Taking a Bite Out of the Latest Box Office "Records"

The way the Hollywood box office is reported has long been ridiculous, since, at the highest level, almost no one cites inflation-adjusted numbers yet insist on comparing new release revenue (box office receipts) to historical numbers. It's like comparing the price of a banana in 2025 to the price of a banana in 1950 and every headline screaming: "Wow, record banana prices!"

But it's even worse than that because it's not as if the box office numbers are in-line with 1950 numbers, they're actually way down. There's nuance to this, of course as a lot is different in the industry beyond just ticket prices. But we have a way to actually compare bananas to bananas here – just report number of tickets sold, not the revenue based on the price of those tickets.

Of course, Hollywood doesn't want to do that as it would look awful in comparison. It would look like an industry that is slowly dying...