Not really true. As someone says above, it did not immediately recoup its costs. It was an expensive movie, and most of the audiences were children who do not pay for a full-priced ticket.
Now a days muucch more movies come out each year, plus people dont go to cinemas like they used to. Anyway the amoutn of money people spend on movies is dividived between many now. so that surely makes a difference.
Not to mention that several popular movies such as Gone with the Wind, Titanic, and Star Wars end up getting several rereleases, which added to its gross. Add that to the inflation of several of the movies, (Gone with the Wind was released during the Great Depression), and the popular classic movies are the ones which will end up grossing the most, with respect to inflation.
Thunderball was the best selling Bond film at the box office? That was terrible. Surprised the original King Kong didn't make the list. Or Wizard of Oz.
I'm a huge Bond fan. Although I absolutely love Claudine Auger as Domino, I personally find Thunderball a little slow because of all the underwater scenes.
That being said, Bond mania was at its peak when it came out. It sold a crazy amount of tickets. I knew when I clicked on this quiz that it would probably be on here.
The reason "Thunderball" did so well at the box office has nothing to do with its quality relative to the other Bond films. It was mainly a function of the inflation adjustment, as were the other 3 films on this list from 1964 and 1965. To get a sense of how big a factor this played, compare "Thunderball" (total gross $63.6M in 1965) to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (total gross $102M in 1969). "Butch Cassidy" made nearly twice as much only 4 years later and still sits 6 slots lower on the inflation-adjusted list.
And IMO the Connery Bond movies rank as follows: 1. From Russia with Love, 2. Dr. No, 3. Goldfinger, 4. Thunderball, 5. Diamonds Are Forever.
BTW, rewatching these older ones today is a really eye-opening experience. The number of times Bond smacks around, forces himself upon, or creates a meat shield out of the women unfortunate enough to be in the same room with him is quite amazing. Pretty much NONE of these activities would be palatable in a movie produced in the 21st century. Viewed through 2017 eyes, it would come off as misogynist at best, rapey or abusive to most - and yet the Connery Bond is still remembered as suave and debonair.
@tschutzer You missed You Only Live Twice, which I liked better than Diamonds, but that's just my opinion. And there's also the non-canon Never Say Never Again, which is just a remake of Thunderball.
Thunderball did very well because it came at the zenith of Bond-mania and off the back of Goldfinger, which is for many the best Bond film of all. You see the same thing with films like The Matrix Reloaded, which did a lot better than The Matrix despite being considered an inferior film.
yea , you dont know what a movie is like till áfter you have seen it, so it makes sense that the highest selling ones areright after the ones with great reception.
Fantasia did not do well when it debuted, but it was rereleased many times well into the 1960s and 70s. It came around here about once every seven years, and I went to see it every time.
The 80 Best-Directed Films According to the Directors Guild of America : http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/71167/the-80-best-directed-films-directors-guild-of-america
I did much better on this (3 short) than the other. Being an old movie fan is showing. But this has a lot more good movies, you could look at compared rotten tomatoes or metascore and I'm sure this would be way higher. Not that there aren't great movies these days, but they're not the ones that get the most money. I mean, really, the first Avengers was ok, but the second was not a good movie, yet it made an obscene amount of money. Oh well.
And it's rated R. That is the most surprising part to me. Kids see so many movies. I wasn't around in the early 70's, but I have to imagine movies were still a great pastime for dates, summer days, etc. The fact that the Exorcist is #9 all-time without the help of the underage moviegoer is crazy. I think the Godfather is the only other R-rated movie on this list. The Graduate and Jaws are both rated PG, which is kind of preposterous. Pretty sure I remember bare breasts (maybe tassles?) in the Graduate.
Jurassic World? The Force Awakens was actually not bad in my opinion (despite being so similar to Episode IV). The Last Jedi on the other hand? Yeah...
I actually haven't seen Phantom Menace, partly because I heard it was so bad, so I can't comment for myself. Jurassic World was pretty bad, but I didn't feel quite as insulted by that as I did by Force Awakens, which so shamelessly copied A New Hope that it really irked me. I was also really looking forward to Force Awakens, so I was a lot more disappointed by how bad it was. I didn't really have much interest in Jurassic World, which I only saw because a friend asked me to go with her. But yeah, it was bad. I still think Force Awakens is worse though.
The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and the prequels were all bad in their own, unique ways. They all had good things going for them, too. I waited in line to see Phantom Menace at the Senator in Baltimore on opening day; no regrets it was a great experience. Without the huge energy from the crowd there opening night, and the wow factor from the special effects spectacle diminishing more with every year, repeat viewings become harder and harder. The bad parts tend to stick out more.
