Which movies made the most money?

[Ro_Laren]

To Paramount, like other film studios, a movie is considered sucessful if it makes a lot of money. So can someone please put all of the Trek movies in order based on how much money they made at the box office (#1 being the Trek movie that made the most money and down)? I know that it can be hard to compare how much money each movie brought in because they were released at different times, but someone out there is smart enough to figure it out...

 

[jayrath]

It will depend on how you want the gross figured. Just theatrical release, or all the subsequent earnings from TV airings and video and DVD? And then there's inflation.

I believe IV earned the most in theaters.

 

[archeryguy1701]

My magazine that had the figures is at home (I'm at the dorms) but from what I remember, it was TVH at the top followed by FC.

 

[wekkuli]

Here are some of the figures:
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/series/StarTrek.php

 

[cardinal biggles]

If you do inflation-adjustment for those totals, it paints a much different picture:

TMP (79) $261,618,726
TVH (86) $211,461,871
TWOK (82) $180,123,380
TSFS (84) $159,262,876
FC (96) $125,320,959
TUC (91) $118,906,311
GEN (94) $108,686,329
TFF (89) $91,567,823
INS (98) $90,709,369
NEM (02) $50,648,142

The recent films have the advantage of higher ticket prices, but that's about it. The first four films didn't have to compete with new episodes of the various TV spinoffs, and they ran in theaters for far longer, allowing more repeat viewings.

(inflation calculations courtesy of Tom's Inflation Calculator)

 

[BriGuy]

Wouldn't the more recent films also have been on more screens?

 

[archeryguy1701]

I don't think more screens would have increased their income... it may have sped it up to a certain extent, but I don't think it would earn them more.

 

[Therin of Andor]

BriGuy said:
Wouldn't the more recent films also have been on more screens?

Yes, but fewer seats per screen in multiplexes.

"Full house" for TMP, ST II and ST III meant that every seat in an old theater (with dress circle, mezzanine and stalls) was filled! And those people got a cartoon, a film short per session, so less screenings in a day.

TMP, even when it finished its four or five month run in regular cinemas in Australia, then returned each school holidays (May, August and December) for new screenings. Its international box office, stretched over about 18 months, was huge.

 

[Maurice]

A cartoon and a short film? That was mostly gone by the 60s in the U.S.

 

[Therin of Andor]

We had a 33 min. film short, "The Rocking Horse Winner" (1983), with ST III here in Sydney, Australia.

If I saw that bloody rocking-horse again, I was gonnna scream!

 

[TGTheodore]

Therin of Andor said:
"Full house" for TMP and ST II meant that every seat in an old theater (with dress circle, mezzanine and stalls) was filled! And those people got a cartoon, a film short per session, so less screenings in a day.

Not in the U.S. First-run theaters haven't done cartoons and short subjects since the early 1960's. It's only now that Pixar and Disney are adding pre-show goodies again. And Trek is produced by neither studio.

If anything, TMP's LENGTH cost it an additional showing per day. TWOK would have been unaffected.

--Ted

 

[Therin of Andor]

TG Theodore said:
If anything, TMP's LENGTH cost it an additional showing per day.

I seem to recall this being discussed in "Starlog".

TWOK would have been unaffected.

We definitely had a short with it Down Under. Can't recall which one, though.

I remember we stunned director Tim Burton, in a Sydney press conference for "Batman" (1989) when lowly members of a newly-formed Batman fan club had probing questions about his supposedly unreleased b/w "Frankenweenie" short (1984) - which had received a cinema release in Australia. It ran before screenings of Disney's "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend" (1985). (It was news to Tim, and we assume he went stomping back to Disney to investigate his royalties!)

So, yeah. We had shorts Down Under until at least 1985, then a break of only a few years... until that first new "Roger Rabbit" short, "Tummy Trouble", released theatrically worldwide with "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" (1989).

 

[cardinal biggles]

Therin of Andor said:
We had a 33 min. film short, "The Rocking Horse Winner" (1983), with ST III here in Sydney, Australia.

If I saw that bloody rocking-horse again, I was gonnna scream!

Is that the one where the kid moans like he's having an orgasm while he's divining the derby winners? "Oh, Malabar! Malabar! Take me to the derby! To the derby!!!"

Weirdest damn thing I'd ever seen until Un Chien Andalou.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

That sounds... unusual...