Top Grossing Movies Of 1952

The Greatest Show On Earth was easily the biggest box office hit of 1952

This movie page looks at The Top Grossing Movies of 1952.  In 1952, 463 movies were released in theaters.  Average weekly movie attendance was 51 million.  That translates to $2.65 billion (25th best year in movie history) movie tickets sold which generated revenue of $1.24 billion.  So with all of this money flying around you would think somebody would have kept track of how each movie was performing.  Sadly that was the case!

Currently when you type in the search words….”Top Grossing Movies of 1952″ you do not get much information.  Wikipedia provides 10 movies.  The Numbers.com provides 10 movies.  Stats-a-mania offers up 7 movies.  You have to go to the 26th search result to find the next place that lists box office results….UMR’s (that’s us) Marilyn Monroe page which offers up 5 movies.  So in an effort to get more information out there…we have decided to unlock our 1952 movie database vault and share the information we have collected over the years.

To make this list a movie had to be made in 1952 (as listed on IMDB.com).  Obviously many movies made in 1951 earned box office dollars in 1952.  On the other side many movies made in 1952 made money in 1953 and later.  This page will looks at 162 Top Grossing Movies of 1952.  The movies are listed in a massive table that shows who starred in the movie, had much the movie grossed when it was released and how that gross means in today’s money.

Drivel part of the page:  Currently our movie database is down for a massive update which includes a new box office formula and a new formula for our movie ranking equation. So we do not have access to all of our information.  For some reason….Wife of Cogerson thinks her full time job takes precendent over this non-revenue generating hobby. Sometimes I just do not understand her….lol.  So without the ability to do a page on a actor or actress…I had to pick a year as our the latest movie page.

My favorite 1952 movie is The Quiet Man
My favorite 1952 movie is The Quiet Man

Our UMR Top 50 of 1952

Top Grossing Movies of 1952 Can Be Sorted 3 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Top Grossing Movies of 1952 by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
  • Sort Top Grossing Movies of 1952 by domestic actual box office grosses (in millions)
  • Sort Top Grossing Movies of 1952 by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)

Singin' In The Rain, considered the greatest musical ever, was released in 1952
Singin’ In The Rain, considered the greatest musical ever, was released in 1952

1952 Box Office Grosses – Adjusted World Wide

How the Box Office Numbers were Calculated 

Sadly in 1952….BoxOfficeMojo was not around to keep track of box office earnings. Back then earnings seem to be a secret and a secret that needed to be safely locked up.  When studios did report box office stats they used “box office rentals”.  Box office rentals were the amount of money the studio got back from the theaters.  It is NOT the box office gross.  According to Film Daily Yearbook the film rentals as percentage of box office grosses was 36% in 1952. That means that box office gross was 2.75 times greater than box office rentals.  It is not an exact calculation….but for 1952 the multiplier we used was 2.75.

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118 thoughts on “Top Grossing Movies Of 1952”

  1. Hello Bruce, you made a nice job again. 1952 was a good year for westerns : High noon, Bend of the river or Rancho notorious (strongly you make Fritz Lang). I saw 25 movies on this table, and one on my favorites is the Quiet man (one of the better John Wayne/John Ford movies).

    Reply

    1. Thanks Laurent I appreciate the kind words. 1952 was indeed a good year for westerns. High Noon and Bend of the River are excellent movies…I have not seen Rancho Notorious…but I want to. A few people comment on how many movies they have seen from the above tally….you would be in 3rd place….knocking me off the medal platform…thanks….lol. Flora 51…Steve 33…you 25…and me 4th. I agree with you 100% about The Quiet Man….one great movie.

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  2. I hate box office grosses, they don’t really provide a good comparison between years even when adjusted for inflation. It’s too bad that we don’t have an estimate for individual tickets sold.

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    1. Hey Barney….I have tickets solds too….just I generally do not include them in the table….but if you are interested in seeing those numbers just let me know….and I will be glad to share them.

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    1. Hey Down Goes Frazier…..most of the movies come from my year end Variety issues….most notably January 7th, 1953, January 13th 1954 and February 24th 1992. I also have collected box office information from the RKO, MGM, 20th Century and Warner Brothers film ledgers and finally my movie website has taken a look at over 100 classic actors and actresses….and I must have tracked downed, read and found box office information in about 500 or 600 books. End result….is 148 movies and counting….actually I feel when my database is back up and running that the finally number will end up near 160.

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        1. I believe there is something like the ledgers for the United Artist (for the years 1920-1940’s). Have you heard about it ?

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          1. Hey Laurent….I wish that was true. I have never heard that though. In Ronald Bergan’s The United Artist Story he talks about 1581 movies….and very rarely does he mention a budget, a profit or box office total. Thinking if the information was available he would have mentioned in that book that looks at all the UA movies from 1919 to 1983. Maybe one day the ledgers will be found in somebody’s attic….tugged away in storage trunk….hey everybody gets to dream….lol.

