When you read on a website chart or hear from movie critics that a
movie was #1 in the box office in the weekend, what does that exactly
mean?  Is it that, given any weekend, it is the movie that made the
most money out of all movies in theaters at the time for that weekend?

Hello durrow-ga,

Thank-you for your question.

You are correct in surmising that "#1 in the box office" means that
the movie made the most money during that period.  The period is
usually either a weekend or during the week.  Movie studios like to
"open big" which means to have the film seen on as many screens as
possible in the hope that many people will go and watch the film in
the opening week.  One reason to open big is to ensure that if the
film has poor reviews people will go and see the movie before they
realise or hear that it is not worth seeing!

There are a number of sites that give you the current box office takings including:

http://movies.go.com/boxoffice
http://www.boxofficereport.com/wbon/forecast.shtml
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=hottopic&id=1082

Should you require any further assistance on this subject please do
not hesitate to ask for clarification.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by durrow-ga on 15 Feb 2006 11:00 PST

Your answer is not clear.  Does "making the most money for that
period" include worldwide sales, or is it just domestic gross?
Thanks, -Peter

---

Clarification of Answer by palitoy-ga on 16 Feb 2006 01:38 PST

It depends on the context of the quote.  Movie studios like to make
out that their movie is #1 therefore if it did better worldwide they
would use worldwide figures, if the movie did better in the domestic
market it would use those.  There is no hard and fast rule here except
that the movie studio will use the market that gives the better
impression!