“Mamma Mia! defies all box office expectations”
The film stayed in the US top ten, at number nine and brought in $4.3 million dollars last week. That brings the total USA gross for the film up to $124 million dollars.
Internationally, last week, the film grossed an additional $12 million. That brings the total gross up to $232.5 million, making it the highest grossing musical of all time*, beating Chicago by $100 million and counting.
*It would appear that, as pointed out by Phil and Stephen UK (thanks Guys) that there is some way to go before anyone can claim that Mamma Mia! is the highest grossing movie musical of all time, so it’s curious that BroadwayWorld would choose to use those words in its report and a bit unfortunate that I found it and quoted it!.
If you fancy keeping an eye on the grosses, these three sites will definitely help:
Good Lord, its amazing isnt it? and lets not pretend this is purely down to the storyline, a lot of this success is down to the fact the film is perceived as ‘that ABBA film’.
After all this time ABBA are still as huge as ever and as loved as ever.
If only Bjorn and Benny would acknowledge this a little more without some of the distane and thinly veiled contempt that we have seen in the past at times.
I cant think of a single other group that could have done this…not even the Beatles.
It brings back all those old feelings of pride etc that we experienced back in the 70s when ABBA actually existed.
It has been phenomenally successful, and I certainly don’t want to ‘rain on its parade’, but I would take the suggestion that it is already the biggest-grossing musical of all time with a pinch of salt. There seem to be a couple of inaccuracies in this report (Chicago took some $180m. at the US box office alone, so to suggest the worldwide gross of MM is $100m beyond that must be a mistake. Also Grease took even more than Chicago domestically, and must surely have done equally well internationally. There is also the question of adjustment for inflation in box office receipts–and one would assume something like the Sound of Music is the most successful on these terms. Anyone know for sure?
The $100 difference between Chicago and Mamma Mia is for the International market which is the whole world bar the USA grosses. Chicago grossed $136M internationally and as Phil says $180M in the domestic USA market. Mamma Mia has grossed so far $232M international and is far from completing its run with it still to open in several countries and still doing great business in the countries where it has been out for several weeks so will up far ahead of Chicago in International and overall box office.
For live action musicals Mamma Mia should end up at number three with Grease and Sound of Music ahead of it (and by some way the USA box office alone allowing for inflation is $1billion for Music and $545M for Grease)
Mamma Mia is the top earner for 2008 at present in the UK. Donna beats Indiana and Batman! with nearly $100M gross.
variety.com and boxofficemojo.com have great updates and data on the box office for Mamma Mia (please delete if links not allowed, Ice)
Mamma Mia still number 2 in the UK!
Does anyone have any information on the impact the movie has made on ticket sales for the show? I know loads of people who have seen the movie and now want to go and see the theatre production.
Just interested if anyone has any info.
J_ase
Think the sing-a-long will give the movie a lifespan of months…could see this playing for years in selected cinemas even…….
ABBA : genius in creating masterpiece creations that varied so much from one track to the next with remarkable harmony and melody.
The early tracks…. until the last from the Visitors Album changed so much over the years. Chess and Christina …. great musicals created after ABBA by Benny and Bjorn have proven the ability beyond doubt to everyone they are masters in the music field. The blend of Agnaetha and Frida’s sound has not been seen again to that degree, the girls ability in vocals were truly unique!
ABBA music today is reaching another generation that discover the great joy of Swedens greatest musical champions.
As an Aussie, it is no surprise. ABBA dominated the top ten for a decade. One time ABBA had 5 out of 10 hits on the top ten at the same time!!
One in three Australians had an ABBA record. Fernando still holds the longest number one position in our music history. The Album : Best Of ABBA still stands as the biggest selling Album in Australia even today 2008
It is also terrific ABBA have pride and refused to do a come back tour to the billion dollar offer.
It would be sad and shallow seeing such a great band do ‘cover numbers of their own hits as they appeared like geriatics to their former energy and vibrance which has captured legendary status.
No tours! A recorded studio album would be possible fun! But there is NO need really. They did it all and went out on top to become timeless and that is evident today across the world.
Still number 2 in the UK box office and top 10 in the US. Go Mamma Mia!
While there?s a case for adjusting figures for Inflation and tickets admissions and such the main film sites all report top films by the grosses they made at the time and we really should just marvel at the fact Mamma Mia is out performing many films past and present – as of Monday 8th Sept grosses are report in USA $ as USA $136M Rest of world/international $280M total worldwide gross $416M!
Still the number two film in UK after two months on release and the top UK earner for 2008 and now reported as the 5th biggest UK film gross of all-time! (We have to watch Mr Bond doesn?t steal the crown in November now that Harry Potter 6 has been delayed)
It still has more countries to open in but current grosses make it the 63rd highest gross internationally, the 208th highest gross in USA and the 92nd highest gross worldwide, quite amazing!
Inflation is indeed the thing which makes you think that a recent film made more than an older film. Gross box-office figures are no indication of a film’s popularity.
The number of cinema tickets sold is the true measure of a film’s success, because of the skewed effects of inflation (price rises).
If you divide MM!’s gross earnings with the price of the average cinema ticket, MM! has so far sold between 7 and 8 million tickets in the UK, which today puts MM! somewhere just outside the top 100 most popular films ever in the UK.
Imagine if the success of albums and singles were only judged as a measure of gross earnings.
Such a measure would certainly mean that Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue would be more "popular" than The Beatles.
Success for films should be judged solely on ticket sales, in the same way albums and singles are judged on total unit sales. Simple cash totals are meaningless.
I’ve heard that MM! might just get into the UK top 100 on the number of movie-tickets sold. Still a great accomplishment in anyone’s language, but way behind the UK’s top 80 films, for instance.
Surely the ticket price is higher today than years ago but you also have to consider – esp. in the music business – the effect of illegal download or streaming of movies on the internet. It might not equalize the effect of the inflation but still…
But I agree with you: it should be judged on ticket sales.