CITY LIGHTS and MODERN TIMES: How Successful?

Here are the top-grossing films of 1931 and 1936, as reported by
VARIETY:

1931:
CIMARRON (RKO)
DADDY LONG LEGS (Fox)
LITTLE CAESAR (Warners)
MIN AND BILL (M-G-M)
THE SMILING LIEUTENANT (Paramount)
TRADER HORN (M-G-M)

1936:
MODERN TIMES (United Artists)
SAN FRANCISCO (M-G-M)
SWING TIME (RKO)
THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (M-G-M)
THE LITTLEST REBEL (20th Cent. Fox)
ROSE MARIE (M-G-M)
UNDER TWO FLAGS (20th Cent. Fox)


(Source: Tino Balio, GRAND DESIGN, pg. 405.


The strange thing about this is that VARIETY also reported, in a
June 1932 article, that CITY LIGHTS had grossed $4,250,000. The same
article put grosses for CIMARRON at $1,750,000, for TRADER HORN at the
same figure, and for THE SMILING LIEUTENANT at $1,300,000.

Data in Donald Crafton's THE TALKIES shows domestic revenue for MIN
AND BILL of $1,223,000, while the figure for CIMARRON was $1,122,000
and LITTLE CAESAR's was $647,000 (Page 552). No figures for CITY
LIGHTS are given.

Why did VARIETY say in 1932 that CITY LIGHTS had huge grosses,
while later on it dropped the film from its list? Hard to say.

MODERN TIMES certainly did good business in 1936, but was it really
the top grosser of the year? I've never seen that reported anywhere
else.




--Shush--

Shush wrote:

>The strange thing about this is that
>VARIETY also reported, in a June 1932
>article, that CITY LIGHTS had grossed
>$4,250,000. The same article put
>grosses for CIMARRON at $1,750,000,
>for TRADER HORN at the same figure,
>and for THE SMILING LIEUTENANT at
>$1,300,000.

Rentals revenues for films of that era are misleading because (in the
case of
MGM and Paramount particularly)
the studios owned their own theatres.,,
even UA owned theatres.

CIMARRON, TRADER HORN, and
THE SMILING LIEUTENANT all
played in theatres owned by their
respective studios as well as in
independent chains.

The rentals reported back to the studio
are only a portion of the revenue
realized from a film. (Bob Birchard,
for example, likes to repeat the idea
the Lubitsch films always lost money,
but that might be on rentals only, not
on gross revenues at the theatres, many
of which were owned by Paramount)
















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What it was like to spend Christmas in New York - "Oh, it was so much
fun this year, because saying 'Merry Christmas' is like saying 'F...
you!' I've said it to everyone. You know, cab drivers, passing people on
the street, whatever. And they come up with the 'Happy holidays.' 'Merry
Christmas,' I mean, it really is an aggressive act in New York."

---Ann Coulter