well we can just start creating the page and filling in data where we have it… it will grow…
Here’s an example: Lire 1.591.000.000 (One Silver Dollar, see Reply#36) in 1965 were equivalent to Lire 2.008.504.393 in 1972 and to Lire 4.800.647.203 in 1978.
[hr]
Lire 6.088.000.000 (Trinity is still my Name) in 1971 are equivalent to € 51.882.860 today, Lire 3.211.000.000 (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) in 1966 = € 32.065.899 today.
Other examples:
Django = € 10.245.908
Fort Yuma Gold = € 13.082.008
Day of Anger = € 19.551.533
If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death = € 7.956.138
Ace High = € 21.519.276
Django the Bastard = € 4.052.801
Keoma = € 7.047.434
Basis for comparison, Django Unchained (2012):
€11,677,450 (Italy)
€10,578,641 (Spain)
source:IMDb
[/url]
[url]http://postimage.org/
How did SWs compare to other Italian genre films of the time, such as Gialli? Was there a clear distinction like the top SW always outperformed the top Gialli or vice versa? Or were they all just jumbled together?
I think it was just a good time in history for westerns in general, not just in Italy (well the US western had sort of entered a midlife crisis by then already)…
The answer is surprising: considering the top 25 titles at Box Office, until 1975 with the good exploit of Profondo Rosso (5.720.468 - £ 3.709.723.306) even in critical years the top SWs - and westerns in general - always outperformed the top Gialli.
Box Office ITALIA 1970-71
2. Lo chiamavano Trinità 8.481.041 - £3.104.061.000
5. Little Big Man
8. Il gatto a 9 code 6.522.199 - £2.387.125.000
10. Soldier Blue
Box Office ITALIA 1971-72
- Continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità 14.939.033 - £6.087.656.000
- Sole rosso 7.289.053 - £2.970.289.000
- Giù la testa 6.048.523 - £2.464.773.000
- Quattro mosche di velluto grigio 5.501.701 - £2.241.943.000
- Si può fare… amigo 3.922.758 - £1.598.524.000
Box Office ITALIA 1972-73
6. E poi lo chiamarono il Magnifico 7.343.771 - £3.367.119.000
15. Una ragione per vivere ed una per morire 4.274.964 - £1.960.071.000
23. La vita a volte è molto dura, vero Provvidenza? 3.053.389 - £1.399.979.000
Box Office Italia 1973-74
6. Il mio nome è Nessuno 6.710.743 - £ 3.620.446.000
14. Zanna Bianca 4.857.055 - £ 2.620.381.000
Cool, thanks, that’s pretty interesting. Even Argento’s early animal hits weren’t outdoing the top westerns, interesting.
This is a related question, I don’t know if the books answer it or not.
For the top SW actors, like Nero, Gemma, Milan, Van Cleef, etc … were their most successful movies in Italy always Westerns (either by tickets sold or gross)?
Did any of Nero’s crime films or other work ever top his best SW? Did Milan’s goofy dirty Serpico cop movies or other crime films top his SW?
I suppose for Gemma that must be true, as I have seen few of his non-SW. Hell, I was shocked when I realized he was the cop in Tenebre, seemed like such a step down.
@stanton I notice this link doesn’t work any more.
Could you direct me to the thread you were referring to?
No, I can only search it with the search function. The thread should probably be tagged so that it appears at the top of the “town hall” section.
Hah, found it:
@stanton Thanks mate.
Did we ever create a DB page for this data?
If not, let’s get together during these Corona time and do it. There’ll never be a better time and this data is of real interest
1 Like
Good idea, about time for another top list!
I really wish we had German box office numbers as well. The Italian numbers alone are really not indicative of a film’s world wide success but better than nothing!
I wish that too, but we only have a few data now, but at least more than at the time I made this calculation.
But do not expect that Spags were a big success in Germany, they were in their mass a commercial phenomenon, and OUTW was an incredible success, just like in France, as was Trinity Is Still My Name and also most other Spencer/Hill comedies, but I assume that only a few more Spags had a wider success in the theatres.
I know that Leone’s first 2 Dollar films and the 3 Django films with Nero sold about 2 mio tickets, that is not bad, but compared to e.g. the Bond films not that much. In the case of Nero it seems that even Man Pride Vengeance (dubbed as Django), despite being a not so attractive film, reached an audience of about 1,5 mio. And the 3 Collizi westerns had some success, but I don’t know if this was before or after the massive push by the Trinity films.
To compare this data the US western The Professionals sold 3,8 mio tickets in 1966 ,and surprisingly 2 minor westerns with the Sinatra clan were in the early 60s similar popular (Sergeant’s Three 3,75 mio and Four for Texas 2 mio).
The biggest western success in the 60s had of course the Winnetou films. Starting with 10 mio in 1962 and ending with 1,5 mio in 1968. Which makes them all in all more successful than the SWs.
Apart from OUTW of course, but it seems this very special film was not a greater success in the beginning, but as a long distance runner over the years. Half of its 13 mio tickets were sold between 1974 and 1976 and still 2,5 mio between 1980 and 1984, at a time when the western was long dead in the cinema.
I have a big birthday coming up soon so decided to treat myself to a couple of indulgent gifts to myself. One of them, found via Abe Books, is the A.G.I.S Catalogo Generale dei Film Italiani dal 1965 al 1978 which I presume is the book Len had access to at the beginning of this thread. This has fed the geek in me to the point of diabetes and I can’t put it down.
I suspect it will also put my marriage of 25 years at risk. Sample conversation between my wife and I since this book arrived.
“Honey, did you cut the grass today?”
“Not yet no, but did you know Un Dollaro Bucato took over one and a half billion lire at the Italian box office?”
3 Likes
LOL glad you got a copy! The reference library at my University (when I was still in school) had it and there were other volumes that covered other years as well.
But like I said before. The Italian box office is not always an accurate estimation of a film’s world wide impact.
You can see that the Franco and Ciccio comedies out grossed most of the Djangos and Sartanas (I’m sure the German numbers would have been way different here).
Also you can see that Italian horror was not successful domestically at all. Italians of that time were not horror fans. Mario Bava films did abysmally for the most part.
Suffice to say, the Italian movie goer of the 60s and 70s had a unique taste.
1 Like
Gemma could do no wrong in those days. His box office numbers were absolutely insane.
1 Like
That is the thing which has surprised me most so far. His numbers are shocking for the most part.
I should make a correction to my earlier statement. Its not that Italians didn’t like horror, they loved horror from other countries but could care less about the horror of their own!
has this link been posted before?
I think we have but can’t remember when. makes for interesting reading