The Dark Knight & the Midas Touch

Riffing off Sasha’s observation that The Dark Knight is on track to become the #2 domestic box-office champ of all-time, maybe we can dust off a rarely invoked “rule.” While it’s true that the #1 box-office winner each year is rarely seen as BP material, it’s indisputable that three of the top four box-office earners of all-time have been nominated for Best Picture.

I hate rules. Unless they happen to support what I want to believe. So I’m not saying this is really a rule; just interesting. As interesting as the list of top box-office films of all-time, adjusted for inflation, after the cut.

Domestic Gross Earnings, Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation

Whaddaya know. Not only were the top (adjusted) money-makers of all time nominated for Best Picture — a third of them won.

I’d like to call this Rule 33 (Clause A – C): “Oscar likes movies that earn a respectable amount of money. Unless they earn such a vast amount that it becomes unseemly. Until said vast amount passes a certain plateau; at which point the unseemliness ceases to bother anybody too much.”

(*Shrek 2, Animated “Best Picture” equivalent)
(Chart Source: Box Office Mojo)