Driving today, I heard lots of reports about the latest Underworld movie and how much it made at the box office, and that got me to thinking about vampire movies and how they relate to each other and other movies.
And that got me to making graphs instead of working.
Here is a graph of the percentage of total box office revenues earned by vampire movies:
What's surprising about that is not just that Twilight movies account for 46.1% of all money spent on vampire movies ever, but that Van Helsing is number five.
This graph may be biased by the source I used to get the info, which listed no box office receipts for any vampire movie prior to 1979. I doubt that no vampire movies were ever made before that year, but who am I to question the Internet:
I suspect, since I was measuring them by top box office, none of the pre-1979 movies made the list because box offices were lower then; box office receipts are not an absolute measure, because there are more people now, more movie theaters now, and mostly because movie ticket prices are sky-high now. (In 2010, the average movie ticket price was $7.89. In 1978 it was $2.34, so a movie seen by the exact same number of people in 1978 as in 2010 would have less than 1/3 the box office.)
So are vampire movies popular, in general? This graph is a little hard to read, but purple is the top-grossing non-vampire movie that year. Green is the top grossing vampire movie:
3 comments:
There have pretty much always been vampire movies, ever since Nosferatu in 1921 or 1922 or whatever it was. Then the Bela Legosi version in 1931 with a multitude of sequels and reboots ever since then.
How brilliant was Bram Stoker that all of these movies all sprang from his one book at the end of the 19th Century? He's probably the most influential author, not including religious texts. There's something for you to consider.
I got stuck when I saw Van Helsing on that list. What? No, really, what the heck? That movie's horrible.
Of course, that was after the shock of popping over here and seeing my face. I thought I was on the wrong site for a moment!
:)
The first Jim Carrey vehicle was a vampire movie, I think it was with George Hamiliton, not sure though. And Interview with a Vampire didn't make that cut? I mean, wasn't that a big deal when it came out?
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