This document analyzes box office data for thriller films. It shows that thrillers made up half of the top 6 highest grossing films for the week listed. Overall, thrillers tend to have higher box office totals than dramas. The data also reveals that most successful thrillers are rated R, possibly due to violent content. Additionally, 20th Century Fox is identified as a company that has distributed several successful recent thrillers. The document recommends making a PG-13 thriller with a low budget and distributing it through 20th Century Fox to attempt to achieve high box office returns.

1. Institutional Research
I choose thriller, although this kind of films not so many, but is also very popular in a
part of people, it’s a very significant part in their life.
Daily Domestic Chart for Monday October 6th, 2014
Movie Genre Gross Total Gross Days
1 (1) Gone Girl Thriller/Suspense $3,275,569 $40,788,678 4
2 (2) Annabelle Horror $2,308,284 $39,442,539 4
3 (3) The Equalizer Action $1,472,492 $65,709,484 11
4 (5) The Maze Runner Thriller/Suspense $640,588 $74,196,747 18
5 (4) The Boxtrolls Adventure $539,045 $32,632,841 11
6 (6) Left Behind Thriller/Suspense $427,384 $6,727,530 4
7 (7) This is Where I
Leave You
Comedy $313,655 $29,326,228 18
8 (9) Guardians of the
Galaxy
Adventure $214,336 $323,545,823 67
9 (8) Dolphin Tale 2 Drama $193,216 $38,059,346 25
10 (11) A Walk Among
the Tombstones
Action $179,090 $24,689,615 18
11 (10) No Good Deed Thriller/Suspense $157,028 $50,314,421 25
12 (13) The Good Lie Drama $71,313 $912,735 4
13 (14) Let’s Be Cops Comedy $61,552 $80,944,741 55
14 (12) Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles
Adventure $56,732 $188,379,473 60
15 (-) The Drop Drama $29,967 $10,424,480 25
- (15) If I Stay Drama $26,432 $49,800,846 46
- (-) Hector and the
Search for
Happiness
Romantic Comedy $20,197 $609,687 18
- (-) Into the Storm Thriller/Suspense $19,553 $46,945,036 60
- (-) The Giver Drama $19,296 $44,252,701 53
- (-) Lucy Action $19,155 $125,849,235 74
- (-) Dawn of the
Planet of the
Apes
Adventure $16,508 $207,889,176 88
- (-) When the Game
Stands Tall
Drama $16,204 $29,622,863 46
- (-) The Expendables Action $12,849 $39,166,394 53

2. 3
- (-) How to Train Your
Dragon 2
Adventure $11,888 $176,104,714 116
- (-) Más negro que la
noche
Thriller/Suspense $11,129 $789,850 11
- (-) Jimi: All is By My
Side
Drama $10,744 $249,581 11
- (-) Tracks Drama $10,646 $344,750 18
- (-) Pride Drama $8,633 $223,105 11
- (-) Hercules Action $8,182 $72,558,537 74
- (-) Calvary Black Comedy $6,052 $3,576,878 67
- (-) Island of Lemurs:
Madagascar
Documentary $5,916 $7,497,138 186
- (-) As Above, So
Below
Thriller/Suspense $5,810 $21,203,125 39
- (-) Men, Women and
Children
Comedy $5,660 $66,974 6
- (-) Earth to Echo Adventure $3,421 $38,826,373 97
- (-) The
Disappearance of
Eleanor Rigby
Drama $3,236 $514,919 25
- (-) Tammy Comedy $3,198 $84,484,379 97
- (-) The November
Man
Thriller/Suspense $3,123 $24,925,099 41
- (-) Cantinflas Drama $2,851 $6,331,493 39
- (-) Transformers:
Age of Extinction
Action $2,389 $245,430,526 102
- (-) Begin Again Drama $2,055 $16,157,195 102
- (-) Sin City: A Dame
to Kill For
Action $1,474 $13,752,030 46
- (-) 50 to 1 Drama $166 $1,061,482 200
As we can see, in this graph, there are only 8 thriller, and in first 6 movies, thriller
occupy half of them, and in all of those films, there is a thriller at NO.9 of Total
Gross, that film’s total gross is $74196747, another 3 thriller are at NO.13, NO.14 and
NO.15. It’s a very grade for them. There 13 drama films, they are the most, but their
grades are not very well, the most total gross only $49800846. Maybe they are easy to
make or popular in audiences, but thrillers always have high quality.

