#20–Adjusted For Inflation, Only One Film Released Since TPM Was More Popular
According to Box Office Mojo, TPM is the #21 biggest film of all time adjusted for inflation. All but one of the remaining 20 films are older films, most of them by several years. The only film released since TPM that ranks higher is “Avatar,” and that’s by “Avatar”‘s slight adjustment from 2009 vs. TPM’s adjustment from 1999, just over a $100 million difference. (The unadjusted grosses are about $340 million apart.) However, consider that not only normal inflation accounted for “Avatar”‘s higher unadjusted grosses but also theaters simply charging more money for IMAX and 3D screens. Granted, those higher prices are going to help TPM in its re-release as well but it is a reminder of just how immensely popular TPM was during its original run. Don’t let the revisionists change the facts.
Tags: TPM
January 21, 2012 at 4:11 am |
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January 21, 2012 at 9:02 am |
yeah, i don’t remember anyone around me hating on phantom menace when it was still new.
the bandwagon took time to gather momentum + pick up passengers.
January 21, 2012 at 9:26 am |
“the bandwagon took time to gather momentum + pick up passengers.”
That’s the truth! I probably talked with about 100 people, co-workers and strangers I meet in the Star Wars aisle at Walmart, I can only remember one old dude I worked with that didn’t care for it. Everyone else loved or liked it. The reactions from fellow cinema goers every time I seen it, 9 times, tells me the film was enjoyed, by most!
I finally saw Avatar, I was NOT impressed! Story was, predictable and unimaginative, I felt like I it this movie dozens of times before. The F/X, although well done, in my opinion couldn’t hold a candle to TPM ( alone, never mind AOTC and ROTS) for realism. I know both ILM and Weta worked on this Avatar, I find Weta’s composting looks fake to me, like the composting from the 1980′s. Look at how the Luke vs. Rancor scene looked in 1983 (Looks perfect now! Thanks for fixing that George.
) but that’s how Weta’s stuff looks to me. In all the LOTR films and King Kong.
January 22, 2012 at 4:31 am |
I must say I enjoyed Avatar – certainly not the most intelligent movie of the planet, but good for me to have a good time.
One thing however for sure: the PT certainly had the more intelligent story, by far IMHO.
January 21, 2012 at 5:24 pm |
Why can’t we just count the number of tickets sold, and let that be the barometer for long-term popularity, instead of getting out an abbacus and adjusting for inflation every several years, or so?
January 21, 2012 at 9:22 pm |
The odd thing with movies is that their success is measured by box office, which makes sense in comparing which is more popular among contemporaneous releases in a given weekend, month, or year but doesn’t make sense over the long term because of inflation/changing ticket prices. An album or book’s popularity is measured by unit sold, even downloads. Ticket sales are not counted. Adjusting for inflation is as close as that gets.
I’ve heard though that the most successful film of all time isn’t really “Gone With The Wind,” it’s “Deep Throat.” But porn isn’t counted with mainstream releases.
January 21, 2012 at 6:16 pm |
tickets sold would certainly put phantom menace in the top movies of all time, but then you have people saying that it was so hyped it couldn’t help but sell that many (bull, of course. no-one made you see it 8 times), + that we should note the poor critical reaction to the prequels.
here’s the things tho– *at the time of release*, the prequels were reviewed better than the original trilogy. only a new hope manages to squeeze in amidst the prequels at number two highest-rated, but it’s still second to revenge of the sith.
like i said, it’s only once the bandwagon starts up that critics start revising their opinions (roger ebert *adored* attack of teh clones when it came out, but when reviewing rots (+ praising hell out of it) he said it was a better movies because it rectified the many flaws of its predecessors)
it’s telling that you say only “one old dude” found something to dislike about tpm.
i.e; someone who wasn’t a kid (therefore not particularly invested) upon the original movies’ release.
January 21, 2012 at 9:25 pm |
Right. Hype doesn’t make you see a movie 10 times.
January 22, 2012 at 3:14 pm
Except for the “I have seen TPM five times now, and it gets worse every time I see it” fans.
January 22, 2012 at 4:28 am |
Didn’t Roger Ebert only gives 2 out of 4 stars to AotC, but 3 1/2 to TPM and RotS? Whatever, at least there’s a well-known movie critic that does not think that the prequels suck, far from it.
) have been recognized as classics while the PT movies still only get mixed/bad (and no positive?) reviews. This may be true, but you could then argue that all the bashing did not help to set the record straight, either… But then bashers will answer that the PT movies do not need to be defended if they were so good… But then… 
About “the OT movies were not as well reviewed as the PT movies when they were released…” I have read a statistic (Secret History of Star Wars, I think) that says the contrary. Depends on how you measure, I guess…
However, bashers will argue that the OT movies (with the exception of RotJ of course because Ewoks suck*
Anyway, I think that the majority of the “average” movie critics and moviegoers has never considered the PT movies as bad as the bashers claim the PT movies are: that’s what the reviews on RottenTomatoes and IMDB tell you (not ultra-positive reviews, rather mixed, but still not the catastrophe most of the bashers see in them).
*Don’t get me wrongo, I like Ewoks, I am just quoting the bashers.
January 22, 2012 at 9:51 am
Ugh, I wouldn’t rely on “The Secret History” for anything. The author’s followers are just as fanatical as the RLM crowd. As taffysaur noted below, it’s hard to compare a time when most film critics were professionals who worked for newspapers, magazines, and network television versus a time when any dork with a computer could be called a critic.
January 22, 2012 at 3:11 pm
Well, I think that “The Secret History” acknowledges the 60 + something % at RottenTomatoes, but then notes the only 40 + something % of “Cream of the Crop”, i.e. professional critics (I think?). I do not know whether zombie really does the contextual errors taffysaur points to or not. To be honest, I am not interested in checking (at least now), so I’ll just stick to my statement that even the “Cream of the Crop” reviews, while not “fresh”, consider the prequels still better than many other movies. (“Deep Impact” or “Armageddon”, for instance – and “Contact” is on the level of TPM and AotC at RottenTomatoes. Why does no one bash this movie?)
Who knows, maybe the re-releases will improve the overall rating.
January 22, 2012 at 8:12 am |
sometimes the star review seems lower, but the review is a positive one, by virtue of how praiseworthy it is.
he raved about aotc on release, but then when reviewing rots he said clones was ‘mired in pseudo-profundity + solemnity’ or something. total 180°, like he was remembering what public sentiment seemed to be rather than his own memories (and the public are not movie critics)
as for secret history of star wars, the writer (zombie off theforce.net) does make a fair few factual/contextual errors. one of which is mixing retrospective reviews among contemporary (which is a mistake you could make if you just checked metacritic or rottentomatos or someth), therefore getting a skewed view on critical reaction, coloured by time, fading memory + cultural trends.
March 18, 2012 at 2:16 am |
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