Hi,

Here's an interesting table of

Duke's Top Box Office Hits

as published in The John Wayne Scrapbook 1996.

1.How The West Was Won
2.The Longest Day
3.True Grit
4.The Green Berets
5.The Alamo
6.Rooster Cogburn
7.The Cowboys
8.Hatari!
9.The Greatest Story Ever Told
10.The Sea Chase
11.The Sons Of Katie Elder
12.Chisum
13.The Shootist
14.El Dorado
15.Rio Bravo
16.North To Alaska
17.McLintock

Interestingly though,
The Searchers, Red River, Sands Of Iwo Jima
are not listed in the top ones!!

I'd like to see Hondo & The Comancheros added...

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8237/dukejohnwayne.jpg

How about
"She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" !!!
:ohmy:
Chilibill
:cowboy:

I think the John Wayne Filmography has a more complete list.

Hi,

Here's an interesting table of

Duke's Top Box Office Hits

as published in The John Wayne Scrapbook 1996.

1.How The West Was Won
2.The Longest Day
3.True Grit
4.The Green Berets
5.The Alamo
6.Rooster Cogburn
7.The Cowboys
8.Hatari!
9.The Greatest Story Ever Told
10.The Sea Chase
11.The Sons Of Katie Elder
12.Chisum
13.The Shootist
14.El Dorado
15.Rio Bravo
16.North To Alaska
17.McLintock

Interestingly though,
The Searchers, Red River, Sands Of Iwo Jima
are not listed in the top ones!!

How accurate is this list Keith? The reason I ask is because the same book states that movies such as "Sands of Iwo Jima," which made a profit of 5 million is more successful than "The Alamo," due to profit margins etc, yet "Sands of Iwo Jima," is not on this list.

:agent:

How accurate is this list Keith? The reason I ask is because the same book states that movies such as "Sands of Iwo Jima," which made a profit of 5 million is more successful than "The Alamo," due to profit margins etc, yet "Sands of Iwo Jima," is not on this list.

:agent:
Robbie, What you read was the video rental figures. The topic was on his top box-office hits.

I must admit, that I am not totally understanding how they figure the box office hit in money figures, because of inflation and the value of expenses. So, if you notice that Duke later movies were bigger hits than the early ones. I think if you put an equal value to each movie made we'd see a more balanced consistency in all movies from the beginning of the movie empire.

Cheers :cool:

What would really help is if they listed Admission numbers as well...

What would really help is they listed Admission numbers as well...
Yes, you'd think that would be a more accurate measure.

Who cares that a movie these days takes in $120 million in its first weekend? With tickets around $10/each (maybe even more in some big cities), that wouldn't be too hard to do. By the end of a movie's run, how many people lined up to see it? That's what really counts.

When Titanic came in over 10 years ago, it passed the old classics with no trouble. Tickets were high then, and today with Avatar in theaters now, it passed Titanic with no problem, tickets are even higher today. I haven't seen Avatar, but there is no way it can do the business that a movie like Gone with the Wind, Ben Hur, How the West was Won. And you can't go by numbers either, with more theaters today, more people. I just can't figure how you can get accurate numbers for something back in 1939, and 2009. That to me is next to impossible.

Cheers :cool:

I'm surprised Rooster Cogburn is so high, I always thought that movie wasn't a huge hit.

I'm surprised Rooster Cogburn is so high, I always thought that movie wasn't a huge hit.

It's John Wayne and his success with True Grit made people want to go and see Rooster Cogburn, and he was also starring with Katherine Hepburn. That was a pair of superstars and everyone wanted to see them together. They have never been in anything together. This would be a one time shot, and I went to see that movie myself.

Realize that it has been two years since he made a western, and I imagine that we were hungry to see a Duke western. He made two modern detective movies which didn't do so well.

I was not a big Katherine Hepburn fan at the time, but was a Duke fan. Looking back, you are right that this was not a big hit, and I wouldn't rank it as my top 10, but I was living at the time Duke was finishing his career, and I wanted to see his movies he made.

Cheers :cool: Hondo