        2. Hey Laurent….I got a ton of box office information from two 20th Century Fox books….so they are not really ledgers….but the amount of information I found in those books was about what I found in the ledgers those two books are (1) Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History and (2) The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935 bought written by by Audrey Solomon. Highly recommend both books…..the second can be found online.

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  4. Hi, Bruce.

    Looking at the Best Picture nominees, I have to say my favourite is High Noon, no question.

    The Greatest Show on Earth was on my to-see list a long time before I saw it. I don’t watch it often. I actually prefer Trapeze which Lancaster-a real life acrobat-had to put off making when GSOE was released.

    Ivanhoe is another movie that I don’t watch too often. If it is on TV I will watch it, but I do not seek it out.

    The Quiet Man is my favourite John Wayne movie. I’m not a Wayne fan, per se, but as I have told you often times before, my love for his costars has increased my Wayne total up A lot. Plus, I keep on wanting to increase my 4 or 5 star rated movies seen at least once- even if they are not ones that I watch often.

    Still recorded by PVR waiting for me is Young Man With Ideas, The Devil Makes Three and others.

    Cheers,

    Flora

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora…..I gotta go with The Quiet Man as my favorite of the 5 Best Picture nominees. They gave Ford the Best Director Oscar….so I guess they felt they had to give DeMille something too…so they gave him the Oscar for producing the Best Picture. I think GSOE is actually the weakest of the 5. I have not seen Trapeze yet. Hope your enjoy your PVR movies. Thanks for the return visit. It looks slightly different since you were here last….as I had some format issues that had to be fixed…..but the page should be good from here on.

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  5. So, CMR, at which level of box office take do you consider the movie to be a “hit”?

    IS there a decided amount? Or is it left up to the individual? (in which case, any largely unseen piece o’ crap can be considered a “hit”)

    Inquiring minds want to know……

    Reply

    1. Hey Sepiatone. The quick answer would be any movie that reaches $100 million in adjusted gross….in this table…that would mean 37 movies would be hits. The long answer would be it depends on lots of things. Budget to return being a big one. Yes The Greatest Show On Earth was a monster hit….but Cecil B. DeMille put a lot of money into the movie….I bet (sorry I do not know the answer) that Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair had a better profit margin percentage than Greatest Show.
      Ultimately it is up to the individual. In current times the Transformers movies make a boatload of money….but they are a waste of time….some of the worst movies being made today. In my world a hit is a movie that makes money, gets good reviews by critics AND audiences and at the end of the day picks up some awards….a movie does all of that….then the movie is a hit. That actually describes how I rank all the movies on my website. Hope that answers your question.

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      1. Not really, but I get the idea….

        In MY world, box office draw and critical acclaim do not a “hit” make. But if I had to choose a criteria, I guess box office reciepts would be a major factor. Plus, we have another factor t o consider here….

        Since this site IS foundationed on the television entity TURNER “CLASSIC” MOVIES, and believe me, the debate on what defines a “classic” movie has yet to be settled. But one thing is also clear….

        Not ALL movies someone or most members of these boards consider “classic” were ever “hits” at the box office. I fear if possibly you may be tossing the word “hits” about like many overuse the words “genius” or “great”( especially in here!). Also…..

        Just because a lot of people like some movie, it doesn’t make it “great”. And also, just because some movie made tons of money at the box office, and can thereby be considered a “hit” in terms of monetary gain and social adulation, also doesn’t mean it’s worth mention or historical consideration. THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH may have been a big “hit” back in ’52, but I personally don’t know anyone today who’ve ever cared for it And also personally, I don’t think much of it either. But that’s just personal opinion, and nothing relevant to either the thread, nor the website spam you’re promoting. So I’d understand your disregarding it.

        Reply

        1. Hey Sepiatone…..I think it depends on the era you grew up in. My dad (born 1936), my uncle (born 1947) and my grandparents (both sides) loved The Greatest Show On Earth. The train scene was something that amazed them when they saw it theaters. When I saw the scene…I was like it is a huge toy train set….and was not impressed. However Raiders of the Lost Ark blew me away as a teenager. When I show that movie to my kids….the say the special effects are weak and the movie is slow paced. For them the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings movies are their “Greatest Show On Earth” and “Raiders”. I can see their kids (oh my gosh my grandchildren) complaining that all they do is walk around in the Lord of the Rings movies.

          That being said….no matter how bad GSOE is….it is still one of the biggest box office hits of all-time…..in my movie ranking formula….I give critic reviews and audience 47% of the equation, box office grosses 31% of the equation and award recognition 22%…..so in my ranking system for a movie to do well it has to do well in ALL 3 categories….of the 26,000 movies rated so far…The Godfather, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Lawrence of Arabia, Schindler’s List and Casablanca make up the Top 5…..as they all did very very well in those 3 categories.

          Appreciate your feedback….as you phrase your thoughts very well.

          Reply

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