ErikLundegaard.com - All-Time Box Office for Musicals

All-Time Box Office for Musicals

This morning's post about “Les Miserables” got me thinking about the history of musicals at the box office. The following is a chart, in reverse chronlogical order, of all the major (and not so major) musicals released in the states since 1974:

Movie	Lifetime Gross	Theaters	Release
The Muppets	$88,631,237	3,440	11/23/11
Burlesque	$39,440,655	3,037	11/24/10
Nine	$19,676,965	1,412	12/18/09
High School Musical 3: Senior Year	$90,559,416	3,626	10/24/08
Mamma Mia!	$144,130,063	3,194	7/18/08
Sweeney Todd	$52,898,073	1,507	12/21/07
Enchanted	$127,807,262	3,730	11/21/07
Across the Universe	$24,343,673	964	9/14/07
Hairspray (2007)	$118,871,849	3,121	7/20/07
Dreamgirls	$103,365,956	2,797	12/15/06
Idlewild	$12,571,185	975	8/25/06
The Producers	$19,398,532	978	12/16/05
Rent	$29,077,547	2,437	11/23/05
The Phantom of the Opera	$51,268,815	1,515	12/22/04
Beyond the Sea	$6,318,709	383	12/17/04
De-Lovely	$13,456,633	410	7/2/04
Chicago	$170,687,518	2,701	12/27/02
Hedwig and the Angry Inch	$3,067,312	101	7/20/01
Moulin Rouge!	$57,386,607	2,283	5/18/01
Dancer in the Dark	$4,184,036	126	9/22/00
Blues Brothers 2000	$14,051,384	2,516	2/6/98
Evita	$50,047,179	1,045	12/25/96
Everyone Says I Love You	$9,759,200	276	12/6/96
Sarafina!	$7,306,242	700	9/18/92
Newsies	$2,819,485	1,259	4/10/92
Cry-Baby	$8,266,343	1,236	4/6/90
Earth Girls Are Easy	$3,916,303	317	5/12/89
School Daze	$14,545,844	224	2/12/88
Little Shop of Horrors	$38,748,395	1,183	12/19/86
A Chorus Line	$14,202,899	680	12/13/85
Yentl	$40,218,899	747	11/18/83
The Pirate Movie	$7,983,086	757	8/6/82
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas	$69,701,637	1,435	7/23/82
Grease 2	$15,171,476	1,250	6/11/82
Annie	$57,059,003	1,102	5/21/82
Victor/Victoria	$28,215,453	615	3/19/82
Pennies From Heaven	$9,171,289	-	12/11/81
Zoot Suit	$3,256,082	-	10/2/81
Popeye	$49,823,037	901	12/12/80
Xanadu	$22,762,571	-	8/8/80
The Blues Brothers	$57,229,890	-	6/20/80
All That Jazz	$37,823,676	-	12/20/79
Hair	$15,284,643	-	3/14/79
The Wiz	$21,049,053	-	10/1/78
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	$20,378,470	-	7/21/78
Grease	$188,755,690	862	6/16/78
New York, New York	$16,400,000	-	6/22/77
Bugsy Malone	$2,783,840	-	9/15/76
That's Entertainment! II	$4,979,380	-	5/16/76
The Rocky Horror Picture Show	$112,892,319	-	9/26/75
Tommy	$34,251,525	-	3/14/75
Funny Lady	$39,000,000	-	3/9/75
At Long Last Love	$1,500,000	-	3/6/75
That's Entertainment!	$26,890,200	-	5/18/74

You'll notice that no musical in the last 40 years has grossed as much as “Grease” did ... in 1978. Pretty astonishing. Adjusted for inflation, “Grease” is actually the 26th highest-grossing domestic film of all time. But it's not close to the highest-grossing musical. You need a little Julie Andrews for that.

Here are the top eight musicals, adjusted for inflation:

Rank	Movie	Adj. Gross	Year
1	The Sound of Music	$1,127,929,800	1965
2	Mary Poppins	$619,200,000	1964
3	Grease	$609,596,100	1978
4	The Bells of St. Mary's	$496,941,200	1945
5	My Fair Lady	$475,200,000	1964
6	West Side Story	$443,284,700	1961
7	The Rocky Horror Picture Show	$436,149,800	1975
8	A Star Is Born	$297,464,800	1976

The hills were alive.

John Travolta in "Grease" (1978)

Travolta in “Grease” (1978), which was the No. 1 box-office hit of 1978. “Superman” was No. 2. No musical has done as well, even unadjusted, since.

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All-Time Box Office for Musicals

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