It’s the lifeblood of entertainment, the goal of industry players and wannabes alike. No, not a driving desire to make it in the business, to be discovered, to land the perfect role.
The real Hollywood dream is to open big.
Preferably, shattering-all-records big. Nowhere was that made more apparent than on HBO’s Hollywood send-up “Entourage,” when the Vince Chase team celebrated the opening numbers for his star turn in “Aquaman.” The goal wasn’t just to do well, it was to unseat the reigning opening weekend box-office king, “Spider-Man.” But why stop at opening weekend? Why not shoot for topping the all-time record-holders? Here’s a look at a few box-office bests worth setting sights on:
TV
The most-watched telecast of all time remains the finale of CBS’ “M*A*S*H” on Feb. 28, 1983, which averaged 106 million viewers.
Is the record breakable? “With the fragmentation of the TV audience, it would be very difficult to get a show as big as ‘M*A*S*H’ these days,” said Tom Bierbaum, NBC’s vice president of ratings and program information.
Movies
“Entourage” got it right. The best opening weekend is 2002’s “Spider-Man” with a $114.8 million three-day take. But the best domestic gross of all time is “Titanic” with $600.7 million since its 1997 release.
Is the record breakable? “We’ve come close enough that it may be possible,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking company Exhibitor Relations.
Theater
The longest-running Broadway show is “The Phantom of the Opera,” which opened in 1988 and went on to more than 7,660 performances and counting (and a box-office total of $1.9 billion in the U.S., including touring productions).
Is the record breakable? “It’s impossible to know,” said Howard Sherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, the founding organization of the Tony Awards. “With every successive generation we get a new record-setter.”
Music
The highest-grossing North American concert tour is the Rolling Stones’ “A Bigger Bang,” collecting $162 million in 2005 at the box office and toppling the record held for a decade by–the Rolling Stones, with their 1994 tour total of $121.2 million. The top-selling album in the U.S. is the Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits — 1971-1975,” released in 1976, with certified sales of 29 million copies. No. 2 is Michael Jackson’s 1982 release, “Thriller,” at 27 million copies.
Is the record breakable? “I don’t see any real contenders,” said Geoff Mayfield, senior analyst at Billboard magazine. Mayfield did note that Shania Twain, as the youngest performer among those whose albums have sold 20 million copies, could conceivably go on to challenge the record.