3. Box Office History for Thriller/Suspense Movies
Ticket Sales and Market Share by Year
AS we can see, this is a bar chart about history of ticket sales and market share for
thriller. At the beginning, from 1995 to 1996, the data decrease slowly, and from 1996
to 1997, there was a suddenly increase, and the data keep grow to 1998. Between
1999 and 2001, the data was steadily. But from 2002 to 2003, there was a big fall.
Then between 2006 and 2011, the data was quite steadily.
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4. This a part of a table, as we can see, most of thriller are R, I think that because there
are too much bloody, porn and violence situations in it, and only 4 PG-13 and 1PG in
this table.
Top-Grossing Movies 1995-2014, Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation
Rank Movie Release
Date
Distributor MPAA
Rating
Total Gross Inflation-Adjusted
Gross
1 Titanic Dec 17, 1997 Paramount
Pictures
PG-13 $658,672,302 $1,110,601,190
2 The Sixth
Sense
Aug 6, 1999 Walt Disney PG-13 $293,506,292 $454,323,148
3 The Hunger
Games
Mar 23, 2012 Lionsgate PG-13 $408,010,692 $418,262,212
4 Signs Aug 2, 2002 Walt Disney PG-13 $227,965,690 $309,556,860

5. 5 Inception Jul 16, 2010 Warner Bros. PG-13 $292,576,195 $302,588,304
6 Gravity Oct 4, 2013 Warner Bros. PG-13 $274,092,705 $274,092,703
7 The Da Vinci
Code
May 19, 2006 Sony Pictures PG-13 $217,536,138 $262,039,713
8 The Bourne
Ultimatum
Aug 3, 2007 Universal PG-13 $227,471,070 $260,864,356
9 Ocean's Eleven Dec 7, 2001 Warner Bros. PG-13 $183,417,150 $253,996,087
10 What Lies
Beneath
Jul 21, 2000 Dreamworks
SKG
PG-13 $155,464,351 $227,434,536
11 The Bourne
Supremacy
Jul 23, 2004 Universal PG-13 $176,087,450 $223,675,945
12 Se7en Sep 22, 1995 New Line R $100,125,643 $181,110,760
13 The Bourne
Identity
Jun 14, 2002 Universal PG-13 $121,468,960 $164,955,267
14 Taken Jan 30, 2009 20th Century
Fox
PG-13 $145,000,989 $152,541,039
15 The Village Jul 30, 2004 Walt Disney PG-13 $114,197,520 $145,089,139
16 Taken 2 Oct 5, 2012 20th Century
Fox
PG-13 $139,854,287 $143,348,670
17 Angels &
Demons
May 15, 2009 Sony Pictures PG-13 $133,375,846 $140,311,389
18 Vanilla Sky Dec 14, 2001 Paramount
Pictures
R $100,614,858 $139,204,816
19 Argo Oct 12, 2012 Warner Bros. R $136,025,503 $138,772,175
20 Unbreakable Nov 22, 2000 Walt Disney PG-13 $94,999,143 $138,715,100
21 Entrapment Apr 30, 1999 20th Century
Fox
PG-13 $87,707,396 $136,218,049
22 Shutter Island Feb 19, 2010 Paramount
Pictures
R $128,012,934 $132,393,601
23 Conspiracy
Theory
Aug 8, 1997 Warner Bros. R $76,118,990 $130,780,616
24 Super 8 Jun 9, 2011 Paramount
Pictures
PG-13 $127,004,179 $130,687,777
25 Panic Room Mar 29, 2002 Sony Pictures R $95,308,367 $129,429,091
It’s easy to look out that Titanic is the most successful film, it was distributed by
Paramount Pictures, rated PG-13. The reason why it got a very high box office is this
film is PG-13, not R, so many children who under 13 can watch this film with their
parents. Inflation-Adjusted Gross of Titanic was higher than others obviously, it’s
approximately twice of the second film. Total gross of The Hunger Games was the
second, it’s a well-known film.

6. There are many companies make thriller, but from my data, I find that 20th
Century
Fox is an appropriate company to distribute films, can be seen in the graph, they made
three films recently. The Maze Runner is at the first on the charts, I believe it will be a
successful film. I showed grade of Gone Girl, it’s also very successful, and the total
gross of these tow films are really high.
If I made a film, I will let 20th
Century Fox to distribute my film, an my film is PG-13,
because many children can watch it with their parents, then it will probably get a high
box office and rank, I would make a low budget film, and I hope it can get the highest
gross.

7. There are many companies make thriller, but from my data, I find that 20th
Century
Fox is an appropriate company to distribute films, can be seen in the graph, they made
three films recently. The Maze Runner is at the first on the charts, I believe it will be a
successful film. I showed grade of Gone Girl, it’s also very successful, and the total
gross of these tow films are really high.
If I made a film, I will let 20th
Century Fox to distribute my film, an my film is PG-13,
because many children can watch it with their parents, then it will probably get a high
box office and rank, I would make a low budget film, and I hope it can get the highest
gross.