cjh@csin.UUCP (Chip Hitchcock) (06/08/83)
In response to your message of Tue Jun 7 00:44:48 1983: It seems to me that you're making a great deal of fuss over minor factors. Specifically: PRICE: The net stories of gouging have been matched by stories of uniform prices. My recollection is that my RotJ ticket cost AT MOST 12.5% more than a ticket to E.T. did last summer at the same theater, and it may have been the same price ($4.50 at Boston's top movie house). INFLATION: This is another way of saying higher prices, nu? You should factor in one or the other but not both. As a matter of fact, my impression is that blockbusters are getting steadily bigger; what happens if you deflate $(1977)200,000,000 to $(1965)? I doubt that it drops by a factor of 3 using standard economic indicators and I'm \sure/ my family paid more than $1.33 per head to see THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which has grossed around $67,000,000. EXTENDED HOURS: How many other movies do you think would have supported these hours? Obviously this is speculation, but you can get some idea from the lines at less-than-prime-time shows; my impression is that E.T. (the closest rival) would not have paid off at extended hours. Note also that your multiplication is off; around here, the "around the clock" showings typically increased the number of daily screenings from 5 to 8 (e.g., adding midnight+, 3am, and 6am to noon, 2:25, 4:50, 7:15, and 9:40). You also leave out a couple of factors: TOTAL SCREENS: Reports were that RotJ was showing at just over 1000 theaters with a few showing on more than one screen (or perhaps just under 1000 theaters, with some of the extra screens booked before release) and a few more adding screens after opening. By comparison, SUPERMAN II opened in something like 1700 theaters. ADVERTISING: How much were, say, ET and SUPERMAN II hyped? In Boston, RotJ had one 2/3(?)-page ad 1 day before opening in the leading newspaper. Perhaps -"absolutely unprecedented"- was excessive, but I doubt you can fairly deflate $(1983)41,000,000 and have it end up less than the previous record.