Jump To 1973 Movie Links: 1. Box Office 2. Reviews 3. Oscar Movies 4. UMR Table
Finding box office information for movies made before 1980 is not an easy task. For somebody looking for box office information on 1973 it is very very frustrating. Over the years, we have researched and collected information on over 36,000 movies. So we figured we would show all the 1973 movies in our database.
To make this list a movie had to be made in 1973. This page will looks at 135 1972 Movies. The movies are listed in a massive table that lets you rank the movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. This only represents about 33% of the movies made in 1973….but should cover the top box office movies.
Our UMR Top 50 of 1973
1973 Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort 1973 Movies by movie titles and movie trailers
- Sort 1973 Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
- Sort 1973 Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort 1973 Movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each 1973 Movies received and how many Oscar® wins each 1973 Movies received.
- Sort 1973 Movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking Score (UMR). Our UMR score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Top earners in 1973 for Adjusted USA Box Office:
My Main Sources
Source 1: Variety – January 4th 1974, January 8th, 1975
Source 2: Twentieth Century-Fox A Corporate and Financial History by Aubrey Solomon
Source 3: Wikipedia
Source 4: IMDb.com
Source 5: BoxOfficeMojo.com
Jump To 1973 Movie Links: 1. Box Office 2. Reviews 3. Oscar Movies 4. UMR Table
153 Some Call It Love (1973)
That said some might consider the title “Some Call It Loving”
🙂
Hey Sidney…..fixed and updated..as always…thanks for the catch.
HI BOB COX
Thanks for your response to my post about the 1973/74 reviews.
I am very sorry to learn about your father’s bankruptcy and hope that things are now well for him.
Blockbuster seemed to be still a going concern when I stayed in the US for a fortnight in 1999 and my luck was better than your father’s as I have happy memories of hiring out videos there on my daughter’s card. 3 of the titles that I can clearly remember are Eastwood’s True Crime, Costner’s Message in the Bottle, and The Faculty, a horror film starring Piper Laurie.
It doesn’t surprise me though that Blockbuster let down your father because as Jack Warden said in Paul Newman’s The Verdict “How do you think those kind of people get their money in thew first place?”
Anyway great to exchange posts with you again.
Bob Roy,my father is 88, he and I are going to new Orleans to visit the world war 2 museum this week. he is planning a snow skiing trip to Switzerland this winter, I think he keeps skiing for the snow bunnies. not bad for 88. thanks for your well wishes , he is great.
I loved Newman in message in a bottle.
HI BOB COX
Yes your father certainly seems full of life at 88. I’m 77 now and hope I can match his age ultimately and be as fit then as he obviously is.
I agree with you about Newman and Message in a Bottle.
That is awesome that dad is doing so well at 88…I hope that is the way I am at 88…fingers crossed.
ANNUAL REVIEWS of 1973 and 1974 Some movie historians have argued that whilst cinema audiences have declined steeply since the 1940s the very top movies in the modern era have been as profitable as ever.
However Bruce’s stats for 1943 for example compare as follows with his 1973 Top 20 highest grossing movies
Total Top 20 adjusted domestic grosses 1943 – $6.45 billion
Total Top 20 adjusted domestic grosses 1973 – $5.5 billion.
Where the historians might have a point though is when the purchasing power in 2018 dollars [as per the Consumer Price Index of The US Bureau of Labor Statistics] is examined using the ACTUAL film grosses in their day that Bruce has helpfully provided for us-
Total ACTUAL grosses for Top Twenty 1943 movies $0.215 million
Total purchasing power today of 1943’s Top Twenty films $3.14 billion
Total ACTUAL grosses for 1973’s Top Twenty movies $1.09 billion
Total purchasing power today of 1973’s Top 20 movies $6.31 billion.
Also of course foreign revenues are much more buoyant today than they were in the Classic Era and back then they didn’t have the lucrative DVD, Video and Blue-ray markets that modern films enjoy.
For example Bruce Willis’ 6th Sense and Armageddon have, astonishingly, adjusted worldwide grosses of $1.2 and $1.1 billion respectively in the Cogerson tables and 1994’s The Lion King apparently had domestic Home Entertainment sales of around $366 million in 2018 dollars on top of naturally massive theatrical grosses.
