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100 Million

Matthew Buchanan

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the number of films we’ve collectively watched as a community, you’ll know we’re about to reach a pretty significant milestone: our hundred-millionth film will be marked watched within the next fortnight.

When it happens, we’ll know the member and the film and we’re planning to celebrate by sending that lucky, as-yet-unknown Letterboxd member a cool prize. It’s kind of like the lottery, except instead of throwing money away on tickets for a jackpot only one person can win, you’re watching movies, so everyone wins.

So make sure over the next few days you keep marking films you’ve seen as watched, because it could be you. (When you log a film to your diary, we add it to your watched films, so this action counts to the total as well.)

While the counter ticks along, we’ll leave you with some film-related facts.

The first film with a $100 million production budget

Speed was released, but Arnie ended up besting Keanu at the box office. Might have been the power of Jamie Lee Curtis and her wardrobe.

Films directed solely by a woman with a $100 million budget

Kathryn Bigelow was the first, with 2002’s Jupiter Ascending (both directed by the Wachowski sisters, Lana and Lilly).

It’s a woefully short list, but one that will almost double within the next two years with the release of A Wrinkle in Time (Ava Du Vernay).

Fastest films to make $100 million at the box office

  1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  2. Jurassic World
  3. The Avengers (2012)
  4. Avengers: Age of Ultron
  5. Captain America: Civil War
  6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
  7. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
  8. Iron Man 3
  9. Beauty and the Beast (2017)
  10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

It took Star Wars: The Force Awakens just one day to make $100 million; the rest of the films on the top ten made theirs within two days. Only seven films have so far made $500 million at the box office; read more stats at Box Office Mojo. (This slow-burn list of films that took their time getting to number one is also quite illuminating—and also features Jamie Lee in the top spot.)

First debut feature by an African-American writer/director to make $100 million

Jordan Peele’s Straight Outta Compton was the last film by a black director to the $100 million mark, but it wasn’t his debut film.

10 most expensive films over $100 million

Here’s the list unadjusted for inflation:

  1. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($375.5 million)
  2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($300 million)
  3. Avengers: Age of Ultron ($279.9 million)
  4. John Carter (263.7 million)
  5. Tangled ($260 million)
  6. Spider-Man 3 (258 million)
  7. = (all with budgets of $250 million)
    The Fate of the Furious

When the top ten is adjusted for inflation, Waterworld makes an entry at number nine. Source: Wikipedia.

Films with “100 million” in the title

Adam Cook).

Willow Catelyn)

Congratulations to weizee who logged our hundred-millionth film on May 14.

Matthew Buchanan

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