The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars

Appendix 1: Annual Top Ten 1967–1976

A note of caution: When determining annual box office charts, one confronts three major problems. Firstly, a film’s run often extends beyond one calendar year; indeed, until the 1970s, many films stayed in cinemas for several years. Secondly, until the 1980s many hit movies had re-releases, sometimes soon after their initial release, sometimes many years later. Thirdly, figures tend to vary slightly from source to source, and what is arguably the most authoritative source, Variety, has over the years adjusted its rental figures for particular films in the light of new information. Charts like the ones presented below are therefore only ever an approximation. It is also worth pointing out that when compiling annual charts, some sources use the year when a film was produced rather than the year in which it was actually released into theatres. I have used the latter.

The following listings rank the top ten releases of each year in terms of rental income, that is the money paid by exhibitors to distributors, which is usually about 40–60 per cent of box office gross, that is the money paid by cinemagoers for their tickets. Figures are taken from Variety’s 1993 ‘All-Time Film Rental Champs’, which lists all films with rentals of at least $3m in alphabetical order (Cohn 1993: C76–106, 108). A year-by-year breakdown was kindly provided to me by Sheldon Hall.

I had to amend this breakdown in certain instances with the help of the annual box office charts and the annual updates of the all-time chart which Variety publishes every year in one of its January issues. According to Lawrence Cohn, The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) were among the top-grossing movies of their year of release, but these films earned the vast majority of their rentals during the decades after their initial release and were therefore excluded. For The Jungle Book (1967), which earned a lot of money during re-releases in the 1980s and 1990s, and Gone With the Wind (1939), which has been re-released numerous times since the 1940s, I have estimated the rentals earned during the decade 1967–76. The estimate for The Jungle Book is taken from ‘The Top 200 Moneymaking Films of All Time’, compiled by Variety in January 1979 (reprinted in Steinberg 1980: 4–8). For Gone With the Wind, I deducted the rentals the film had earned by the end of 1966 from the figure for the end of 1976 (Anon. 1967b: 21; Anon. 1977: 16). The film earned $36m in rentals during the decade 1967–76, most of it during a re-release in 1967/68, and is therefore listed as one of the top hits of 1967. By the same calculation, The Sound of Music (1965) also earned $36m during this decade and Doctor Zhivago (1965) $32m. However, most of this money did not derive from re-releases but from the extended run of their original release; therefore I have not listed them in the annual charts for 1967–76.

The top ten lists resulting from these amendments are very similar to those published for the 1970s by David Cook (2000: 497–503). For several films, notably The Exorcist (1973), The Sting (1973), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Jaws (1975), the rental figures given below include revenues from re-releases in the late 1970s. Where available, rental figures were complemented with the figures for box office gross, taken from The Variety Almanac 2000 (Variety 2000: 62–7).

It is important to point out that figures are not adjusted for inflation and they cover income from both the US and Canada. All figures are rounded.

1967

1 The Graduate, $44m rentals ($105m gross)

2 Gone With the Wind re-release, $36m

3 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, $26m

4 The Jungle Book, $25m

5 Bonnie and Clyde, $23m

6 The Dirty Dozen, $20m

7 The Valley of the Dolls, $20m

8 You Only Live Twice, $19m

9 To Sir, With Love, $19m

10 Thoroughly Modern Millie, $16m

1968

1 Funny Girl, $26m

2 2001: A Space Odyssey, $26

3 The Odd Couple, $20m

4 Bullitt, $19m

5 Romeo and Juliet, $17

6 Oliver!, $17m

7 Planet of the Apes, $15m

7 Rosemary’s Baby, $15m

9 Yours, Mine and Ours, $12m

10 The Lion in Winter, $10m

1969

1 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, $46m ($102m gross)

