[net.movies] movie grosses caveat

upstill (07/10/82)

   If you're interested in hard figures on movie grosses, the Variety
numbers must be taken with the following caveat:  They represent a sample
of theaters across the land, and as such the figures involved generally
run about a quarter of the actual income for a film.  Moreover, the
theaters sampled are skewed toward the urban, and so the 1/4 rule varies
quite a bit.  For example in the survey put on the net yesterday, Porky's
is given $17M, where the actual figure is bearing down on $100M.  This is
a film with more appeal in the hinterlands.  However, in general, the
rankings are pretty valid.