Box office of Leone

[stanton]

Here's a thread for all the box office data for the Leone films which are available.

I start with Italy.

I created many years ago a list of the most successful SWs.
For that I had transferred the available box-office data with the aid of average ticket prices into admission numbers, the only accurate way to compare films which were released in different years. Especially as in Italy the inflation was rather galopping in these years.

The estimated admissions (in thousands and Lira in millions) of Leone's westerns:

Title                                          Admissions      Lira

Per qualche dollaro in piu      *   14.672   *   3.492
Per un pugno di Dollari          *  14.269   *   3.182
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo    *   12.071   *   3.211
C' era una volta il West          *   8.077   *   2.504
Il mio nome e Nessuno           *   8.008   *   3.620
Giu la testa                             *   6.224   *   2.465

[noodles_leone]

I guess this are the box office data from the year they were released? Or is in an all times box office, that keeps growing up with each re-release?

Also the french wikipedia states 8.9 millions of admissions for OUATITW in Italy (not a huge difference but still a notable one). The source is that website: https://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9020 (which gives also numbers for Germany and France for that movie).

[stanton]

And the admissions (in thousands) for Leone in Germany:


Per un pugno di Dollari              2.302
Per qualche dollaro in piu          3.072
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo       1.164

C' era una volta il West           13.018
Giu la testa                                   ?
Il mio nome e Nessuno             6.287

Once upon a Time in America    2.320

No data for DYS so far, but pretty sure under 2 mio.

[stanton]

I guess this are the box office data from the year they were released? Or is in an all times box office, that keeps growing up with each re-release?

Also the french wikipedia states 8.9 millions of admissions for OUATITW in Italy (not a huge difference but still a notable one). The source is that website: https://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9020 (which gives also numbers for Germany and France for that movie).

I used data from a book someone else had, and here's a list in Lira for SWs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qx8FHnEX0Po052EArfNEeG05xujDoHA2BeJmTgC6MMQ/edit#gid=0

Some of my data are already different from that list, others were the same, and of course there are many other factors which are not secured (like the way I calculated the average ticket prices), but my list gives an overview, and a much better one than only looking at the mere Lira data.

[noodles_leone]

So the website I linked earlier gives the following in France:

C' era una volta il West                14 862 764 (#1 that year)
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo          6 308 276 (#2 that year)
Il mio nome e Nessuno                4 732 369 (#2 that year)
Giu la Testa                                4 723 338 (#4 that year)
Per un pugno di Dollari                4 383 331 (#4 that year)
Per qualche dollaro in piu             4 170 929 (#7 that year)
Il Colosso di Rodi                         1 686 128 (#42 that year)
Once upon a Time in America       1 231 072 (#36 that year)

There are German, Italian and even US data for some of those films on that website. It also sometimes details like opening week results, and Paris/rest of the country breakdown.

[noodles_leone]

USA (available figures on the same website. Those figures are said as "approximative" as they aren't official data but calculated the same way Stanton did with his figures):

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo          21 271 000 (#11 that year)
Per un pugno di Dollari                15 591 000 (#20 that year)
Per qualche dollaro in piu             13 761 000 (#20 that year)
C' era una volta il West                4 190 000 (#39 that year)
Il mio nome e Nessuno                3 081 000 (#31 that year)
Once upon a Time in America       1 538 000 (#107 that year)

So yeah, of course a box office success on the US market is more profitable than a box office success in France or Germany, but not than in France AND Germany. "The real money" is everywhere as long as there is money.

[Cusser]

I'm in Arizona, and C' era una volta il West, Il mio nome e Nessuno, and Once upon a Time in America NEVER got decent bookings here on their release, were in a few small theaters and Il mio nome e Nessuno was a 2nd feature of a twin bill.  But I saw all in the theaters. 

Once upon a Time in America here was the butchered chronological form, but I didn't see it until the following year when an "art theater" showed the appropriate version.

GBU debuted here in 1968 and I saw it then, but believe that FOD and FDM did not play here until AFTER GBU, and they were shown as a double feature.  Duck You Sucker played here, saw that too.

We did get here Death Rides a Horse, Day of Anger, Big Gundown, two "Stranger" films, three Sabata films; No Django, no Great Silence

[Jenko Morningstar]

Damn. I thought GBU played in 1966 for the US in general. The art theater playing the original OUATIA is something I didn't know about also. I thought all Americans would only find about the real version 20 years later through DVD release (? Heard something like that multiple times.

[noodles_leone]

The art theater playing the original OUATIA is something I didn't know about also. I thought all Americans would only find about the real version 20 years later through DVD release (? Heard something like that multiple times.

I guess what the DVD granted wasn't "the first time American could access the real OUATIA" but more "easy access for those who aren't actively looking for it or aren't just lucky".

[Jenko Morningstar]

I guess what the DVD granted wasn't "the first time American could access the real OUATIA" but more "easy access for those who aren't actively looking for it or aren't just lucky".

true

[stanton]

USA (available figures on the same website. Those figures are said as "approximative" as they aren't official data but calculated the same way Stanton did with his figures):

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo          21 271 000 (#11 that year)
Per un pugno di Dollari                15 591 000 (#20 that year)
Per qualche dollaro in piu             13 761 000 (#20 that year)
C' era una volta il West                4 190 000 (#39 that year)
Il mio nome e Nessuno                3 081 000 (#31 that year)
Once upon a Time in America       1 538 000 (#107 that year)

So yeah, of course a box office success on the US market is more profitable than a box office success in France or Germany, but not than in France AND Germany. "The real money" is everywhere as long as there is money.

For "but not than in France AND Germany" you mean "than" or "then"? "Then" I assume ...

And the figures here are also admissions calculated for the BO in $?

The BO from a Variety list for the Leone westerns (in mio):

GBU : 6,11
FaFDM : 4,35
FoD : 4,25

The others are below 4 mio, and for that not listed.

Some contemporary US westerns from that list:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid : 45,95
Billy JacK : 32,5 (hard to believe)
Jeremiah Johnson : 21,9
Little Big Man : 15
True Grit : 14,25
Cat Ballou : 9,3
The Professionals : 8,8
High Plains Drifter ; 7,9
Hang em High : 6,78
El Dorado : 6
The War Wagon : 5,93
Hombre : 5,6
Nevada Smith : 5,5
The Wild Bunch : 5,3
2 Mules for Sister Sara : 4,64
5 Card Stud : 4,25
The Undefeated : 4

Inflation adjustment would already make a difference for the time span of these films. In another inflation adjusted Variety list 1966 films are calculated for the inflation with a 2,5 factor and 1972 films with 1,5.

[noodles_leone]

The European figures I'm giving are (supposedly) official box office figures of the year of each release. They aren't calculated, they're the number of admissions as they were reported at the time.
The US figures have been caculated.

[stanton]

Yes, I was only asking for the US data.

It seems the $ income they used is higher than that from the Variety list.

[noodles_leone]

Yes, I was only asking for the US data.

It seems the $ income they used is higher than that from the Variety list.

Yeah they don't explain how they got it. They just write "approx." on the US admission numbers. They do provide the earnings (and not as "approx."), do you want me to write them down here?

[stanton]

Of course, then I can compare.

From the Variety data Eastwood's Hang em High, a good but far less attractive film, had more success than Leone, and later high Plain's Drifter also.