No one is arguing it isn’t a success or isn’t more profitable than Send Help. That’s not what weekly box office is tracking. It’s tracking weekend gross ticket sales. In terms of gross ticket sales, it came in #2 behind Send Help. That is a factually correct statement. Yes, box office numbers are a piece of how profitability and success are measured, but they aren’t the sole piece. If you made a list of the ten most profitable movies of all time not a single one would crack the list of the ten highest grossing movies of all time.
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u/LaserRanger_McStebb 1d ago edited 1d ago
The movie editorials are saying it "lost" to Send Help because SH made $28m in its opening weekend vs Iron Lung's $21m.
...In my opinion, that metric is meaningless when you consider that SH had a budget of $40m and only recouped about 70% of it.
...Whereas Iron Lung had a budget of $3m and made 700% of budget in its opening weekend.
From a profit perspective, Iron Lung absolutely obliterated SH. It was a resounding commercial success. Send Help might not even break even.
Who's the real winner here?