As I have previously emphasized the beauty of this site is that it enables us to test different comparisons of the kind that I have just done. Nowhere else would you get for pre-1980 movies particularly the volume, consistency and quality of information that enables us to conduct such exercises and I for one am always very grateful for being provided with the opportunities to do so.
Bob Roy, good analysis. thanks. our formulas and hypothesis even if slightly off can greatly effect outcome. it is good to consider many subtle details and their effect on outcomes.
I wonder if blockbuster video corporation having unlimited movies (after 2005) sent to their stores at studio expense caused a blip in box office , especially when all those excess videos were dumped for $2 to $5 each. I wonder how rentals were accounted for in box office?
this is of interest to me personally since my father built a small chain of video rental stores that went bankrupt when blockbuster guaranteed movie available or free. he had been offered $20,000,000 for the chain and 3 years later went bankrupt as blockbuster ultimately did. this caused more floods of used tapes and dvds. how were these accounted for in box office
I wonder how on demand is being accounted for in box office? lots of details in a rapidly changing world of movie box office.
I also wonder who would watch a movie at the theatre and rate it . young children might go to anime and now be the primary reviewers with their easy computer access. fortunately they have a uniquely limited perspective from which to rate movies. adolescents who demand everything be newest might be cause of great box office love and higher reviews of movies with more special effects (especially comics) ever since spider man and x men and their incredible popularity and ratings in the 21st century. in the 1950s to 1980s the theatre audience and raters might have been mostly adult couples over 20 for their evening out. I consider the quality and objectivity of the reviewers to be very important in guiding my choice of movies not just box office and reviews. people who truly love all movies like dan and cogerson seem fairly rare (great admiration to Flora for sticking with her loves). UMR is helping me become a better rounded lover of all movies, a heartfelt thanks to bruce, WoC and all UMR commenters. even when I adjust and share my personal favorites, UMR has become foundational in my watchlist , now approaching 2000 movies long.
Hey Bruce, thanks for your response and info on The Exorcist. I can see its success was a surprise to every-one, and its influence, for the better or for the worse was great as well. Also love the music of My Name is Nobody, particularly when the wild bunch are riding.
Hey PhilHOF17…..glad to talk movies….especially since you and I agree on so much….unlike others that post here….lol. Right there with you about the music and the wild bunch……I also like the music when Nobody is fishing…..that beat rattles around my head pretty often.
I have not commented in a little while, but I have been following and enjoying these early 1970s annual pages. While at least a couple massive blockbusters were released each year, it seems that 1973 takes the cake with The Exorcist and The Sting outdoing all the other early 70s blockbusters, grossing more even that The Godfather, Airport and Love Story. In retrospect, it’s a little hard to believe that The Exorcist was such a huge hit given its shocking subject matter (at least for the time).
I have seen 31 films on the list. In addition to the two mentioned above, my other favorites are: Papillon, My Name is Nobody, Sleeper, Live and Let Die, Don’t Look Now, Badlands, The Day of the Jackal, The Way We Were, Dirty Harry, American Graffiti, and Fantastic Planet. Three I remember seeing in the cinema upon their release are The Sting, The Way We Were (guess my mom liked Robert Redford) and My Name is Nobody.
Hey PhilHOF17
1. Good to hear from you,
2. Glad you are enjoying these 1970 movie reviews…..4 more are coming down the pike….as 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1978 are coming soon.
3. The Exorcist and The Sting might be the greatest one two box office punch for a single year ever.
4. I think word of mouth carried The Exorcist to those box office heights….the producers had no idea that it would be so big…..so their promotion could be described as weak at best…..but then people started talking about scary and great the movie was…and the rest is history,
5. 31 puts you behind a few people like Steve, bob cox, Dan and myself.
6. I have seen all of your favorites… .My Name Is Nobody is great…watch it almost once a year….love the music…and the finale.
7. Fantastic Planet is a strange but memorable movie.
8. I think back then all women were in love with Redford…so I can see your mom taking you to his movies.
Good stuff as always.