MovieChat Forums > Alfred Hitchcock Discussion > ☝️ Pop vs. Box 👇 '50 - '76

☝️ Pop vs. Box 👇 '50 - '76

posted 2 years ago by Redsfan001 (6002)
9 replies | jump to latest

Card 124

Key -

B - box office rank for year
P - current popular ranking for year
🎖️ - first place ranking
🏆 - popular winner top list
🗽 - most votes for year
💎 - library special award
⭐ - library special award

Note - Box office data becomes scant prior to 1950, all of Mr. Hitchcock's movies before 1950 has been listed in reply

50 Stage Fright - no data
51 Strangers on a Train 🎖️ B3 P1
53 I Confess - no data
54 Dial M for Murder B39 P5
54 Rear Window 🗽 B4 P2
55 To Catch a Thief B8 P2
55 The Trouble with Harry - nd
56 The Man Who Knew Too ..B7 P9
56 The Wrong Man - no data
58 Vertigo 🎖️🗽 B13 P1
59 North by Northwest 🗽 B8 P2
60 Psycho 🗽 B2 P2
63 The Birds 🎖️🏆 B17 P1
64 Marnie B18 P9
66 Torn Curtain B17 P34
69 Topaz B23 P42
72 Frenzy B15 P10
76 Family Plot B24 P42

Movies scored - 14
Box sum - 198
Pop sum - 162

Box avg rank - 14.14
Pop avg rank - 11.56

BA-PA = +2.57

Box top 20 - 🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥
Pop top 20 - 🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿

Best box - Psycho (2)
Worst box - Family Plot (24)
Best pop - Strangers on a Train (1), Vertigo (1), The Birds (1)
Worst pop - Topaz (42), Family Plot (42)

Pop gainer - Dial M for Murder (+34)
Pop loser - Family Plot (-18)

Pop vs Box awards

🎖️🎖️🎖️
🗽🗽🗽🗽
🏆
💎
⭐

It is natural for popular rankings to be higher due to the influx of art house, international and straight to video releases. Popular rankings are taken from IMDB and are fluid. Most box office data is taken from The Numbers website (domestic).

Scoring b-p

10+ = excellent
9 to -9 = good
-10 to -29 = average
-30 to -49 = poor
-50 and below = very poor

Example

Topaz B23 P42 = -19(avg)

Tally

Excellent (10pts each) = 3
Good (5pts each) = 8
Average (0pts each ) = 3
Poor (-5pts each) = 0⭐
Very poor (-10pts each) = 0💎
Pop top 20 bonus (5pts each) = 11

+30,+40,+55

Mr. Hitchcock's pop/box library score

125💎⭐

[–] Redsfan001 (6002) 2 years ago

Movies 1922 - 1949
* - also screenplay writer/co-writer

22 Number 13
25 The Pleasure Garden
26 Mountain Eagle
27 The Lodger
27 The Ring*
27 Downhill
28 The Farmers Wife
28 Easy Virtue
28 Champagne*
29 The Manxman
29 Blackmail*
30 An Elastic Affair
30 Juno and the Paycock
30 Murder!*
31 The Skin Game*
31 Mary
31 Rich and Strange*
32 Number Seventeen*
34 Waltzes from Vienna
34 The Man Who Knew Too Much
35 The 39 Steps
36 Secret Agent
36 Sabotage
37 Young and Innocent
38 The Lady Vanishes
39 Jamaica Inn
40 Rebecca
40 Foreign Correspondent
41 Mr. & Mrs. Smith
41 Suspicion
42 Saboteur
43 Shadow of a Doubt
44 Lifeboat
45 Spellbound
46 Notorious
47 The Paradise Case
48 Rope
49 Under Capricorn

[–] huwdj (4562) 2 years ago

It's funny that the relatively low score is because the films scored high on release and have remained very popular.

[–] Redsfan001 (6002) 2 years ago

That is why I added the pop bonus...since it's impossible for high box office movies to obtain a +10 score.

Only 14 movies scored, so the highest possible score for Mr. Hitchcock would be 180.

A 125 is very good considering.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

It's funny that the relatively low score is because the films scored high on release and have remained very popular.

---

I think a lot of Hitchcock's movies in his "peak period" (roughly 1951 with Strangers on a Train through The Birds in 1963) won an entirely NEW audience when they were shown on network TV in America in the late 60s. Unlike as with the "old movies" of Ford and Hawks and Capra, Hitchcock's 50's and early 60's output was coveted by the three networks -- NBC, CBS and ABC -- for nationwide broadcast -- and the TV ratings were good. A January 1968 showing of The Birds was the highest rated movie shown on TV to that date(the record was broken in 1971 by Ben Hur.)

Psycho was famously cancelled from its 1966 CBS debut(some local affiilates would not carry the film, and a national murder case involving a US Senate Candidate's daughter push it off.) But Psycho had great ratings on local channels in syndication from 1967 through the 70's and beyond.

Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter of North by Northwest, said in his final years that "North by Northwest was a reasonably good hit when released in 1959, but its reputation just grew and grew in the 60's and 70s." Cary Grant shortly before his death in the 80s, said: "My favorite movie of mine is North by Northwest. It wasn't always, but it is everyone else's favorite, so now it is mine."

And so forth and so on.

In short, Alfred Hitchcock's movies stayed popular and famous well past their initial releases. From TV to VHS to cable to DVD -- not to mention re-releases -- they have power beyond their initial box office.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Best box - Psycho (2)
Worst box - Family Plot (24)
Best pop - Strangers on a Train (1), Vertigo (1), The Birds (1)
Worst pop - Topaz (42), Family Plot (42)

---

Some interesting numbers on that list

Psycho had "lines around the block" and was considered a blockbuster in 1960. We see it here at Number 2 for the year. Hitchcock never seemed to reach that Number One position, but he made up for it with a lot of films on the "Top Ten" list in the 40s and 50s. This was enough to keep him wealthy and famous enough. Then he started the TV show in 1955 and became far MORE famous, and far MORE rich.

With the famous hit Psycho at Number Two for 1960, we find Strangers on a Train at Number 3 for 1951. That was quite a hit (and more movies were released then, so making the Top Ten was a greater acheivement.) Truffaut called Strangers on a Train "a spectacular comeback" for Hitchcock, and it was after the successive poorly reviewed The Paradine Case, Rope(actually one of the great ones), Under Capricorn, and Stage Fright.

But Strangers on a Train was something else: after some "quiet" more dramatic films, Strangers on a Train was filled with "big action"(that crazed carousel climax) sex, murder most foul, and a great villain.

Hitchcock knew the game. In order to make "serious" thrillers like I Confess and The Wrong Man, he had to turn out big entertainments like Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest(with a Mount Rushmore climax to top the carousel in Strangers.)

Still, North by Northwest at only Number 8 for 1959? Psycho, Strangers on a Train and Rear Window did better in their years. But look, The Man Who Knew Too Much '56 at Number 7 for 1956.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

In a last 12 years of "lesser films," the one comeback hit of the group -- Frenzy(1972) -- came in at a respectable 15 for the year. But we find The Birds at 17 for 1963, Marnie at 18 for 1964, and Torn Curtain at 17 for 1966. Decent numbers -- within the top 20 -- for all of these.

No WONDER Hitchcock got to keep working to near the end of his life.

[–] Redsfan001 (6002) a year ago

Thanks for adding

[–] ecarle (14979) a year ago

Your breakdowns really help structure these careers.

Often, I'm surprised: a movie did better than I thought, or WORSE than I thought.

Please keep these coming!

[–] Redsfan001 (6002) a year ago

Vote count/rank data

Total number of votes '50-'76:

2,810,000

Avg vote count per movie:

156,111

Avg vote rank for year:

7th

Top 5 (# of votes)

1. Psycho 672k
2. Rear Window 492k
3. Vertigo 403k
4. North by Northwest 329k
5. The Birds 191k

Top 5 (vote rank for year)

1. (tie) Rear Window (1st)
1. (tie) Vertigo (1st)
1. (tie) North by Northwest (1st)
1. (tie) Psycho (1st)
5. (tie) Strangers on a Train (2nd)
5. (tie) The Birds (2nd)

Bottom 5 (#of votes)

1. Stage Fright 14,726
2. Topaz 18,550
3. I Confess 21,564
4. Family Plot 23,517
5. Torn Curtain 27,630

Bottom 5 (vote rank for year)

1. Family Plot (22nd)
2. (tie) The Torn Curtain (14th)
2. (tie) Topaz (14th)
4. I Confess (13th)
5. (tie) The Trouble with Harry (8th)
5. (tie) The Wrong man (8th)
5. (tie) Frenzy (8th)

and the rest...

Dial M for Murder 177k/3rd
To Catch a Thief 74k/4th
The Man Who Knew Too Much 66k/4th
Marnie 50k/6th