Official Spaghetti Western Box Office Gross thread---Just ask!

These smaller films then? Would be interesting to know about the Zabalza films.

The number of admissions is always more precise than grosses (too bad they are not commonly stated in the US)ā€¦lots of kids nowadays -as well as film trade so-called ā€˜expertsā€™-think this and that teen vampire saga is the most popular film but they fail to see the relation between a ticket admission price and the time movies were released (inflation)ā€¦long overdue respect for some yesteryearā€™s money audience faves like most of the high grossers in the 50, 60s and 70s would be given if popularity was more widely seen in North America not by the number$ raised but by the amount of people who packed theatres to see such and such title.
On top of that, a movie kike DJANGO popularity can also bee measured by grosses in theatrical markets outside Italy and Spain (Germany, France, Yugoslavia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, for instance), Asia (Japan), amd, last but not least multiple showings in tv stations all over the planet (and by that I mean only if countes in the 70s!)

Here you find a calculation of admissions using the data of the Colonel:

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/forum/index.php/topic,1105.0.html

The 50 most successful SWs in Italy.

[quote=ā€œscherpschutter, post:73, topic:851ā€]A subpage called boxoffice/business is a very useful addition for a movie page

Still, I think a page with a list of all these box office grosses (so a list like Col. Mortimer and Romaine Fielding did) have made, is more essential
Iā€™ve been visiting this thread on a regular base to check how films did at the box office initially
The results were often quite surprising, in the first place in comparison to results of other movies
Itā€™s very surprising, and interesting, to read that Forty Yuma Gold initially was far more succesful than Django
What I mean to say is that those results are mainly interesting in relation to other results[/quote]

Did this box office gross page ever happen? I googled around for something like this for a while but couldnā€™t find anything and was going to make a thread of my own asking for historical box office information, but then I found this thread which is more or less exactly what I was looking for.

It would be great if the lists in this thread had their own page ā€“ this is really interesting information.

[quote=ā€œModernDjango, post:84, topic:851ā€]Did this box office gross page ever happen? I googled around for something like this for a while but couldnā€™t find anything and was going to make a thread of my own asking for historical box office information, but then I found this thread which is more or less exactly what I was looking for.

It would be great if the lists in this thread had their own page ā€“ this is really interesting information. [/quote]

Donā€™t think this database page has been created
The Colonel is very busy, if Iā€™m not mistaken (heā€™s also responsible for the Hall of Fame)

[size=18pt]C O L O N E L A R E Y O U L I S T E N I N G ?[/size]

[quote=ā€œscherpschutter, post:85, topic:851ā€]Donā€™t think this database page has been created
The Colonel is very busy, if Iā€™m not mistaken (heā€™s also responsible for the Hall of Fame)

[size=18pt]C O L O N E L A R E Y O U L I S T E N I N G ?[/size][/quote]

Yep. Unfortunately I no longer have access that that Catologuo Bolaffi book that had all the data. Perhaps your own university or reference libraries in your respective hometowns might have that volume.

Also, the book only has Italian box office numbers, which are really not that representative of how successful a film truly was. Italians of that era tended to have particular tastes in their movies. Only in Italy would you see the Franco and Ciccio comedies outgrossing Sergio Corbucci LOL.

well we can just start creating the page and filling in data where we have itā€¦ it will growā€¦

Hereā€™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 ā‚¬ 51.882.860 today, Lire 3.211.000.000 (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) in 1966 = ā‚¬ 32.065.899 today.

ā€ŽOther examples:

Django = ā‚¬ 10.245.908

Fort Yuma Gold = ā‚¬ 13.082.008

Day of Anger = ā‚¬ 19.551.533

If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death = ā‚¬ 7.956.138

Ace High = ā‚¬ 21.519.276

Django the Bastard = ā‚¬ 4.052.801

Keoma = ā‚¬ 7.047.434

Basis for comparison, Django Unchained (2012):
ā‚¬11,677,450 (Italy)
ā‚¬10,578,641 (Spain)
source:IMDb

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[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)ā€¦

The answer is surprising: considering the top 25 titles at Box Office, until 1975 with the good exploit of Profondo Rosso (5.720.468 - Ā£ 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 TrinitĆ  8.481.041 - Ā£3.104.061.000
5. Little Big Man
8. Il gatto a 9 code 6.522.199 - Ā£2.387.125.000
10. Soldier Blue

Box Office ITALIA 1971-72

  1. Continuavano a chiamarlo TrinitĆ  14.939.033 - Ā£6.087.656.000
  2. Sole rosso 7.289.053 - Ā£2.970.289.000
  3. GiĆ¹ la testa 6.048.523 - Ā£2.464.773.000
  4. Quattro mosche di velluto grigio 5.501.701 - Ā£2.241.943.000
  5. Si puĆ² fareā€¦ amigo 3.922.758 - Ā£1.598.524.000

Box Office ITALIA 1972-73
6. E poi lo chiamarono il Magnifico 7.343.771 - Ā£3.367.119.000
15. Una ragione per vivere ed una per morire 4.274.964 - Ā£1.960.071.000
23. La vita a volte ĆØ molto dura, vero Provvidenza? 3.053.389 - Ā£1.399.979.000

Box Office Italia 1973-74
6. Il mio nome ĆØ Nessuno 6.710.743 - Ā£ 3.620.446.000
14. Zanna Bianca 4.857.055 - Ā£ 2.620.381.000

Cool, thanks, thatā€™s pretty interesting. Even Argentoā€™s early animal hits werenā€™t outdoing the top westerns, interesting.

This is a related question, I donā€™t know if the books answer it or not.

For the top SW actors, like Nero, Gemma, Milan, Van Cleef, etc ā€¦ were their most successful movies in Italy always Westerns (either by tickets sold or gross)?

Did any of Neroā€™s crime films or other work ever top his best SW? Did Milanā€™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 doesnā€™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 ā€œtown hallā€ section.

Hah, found it:

@stanton Thanks mate.

Did we ever create a DB page for this data?
If not, letā€™s get together during these Corona time and do it. Thereā€™ll never be a better time and this data is of real interest

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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 filmā€™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 Leoneā€™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 donā€™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 (Sergeantā€™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 canā€™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.

ā€œHoney, did you cut the grass today?ā€
ā€œNot yet no, but did you know Un Dollaro Bucato took over one and a half billion lire at the Italian box office?ā€

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