However, I still really enjoyed all 3 prequels. I thought Rogue One was okay, and loved the ending. The Force Awakens I thought kinda sucked but at the same time I was entertained enough that I went back to see it a 2nd time in IMAX.
On the other hand, The Last Jedi was so bad I was fidgeting in my seat the entire time, I will never see it again, and it has completely destroyed my interest in seeing anything else Star Wars related. Going to skip Episode 9 because of that POS.
So a couple years later... while I have less appreciation for Force Awakens now than when I did before the sequel trilogy was completed, I still think it's better than Phantom Menace. Right now I'm deciding whether that or Jurassic World is the worst movie on this list (of the ones I've seen, anyway).
As a standalone film I'd say Force Awakens is definitely a more well-made movie than Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. As part of the greater Star Wars saga, though, I think that it is worse than the prequels.
Some people argue that if it were a standalone film, The Last Jedi would be a great film or at least better than most other Star Wars films. I disagree. I think TLJ would still suck even if it didn't simultaneously break Star Wars canon, destroy the trilogy arc it's in the middle of, and betray the saga's lore and legacy. And Rise of Skywalker is of course just amateurish crap. But TFA is indeed better if judged individually.
1st time I took this I was really surprised to see Fantasia on here. Used to be a really big Disney fan and though I always loved Fantasia and it was probably my favorite classic Disney movie I was under the impression somehow that it was not a big box office success compared to other more traditional Disney features like Pinocchio, Bambi, or the Jungle Book.
The data is available and it's largely the same list. The US market is still by far the most important when it comes to movies making money, and up until the last couple of decades its dominance was so supreme it was really the only one that mattered at all. Within the next decade or so, it's likely that the Chinese market will eclipse the American one in terms of revenue. And the international share of big budget Hollywood films' box office take grows larger every year. But these are recent developments and wouldn't much affect this list. If they could adjust both for inflation and for price localization, that might have a slightly more noticeable impact. But only slightly.
China taking over is happening faster than I anticipated. Last year (2021) 3 of the top 10 worldwide grossing movies were Chinese films that barely sold any tickets at all in the US or Europe, but still made hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, if not for Spider-Man's phenomenal end year pull, the top 2 films of 2021 would both be Chinese. Of course a lot of this has to do with the fact that China's COVID response was not being actively sabotaged by the most inept leader in history, and so they were able to get back to "normal" much faster than the US was, but still... 3 Chinese movies grossing over $500 million in one year, with one of them getting near a billion dollars?? Completely unprecedented. And a decade ago the top grossing Chinese film made less than Madea's Big Happy Family. But things have changed.
I'm surprised by which Disney animated movies made the cut. I expected Snow White and Lion King, but I didn't think Fantasia was a huge hit when it came out and I just never would have guest that 101 Dalmatians was more successful than Lion King.
Laura Dern is second-billed, after Sam Neill. Jeff Goldblum was third-billed, after her. His character is more interesting and meme-able, because it's Jeff Goldblum, but the character actually isn't all that huge a part. He's largely sidelined for the whole second half of the movie, after getting injured by the T. rex.
ben-hur ...very disappointed in myself.
That being said, Bond mania was at its peak when it came out. It sold a crazy amount of tickets. I knew when I clicked on this quiz that it would probably be on here.
BTW, rewatching these older ones today is a really eye-opening experience. The number of times Bond smacks around, forces himself upon, or creates a meat shield out of the women unfortunate enough to be in the same room with him is quite amazing. Pretty much NONE of these activities would be palatable in a movie produced in the 21st century. Viewed through 2017 eyes, it would come off as misogynist at best, rapey or abusive to most - and yet the Connery Bond is still remembered as suave and debonair.
http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/66970/100-greatest-film-performances-of-all-time
But Exorcist just seems so corny...I can't manage to be afraid of a little girl making silly voices.
However, I still really enjoyed all 3 prequels. I thought Rogue One was okay, and loved the ending. The Force Awakens I thought kinda sucked but at the same time I was entertained enough that I went back to see it a 2nd time in IMAX.
On the other hand, The Last Jedi was so bad I was fidgeting in my seat the entire time, I will never see it again, and it has completely destroyed my interest in seeing anything else Star Wars related. Going to skip Episode 9 because of that POS.
Some people argue that if it were a standalone film, The Last Jedi would be a great film or at least better than most other Star Wars films. I disagree. I think TLJ would still suck even if it didn't simultaneously break Star Wars canon, destroy the trilogy arc it's in the middle of, and betray the saga's lore and legacy. And Rise of Skywalker is of course just amateurish crap. But TFA is indeed better if judged individually.