2 The Love Bug, $23m

3 Midnight Cowboy, $21m

4 Easy Rider, $19m

5 Hello, Dolly!, $15m

6 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, $15m

7 Paint Your Wagon, $15m

8 True Grit, $14m

9 Cactus Flower, $12m

10 Goodbye, Columbus, $11m

1970

1 Love Story, $49m ($106m gross)

2 Airport, $45m (c. $80m gross)

3 M*A*S*H, $37m

4 Patton, $28m

5 Woodstock, $16m

6 Little Big Man, $15m

7 Ryan’s Daughter, $15m

8 Tora! Tora! Tora!, $15m

9 Catch-22, $12m

10 The Owl and the Pussycat, $12m

1971

1 Fiddler on the Roof, $38m

2 Billy Jack, $33m

3 The French Connection, $26m

4 Summer of ‘42, $21m

5 Diamonds Are Forever, $20m

6 Dirty Harry, $18m

7 A Clockwork Orange, $17m

8 Carnal Knowledge, $14m

9 The Last Picture Show, $13m

10 Bedknobs and Broomsticks, $11m

1972

1 The Godfather, $87m ($135m gross)

2 The Poseidon Adventure, $42m ($85m gross)

3 What’s Up, Doc?, $28m

4 Deliverance, $23m

5 Jeremiah Johnson, $22m

6 Cabaret, $20m

7 Deep Throat, $20m

8 The Getaway, $18m

9 Brother of the Wind, $12m

10 Lady Sings the Blues, $10m

1973

1 The Exorcist, $89m ($165m gross)

2 The Sting, $78m ($156m gross)

3 American Graffiti, $55m ($115m gross)

4 Papillon, $23m

5 The Way We Were, $22m

6 Magnum Force, $20m

7 Last Tango in Paris, $17m

8 Paper Moon, $17m

9 Live and Let Die, $16m108

10 The Devil in Miss Jones, $15m

1974

1 The Towering Inferno, $49m ($116m gross)

2 Blazing Saddles, $48m ($120m gross)

3 Young Frankenstein, $39m

4 Earthquake, $36m

5 The Trial of Billy Jack, $31m

6 The Godfather, Part II, $31m

7 Airport 1975, $25m

8 The Longest Yard, $23m

9 Murder on the Orient Express, $19m

10 Herbie Rides Again, $17m

1975

1 Jaws, $130m ($260m gross)

2 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, $60m ($112m gross)

3 Shampoo, $24m

4 Dog Day Afternoon, $23m

5 The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, $22m

6 The Return of the Pink Panther, $20m

7 Three Days of the Condor, $20m

8 Funny Lady, $19m

9 The Other Side of the Mountain, $18m

10 Tommy, $18m

1976

1 Rocky, $57m ($117m gross)

2 A Star is Born, $37m

3 King Kong, $37m

4 Silver Streak, $30m

5 All the President’s Men, $30m

6 The Omen, $29m

7 The Bad News Bears, $25m

8 The Enforcer, $24m

9 In Search of Noah’s Ark, $24m

10 Midway, $22m

Appendix 2: Inflation-Adjusted Top 14 of 1967–76

The following chart is based on a Box Office Mojo website (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm; accessed 23 March 2003). This website attempts to adjust film grosses to average 2002 ticket prices. The figures for unadjusted grosses used as the basis for this calculation sometimes differ from those in The Variety Almanac which were employed in appendix 1, but this difference does not affect the overall picture (see the adjusted list in Variety 2000: 71). According to Box Office Mojo, The Jungle Book should be included in the Top 14, but, as noted before, the film made most of its money after 1976 and is therefore excluded. If one were to adjust the earnings of its re-releases in 1967/68 and 1971/72, Gone With the Wind might just make it into the Top 14. In the all-time inflation-adjusted chart, the Top 14 for 1967–76 are ranked between no. 7 and no. 63; Gone With the Wind is at no. 1 (with all its releases since 1939 being counted).

1 Jaws (1975)

2 The Exorcist (1973)

3 The Sting (1973)

4 The Graduate (1967)

5 The Godfather (1972)

6 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

7 Love Story (1970)

8 Airport (1970)

9 American Graffiti (1973)

10 Blazing Saddles (1974)

11 The Towering Inferno (1974)

12 Rocky (1976)

13 The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

14 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Appendix 3: Annual Top Five, 1949–66

As in appendix 1, the following listings are based on Sheldon Hall’s year-by-year breakdown of Variety’s 1993 ‘All-Time Film Rental Champs’ (Cohn 1993: C76–106, 108). Once again, I had to amend this breakdown in certain instances. According to Cohn, the Disney films Alice in Wonderland (1951), Sleeping Beauty (1959), Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), In Search of the Castaways (1962), The Sword in the Stone (1963) and That Darn Cat (1965) as well as Rear Window (1954) were among the top-grossing films of their years of release, but they earned a substantial share and in several cases the majority of their rentals in re-releases after 1966 and were therefore excluded. The rental figures used below for Disney’s Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Old Yeller (1957), The Shaggy Dog (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), The Parent Trap (1961), The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Son of Flubber (1963) and Mary Poppins (1964) exclude all earnings after 1966 (see Anon. 1967b). However, several roadshows, most notably The Sound of Music (1965) and Doctor Zhivago (1965), had extended runs into the late 1960s as well as re-releases in the early 1970s; I have included revenues from these extended runs and re-releases in the figures given below.

The figures are not adjusted for inflation and they cover income from both the US and Canada. All figures are rounded.

