the top 10 highest grossing movies of the year in the U.S. -
Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, and Santino Fontana in Frozen 'Let It Go' in 25 Languages - Behind the Mic (2014)
Frozen (2013) is the only Disney canon movie to outgross the Pixar movie of its year, beating Monsters University (2013) in 2013. -
Promo One Sheet
Adjusted for inflation, Dinosaur (2000) made over $200 million in the U.S. and finished as the fifth highest grossing movie of 2000 worldwide, outgrossing X-Men (2000) by over $50 million. -
Danny DeVito, Kathy Griffin, Elton John, Scott Adsit, Carlos Alazraqui, Jack Angel, Michael Beattie, Bob Bergen, Cedric The Entertainer, Dane Cook, Danny Cooksey, John Cygan, Debi Derryberry, Walt Dohrn, Bill Farmer, Jan Rabson, Jess Harnell, Sherry Lynn, Danny Mann, Mona Marshall, Mickie McGowan, Mike Mitchell, Laraine Newman, Dempsey Pappion, Chris Renaud, Don Rickles, Peter Sohn, Joel Swetow, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jim Ward, Aron Warner, Elmarie Wendel, Betty White, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Rob Riggle, Nasim Pedrad, Christopher Lee Parson, Karen Gilchrist, Dave B. Mitchell, Taylor Swift, Jenny Slate, Ryan Potter, and Kristen Phaneuf in The Lorax (2012)
The Lorax (2012) made more in its U.S. opening weekend than Frozen (2013) did. -
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
2007 was the last year that no movie grossed $1 billion worldwide. -
Teaser, 1 sheet movie poster
Batman (1989) was the highest grossing superhero movie for over 12 years. -
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Coleman starred in the second highest grossing movie of the year for 3 years in a row: 9 to 5 (1980) in 1980, On Golden Pond (1981) in 1981 and Tootsie (1982) in 1982. In 1983, he starred in WarGames (1983), the fifth highest grossing movie of the year. -
Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, and Chin Han in The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight (2008) is the only movie in the top 45 grossing movies worldwide that grossed more in the U.S. than it did overseas. -
Bruce Willis in Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
In 1995, the highest grossing movie of the year worldwide was Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), which grossed $355.1 million. In 1997, just two years later, the highest grossing movie of the year worldwide was Titanic (1997), which grossed roughly six times as much. -
Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee (1986)
In September 1986, Crocodile Dundee (1986) made 84.7% of the money made by movies opening in the month in the U.S. No other movie that opened in the month reached $9 million in their whole U.S. run. -
Steven Spielberg at an event for The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007)
With $4.156 billion at the U.S. box office, Steven Spielberg has grossed almost double his nearest competitor, Michael Bay with $2.143 billion. -
#23
At the U.S. box office, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) grossed $260 million and was the highest grossing movie of 2000. Adjusted for inflation, it grossed $390.6 million. This places it above every Harry Potter sequel, three Transformers movies, three Shrek movies and two Iron Man movies. -
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker (2008)
Every one of the best picture winners from between 1982 and 2013 reached at least $44 million at the domestic box office except The Hurt Locker (2008), which couldn't even gross half that number. It grossed just $17 million despite benefiting from years of inflation compared to most of the other winners. -
Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern in Home Alone (1990)
Apart from Home Alone (1990) and its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), the rest of the top 10 highest grossing movies at the U.S. box office with a Christmas setting only were released in July or before. -
#26
Despite all grossing less than $82 million, Police Academy (1984), The Golden Child (1986), Mr. Mom (1983), The Secret of My Success (1987) and Stakeout (1987) all topped the U.S. box office for 5 weeks. -
Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington in Avatar (2009)
Avatar (2009) is the only movie of the 21st Century to top the U.S. box office for at least 5 weeks. -
#28
Gone with the Wind (1939) became the highest grossing movie of all time when it was released in 1939. However, when it was released in 1965, The Sound of Music (1965) took the title. It was only through re-releases that Gone with the Wind (1939) regained the position. -
Leonardo DiCaprio at an event for Inception (2010)
Leonardo DiCaprio is the only actor in the top 40 highest grossing actors at the U.S. box office to not have been in a sequel. His first role was in the sequel Critters 3 (1991), but it was a direct-to-video release. -
#30
1996 was the last year the top 10 highest grossing movies worldwide didn't include a sequel or prequel. -
The Smurfs (2011)
In 2011, The Smurfs (2011) was the only movie that wasn't a sequel in the top 10 highest grossing movies of the year worldwide. However, two years later The Smurfs (2011) itself got a sequel, The Smurfs 2 (2013). -
Mark Wahlberg, Peter Cullen, Nicola Peltz Beckham, and Jack Reynor in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) is the highest grossing movie of all time in China by almost $100 million, with a $301 million total. In comparison, the first Transformers (2007) made $37.2 million. It's also over $55 million more than it made in the U.S. -
Texas Chainsaw (2013)
In just one week, Texas Chainsaw (2013) dropped from #1 to #9 at the U.S. box office. -
#34
While 12 movies have reached it in just 2 days, it took Unforgiven (1992) 318 days to reach $100 million at the U.S. box office. Even the movie that took the longest to reach $200 million, Back to the Future (1985), took 232 days to reach that milestone. -
Dany Boon and Kad Merad in Welcome to the Sticks (2008)
Welcome to the Sticks (2008) is the only movie to gross over $200 million worldwide without a U.S. release.