Here’s One Stat That Proves All Those *Records Broken By ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Are A Complete Joke

Ever since Fandango tickets first went on sale for Star Wars: The Force Awakens we’ve been inundated with news about how record breaking the film is, but all of the records the film is breaking and the manner in which it’s breaking those records is complete bullshit (and I’ll explain why in one simple stat). It’s already become the highest grossing film of all time in North America, it was the fastest film to ever reach $1 billion in box office sales, and it’s expected to unseat Avatar as the highest grossing film in history.

I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens in IMAX 3-D, it’s one hell of a film, I have nothing bad to say about the movie itself. What I take issue with is how the studio’s are making this out to be the biggest fucking film in the history of Hollywood, but there’s one stat that proves it’s not (h/t Drudge Report):

When you adjust for inflation of ticket prices Star Wars: The Force Awakens has actually sold significantly less tickets than the other ‘Biggest Blockbusters’ in history. In fact, TFA only ranks 21st in ‘tickets sold’ once you adjust for the cost of movie tickets. The astronomical cost of movie tickets (thanks for that, IMAX!) is what’s causing Star Wars: The Force Awakens to break all of these box office records, not the fact that it’s filling the most seats in movie theaters.

The NYPost reports:

If you factor in inflation, “The Force Awakens” currently ranks in 21st place among all films in terms of actual tickets sold, just behind “Raiders of the Lost Ark” but far, far behind the two chart-toppers: “Gone With the Wind” ($1.7 billion) and the original “Star Wars” ($1.5 billion). (Various factors make it impossible to adjust international grosses, an increasingly important source of Hollywood revenue, for inflation.)
Due to increased ticket prices (and a rerelease), the 2009 “Avatar” — whose adjusted total is $837 million — has still sold more tickets than “The Force Awakens” at this point.

Currently ranked 11th to 20th ahead of “The Force Awakens” on that list:

1961’s “101 Dalmations” ($860 million)
1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back” ($845 million)
1959’s “Ben-Hur” ($843 million)
“Avatar” ($837 million)
1983’s “Return of the Jedi” ($809 million)
1993’s “Jurassic Park” ($791 million)
“Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” ($777 million)
“The Lion King” ($767 million)
1973’s “The Sting” (767 million)
1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” ($762 million)

So for all of the records TFA is breaking it’s ONLY because they’ve jacked the ticket prices up so fucking high that it was all but assured to break the records. How much are IMAX-3D tickets these days, like $40 in Manhattan? You price something high enough and it’ll smash records, it’s as simple as that.

I bet the next iteration of Star Wars completely demolishes this movie’s records because the price of tickets keeps ballooning, even though I expect the next film in the series to sell far less tickets than this one….end rant. (h/t DrudgeReport via NYP)