1949

1 Samson and Delilah, $12m rentals

2 Battleground, $5m

3 Jolson Sings Again, $5m

4 Sands of Iwo Jima, $5m

5 I Was a Male War Bride, $4m

1950

1 Cinderella, $9m

2 King Solomon’s Mines, $6m

3 Annie Get Your Gun, $5m

4 Cheaper By the Dozen, $4m

5 Born Yesterday, $4m

1951

1 Quo Vadis, $12m

2 Show Boat, $6m

3 David and Bathsheba, $5m

4 The Great Caruso, $5m

5 A Streetcar Named Desire, $4m

1952

1 This is Cinerama, $15m

2 The Greatest Show on Earth, $14m

3 The Snows of Kilimanjaro, $7m

4 Ivanhoe, $6m

5 Hans Christian Andersen, $6m

1953

1 The Robe, $18m

2 From Here to Eternity, $12m

3 Shane, $8m

4 How to Marry a Millionaire, $7m

5 Peter Pan, $7m

1954

1 White Christmas, $12m

2 The Caine Mutiny, $9m

3 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, $9m

4 The Glenn Miller Story, $8m

5 The Country Girl, $7m

1955

1 Cinerama Holiday, $12m

2 Mister Roberts, $9m

3 Lady and the Tramp, $8m

4 Battle Cry, $8m

5 Oklahoma!, $7m

1956

1 The Ten Commandments, $43m

2 Around the World in Eighty Days, $23

3 Giant, $14m

4 Seven Wonders of the World, $13m

5 The King and I, $9m

1957

1 The Bridge on the River Kwai, $17m

2 Peyton Place, $12m

3 Sayonara, $11m

4 Old Yeller, $8m

5 Raintree County, $6m

1958

1 South Pacific, $18m

2 Auntie Mame, $9m

3 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, $9m

4 No Time for Sergeants, $9m

5 Gigi, $7m

1959

1 Ben-Hur, $37m

2 The Shaggy Dog, $10m

3 Operation Petticoat, $9m

4 Some Like It Hot, $8m

5 Swiss Family Robinson, $8m

1961

1 West Side Story, $20m

2 The Guns of Navarone, $13m

3 El Cid, $12m

4 The Parent Trap, $9m

5 The Absent-Minded Professor, $9m

1962

1 How the West Was Won, $21m

2 The Longest Day, $18m

3 Lawrence of Arabia, $17

4 The Music Man, $8m

5 That Touch of Mink, $8m

1963

1 Cleopatra, $26m

2 It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, $21m

3 Tom Jones, $17m

4 Irma la Douce, $12m

5 Son of Flubber, $7m

1964

1 My Fair Lady, $34m

2 Mary Poppins, $31m

3 Goldfinger, $23m

4 The Carpetbaggers, $16m

5 From Russia With Love, $10m

1965

1 The Sound of Music, $80m

2 Doctor Zhivago, $47m

3 Thunderball, $29m

4 Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, $14m

5 The Great Race, $11m

1966

1 Hawaii, $16m

2 The Bible: In the Beginning, $15m

3 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, $15m

4 The Sand Pebbles, $14m

5 A Man for All Seasons, $13m

Appendix 4: Inflation-Adjusted Top 14 of 1949–66

The following chart is again based on the Box Office Mojo website (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm; accessed 23 March 2003). According to Box Office Mojo, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and Sleeping Beauty (1959) are in the Top 14, but these films made most of their money after 1966 and are therefore excluded. I have also excluded Let’s Make Love (1960) because its presence on the Box Office Mojo list is at odds with information about this film’s box office performance from all other sources.

The ranking for Mary Poppins is probably too high, due to the inclusion of revenues generated by re-releases after 1966, and My Fair Lady is ranked unexpectedly low, which is probably due to ongoing disagreements about the film’s earnings. Judging by the rental figures given in appendix 3, both This Is Cinerama and South Pacific should be included in the Top 14, but it is possible that their box office grosses, which form the basis for the inflation adjustments, were comparatively low (because the distributor was able to demand a larger share of box office revenues). In the all-time inflation-adjusted chart, the Top 14 of 1949–66 are ranked between no. 3 and no. 67.

1 The Sound of Music (1965)

2 The Ten Commandments (1956)

3 Doctor Zhivago (1965)

4 Ben-Hur (1959)

5 Mary Poppins (1964)

6 Thunderball (1965)

7 Cleopatra (1963)

8 Goldfinger (1964)

9 The Robe (1953)

10 Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)

11 The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

12 My Fair Lady (1964)

13 West Side Story (1961)

14 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Appendix 5: Inflation-Adjusted Top 14 of 1977–86

The following chart is once again based on the Box Office Mojo website (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm; accessed 23 March 2003). Curiously, Saturday Night Fever is absent from this chart, despite the fact that its $139m gross is higher than the grosses for Superman and Smokey and the Bandit (Variety 2000: 64). In the all-time inflation-adjusted chart, the Top 14 of 1977–86 are ranked between no. 2 and no. 60.

1 Star Wars (1977)

2 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

3 The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

4 Return of the Jedi (1983)

5 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

6 Grease (1978)

7 Ghostbusters (1984)

8 Bevery Hills Cop (1984)

9 National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)

10 Back to the Future (1985)

11 Superman (1978)

12 Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

13 Tootsie (1982)

14 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)