New at The Numbers: Monthly Milestones, Record of Records, and Happy Holidays

September 14, 2017

It

Here at The Numbers, we strive to improve your reading experience by adding more features we believe you will find interesting. Today, we have three new features to talk about, one of which is really timely. We recently mentioned most $100 million movies per year, while this week we announce most $100 million movies per month. This looks at all of the movies that earned more than $100 million, or $200 million, $300 million, etc. and what month of the year they debuted. It should come as no surprise that May, June, and December are at the top. Nor it is a surprise that January, April and September are at the bottom. The biggest surprise on this list is Crocodile Dundee, which is the biggest box office hit ever released in September, for now. No movie that has opened in September has ever earn more than $175 million, for now. Crocodile Dundee wasn’t expected to be a big hit, because it had two mostly unknown leads, hence the September release date. Despite this, it opened in first place, where it remained for two months, and it didn’t fall out of the top ten for nearly six. This is the kind of legs you never see any more. In fact, it is impressive for a film to stay in the top ten for two months and still be in theaters after six. However, all good things must come to an end and Crocodile Dundee is about to be overtaken by It, which is re-writing the September record book. Speaking of breaking records...

New and Improved Records is a list of the most recent major and select minor records that have either been set, or the record-holder extended its lead. For example, It broke the record for Biggest September Day, Biggest September Weekend, Biggest Horror Day, Biggest Horror Weekend, Biggest R-Rated Day. ... It had a good opening weekend. Avatar is an example of the latter category. At the beginning of August, the film had a small re-release in Russia and that helped it extend its lead for All-Time Worldwide Record, All-Time International Record, and many, many other records I won’t list here.

Finally, we get to the holiday records, which can be found on the domestic records page. There are a lot of holidays, not all of which are holidays in the strictest sense of the word. (I don’t know many people who get a day off for Halloween or the Super Bowl.) These are broken down into the three-day opening weekend, three-day opening weekend adjusted for inflation, etc. We also have 4-day records for those holidays with a set 4-day weekend. For a counter example, Independence Day appears on a set date, not a set day of the week, so it doesn’t have a 4-day weekend. There is only one 5-day holiday, Thanksgiving, which is also tracked. There are some fascinating results here. Hannah Montana / Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour still has the best Super Bowl weekend, and not just the best opening Super Bowl weekend. It has held that record for nearly ten years, which is much longer than most similar records last. The Sixth Sense has held onto the Labor Day weekend for even longer, but Labor Day has actually gotten worse recently, so that record could last a long time.

Filed under: Analysis, It, Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski