BOX OFFICE Q&A

Movie executives are always looking for catchy titles to insure success.

The length of marquees has always been of concern making problems for such as ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and DR. STRANGELOVE OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB.

So, execs keep looking for shorter titles. Recent years have produced the following:

Q&A, A.I., B.A.P.S., O, PCU, S.W.A.T., U-571, UHF, XXX and the one that made the most money, E.T.

For some reason, K is a popular letter for short movie titles, like K-2, K-9, K-19, K-PAX.

But my favorite K titles are the longer, little known, but charming:

KABHI KHUSHI GHAM and KAL HO NAA HO.

While we're on K's, we should observe that Hollywood can be a tad repetitive. In the last 10 or so years there have been:

THE KING AND I, KING ARTHUR, KING OF NEW YORK, KING RALPH, KINGDOM COME, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, KINGPIN, KING'S RANSOM,

and the biggest KING --- KONG.

The formula of KK,BB wouldn't be the same without:

A KISS BEFORE DYING, KISS ME, GUIDO, KISS OF DEATH, KISS OF THE DRAGON, KISS THE GIRLS, KISSING JESSICA STEIN,

and of course, KISS KISS, BANG BANG.

Which do you think grossed more:

LA STORY or LA CONFIDENTIAL?

Back to short titles.

Numbers are good, but you have to be careful or the numbers won't add up at the B.O.

THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN made more money than 13 GOING ON 30.

Total grosses for 101 DALMATIONS roughly equaled 3 NINJAS + THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN.

Somehow, 28 DAYS LATER made more than 28 DAYS.

Defying laws of mathematics:

50 FIRST DATES made about the same as 40 DAY AND 40 NIGHTS + 28 DAYS + 2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY.

But if you add THE 6TH DAY, you get more.

8 MILE outgrossed the total take for 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG + 8 SECONDS + 8 MM + 3000 MILES TO GRACELAND.

For criminal law buffs, 3 STRIKES made more than 187, but 21 GRAMS beat them both.

2 FAST 2 FURIOUS made far more than 2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY.

1492 barely beat out 2046.

Then again, which do you think made the most money:

THIRTEEN DAYS, THIRTEEN GHOSTS, THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR, or THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR?

THREE FUGITIVES, THREE KINGS, THREE MEN AND A LITTLE LADY, THE THREE MUSKATEERS, THREE OF HEARTS, THREE SEASONS, THREE TO TANGO, THREE WISHES, or THREESOME?






[Source: /www.boxofficeguru.com/num.htm]