Inflation by any other name would still cost a lot

Once reports of the millions and millions of dollars made by “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” start rolling in, consider the following: The third in the “Harry Potter” series opened today on 3,855 screens across the country. Not that math was ever my strong point (I flunked high school geometry! Geometry?!?), but let’s assume that each theater attracts, say, 250 moviegoers a day at an average $7 a head. That means that in one day that theater is going to sell $1,750 worth of tickets. Now, let’s times that by three (for the opening three-day weekend, which is what we will see reports of on Monday): We get $5,250. Times that by 3,855 and you get a grand total of $20,238,750.

So, OK, that’s not great. It’s not bad for many movies, but for one of the summer’s most anticipated films from one of the best-selling franchises in history, it’s disaster . And many theaters are going to do far better than 250 moviegoers a day. Spokane itself is bound to average maybe three times that number. And bigger cities from Los Angeles to New York are sure to do even better. So let’s up the numbers. Say by a factor of three. Then the box-office earnings total grows to $60,716,250, which is a far more impressive, not to mention realistic, number. And remember, that’s just for the first three days.

Time was, $60 million was a good expectation for a full run. Of course, time was there weren’t 3,855 movie screens in the entire Western Hemisphere. And tickets cost a lot less than $7. So remember that when you compare money made by, say, “Troy” and “Jaws” (1975, when tickets cost an average of $2 ). In its opening weekend, “Troy” made $46,865,412 compared to the $7,790,627 made by “Jaws.” Question is, which number has more – wait for it – teeth?