Movie Enthusiast Issue 24: The Inaugural Box Office Olympics
Toward the end of every calendar year I like to check the box office returns on some of the more obscure movies I saw in theaters to find out how much I contributed to all my favorite indie movies’ success. This year, I decided to check the receipts on everything I’ve seen (so far). Let’s see how the numbers stack up:
2016 U.S. Total Domestic Grosses (as of 12/19/16) for theatrically-released films I saw in theaters this year
(Number in parentheses = box office rank)
Finding Dory – $486,295,561 (1)
Arrival – $86,468,367 (31)
The Girl on the Train – $75,305,705 (37)
Kubo and the Two Strings – $48,023,088 (58)
Hail, Caesar! – $30,080,225 (78)
Hell or High Water – $27,007,844 (83)
Manchester by the Sea – $14,016,643 (111)
Love & Friendship – $14,016,568 (112)
Moonlight – $11,502,201 (118)
Café Society – $11,103,205 (119)
Queen of Katwe – $8,785,681 (128)
The Lobster – $8,700,374 (129)
Loving – $7,100,022 (132)
Midnight Special – $3,712,282 (158)
Indignation – $3,401,155 (160)
Everybody Wants Some!! – $3,400,278 (161)
The Handmaiden – $1,796,133 (192)
Jackie – $1,592,735 (200)
Embrace of the Serpent – $1,329,249 (207)
Little Men – $702,537 (237)
Elle – $696,230 (240)
Knight of Cups – $566,006 (254)
Our Little Sister – $467,555 (268)
High-Rise – $346,472 (283)
Ixcanul – $291,464 (290)*
Aquarius – $285,930 (293)
Dheepan – $248,392 (300)*
The Fits – $166,425 (319)
Things to Come – $157,246 (326)
Chimes at Midnight (2016 Re-release) – $126,724 (344)
Aferim! – $108,110 (356)
Dekalog (2016 Re-release – $106,494 (357)
Cameraperson – $102,033 (364)
Fireworks Wednesday – $90,519 (374)
Mountains May Depart – $82,913 (382)
Ran (2016 Re-issue) – $66,097 (405)
Right Now, Wrong Then –$24,470 (523)*
*I saw these movies in theaters, but not as part of their theatrical runs.
A few observations:
I almost saw more movies in theaters this year that grossed under $1 million than I did movies that grossed over that much. Jackie passed $1 million this weekend, just tipping the balance in that direction.
The highest grossing movie I saw in theaters made more at the U.S. box office than the other 36 movies combined. (that was $349,050,450 when I made the first draft of this list last week, but now that number is ever-so-slightly higher)
The highest grossing foreign-language film I saw was The Handmaiden.
Indignation somehow grossed more than Everybody Wants Some!!
I am extremely confused as to how High-Rise did so atrociously at the box office. Mind you, it’s an atrocious movie, but its marketing was 💯.
Even though everyone I know seems to have seen and have opinions on Knight of Cups, it only grossed half a million dollars. Alternatively, it may very well be the case that I happen to know every last person who saw this movie!
Looking at these stats makes me all the more appreciative that I live in a city with enough theaters to actually justify brining some of the smaller things to screens. Cameraperson, for instance, only played in 7 theaters at its point of widest release. Right Now, Wrong Then only played in 2 (!), but I still got to see it at Washington DC’s Korean Film Festival. How do we bring movies like these to movie lovers in cities that aren’t coastal and cosmopolitan? I’ll be thinking this over for a while, but I obviously part of the answer is that you would need to first get more movie lovers in more cities besides New York and L.A.
If you ever wonder why film critics tend to be such grouchy people, just remember that Bad Santa 2 has already outgrossed 31 of the above movies.