On Tue, 10 May 1994 14:30:17 -0700 Shawn Levy said: >Bear in mind, though, that rentals represent the portion of gross >boxoffice sales that goes from exhibitors to distributors. In most >cases, that means roughly 50% of the total b.o. take. So "The Robe" is, >in the terms that "Entertainment Weekly" reports each Monday evening, the >first $20-million picture. > VARIETY's summary of rentals is exactly that: the amount of money that flows to distributors from exhibitors. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY figures are the first week-end >box office< receipts. VARIETY also publishes these in each weekly issues. Further, the figure "roughly 50% of the total b.o. take" is just that a rough (very rough) estimate. Overall, the general ratio is closer to 1/3 of box office income flows to distributors as film rental, from which they take (typically) 30% off the top before anything else is deducted. These numbers are all very rough, but for purposes of comparison the VARIETY numbers are the best available. They can be adjusted for inflation by other published numbers that track the rate of inflation for theater tickets (not always the same as general rate of inflation). ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia <[log in to unmask]> <PRYLUCK@TEMPLEVM>