Nice graphic: box office revenues since 1986

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html

by matstc • 18 years ago

39 10 18 years ago

edw5192• 18 years ago

Excellent way to display more than 2 dimensions in 2 dimensions.

Reminds me of this one from 1861 which showed space (map of Europe), time (length of lines), direction (beige for eastward, black for westward), size of army (thickness of lines), and even infers weather conditions (what killed the troops):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Minard.png

wallflower2• 18 years ago

Beautiful visualization. Reminds me that it is time to browse my neglected copy of Tufte's Envisioning Information. Thanks

edw5192• 18 years ago

Thank YOU. Reminded me that there ARE other people who own some of the same books as me.

iamwil• 18 years ago

I went all the way back to the mid 80's, and the blockbuster back then was Top Gun, which apparently didn't even break 250 mil. Nowadays, we have huge blockbusters that regularly surpass 250 mil every season. Even though we have DVDs and can download copies (pirated or not), collectively, we're spending more on movies than we use to.

However, we don't know whether that's due to more people going to see movies, or merely just an increase in ticket prices. It'd be more interesting to see the graph adjusted for this so we can see if more or less people are going to the movies than before.

It also seems that movies that are series get a second hump, like Jurassic Park III, Harry Potter, etc.

IMAX movies have a looong shelf-life, compared to all other movie types. Mysteries of Egypt was there all the way from 1999 through to the end of 2000, when it had a small resurgence before disappearing.

wallflower2• 18 years ago

Less movie goers.

"In 1948, with studios earning all their revenues from the box office, that audience was moviegoers. Even as late as 1980, when the audience had television sets and video players, studios still earned 55 percent of their money from people who actually went to movie theaters. In 2005, however, those moviegoers provided the studios with less than 15 percent of their worldwide revenues, while couch potatoes provided it with 85.8 percent."

From 2005 and still relevant http://www.slate.com/id/2123286

zandorg• 18 years ago

Yes but Top Gun was made on a budget of $17 million. The focus then was on low-budget, high-concept movies, based on a good story, NOT spending lots of money. Unfortunately, people now think of high-concept as meaning big budget, when that's not the case.

pchristensen• 18 years ago

The graphic says it is inflation-adjusted.

Scrolling from left to right, the graphic clearly gets fatter, so revenues are bigger. Ticket prices are a part of that (inflation adjusted dollars are one thing, inflation-adjusted prices are another). A graphic showing ticket sales wouldn't be much fun because it would get narrower every year, with occasional blips like Star Wars, Jaws, Harry Potter, but nothing like the old powerhouses of Wizard of Oz, Snow White, Gone with the Wind, etc.

aschwo• 18 years ago

Reminds me of this last.fm visualization by Lee Byron: http://megamu.com/lastfm/

Nice graphic: box office revenues since 1986

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