Size of worldwide audience / DVD sales

[Stringy]

Hi

I'm an archaeologist at Stanford University who is currently teaching a course on 'Archaeology and the Public Imagination'. Naturally Indy has featured large - the class had to watch Raiders as their first assignment - but I am hitting a brick wall when it comes to trying to get certain bits of information about the films and the DVD.

My basic interest is to try and break down the concept of 'the public' (as in "the public loved Indiana Jones...") and try and see which groups of people it appealed to, i.e. did it have a different response based on the viewer's age / gender / class / race / nationality etc etc

I have found it very difficult trying to track down viewing figures. I did find on Yahoo's list of all time box office hits the follwing data:

• In the Yahoo movies all-time US box-office hit-list Raiders of the Lost Ark places 30th, grossing $245,034,358, not bad for a film released in 1981; indeed at its time it was the THIRD most popular movie ever released, only behind Star Wars and Jaws.

• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) places 55th, having made $197,171,806.

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) is at 70th place, having made a mere $179,880,271.

• Meanwhile, the box-set of the DVD’s sold over 1.1 million copies in its first week of release last October, the fastest-selling set of its kind, generating $50 million dollars of retail sales in North America (not bad for a package that costs around the $50 mark).

BUT I can't find a reference to actually how many people saw the movies (yes I could make a rough guestimate if I knew average world movie ticket prices for the years concerned) and what the current sales totals are for the DVD's.

If anyone could help I would really appreciate it. I guess I could contact LucasFilms, but having tried to get info on various other TV / newspaper audience / circulation figures I hav realised that it;s not that easy - they are a bit wary with this data (ok if I was an advertising agent).

Also - and here's really hoping - if anyone has any information on how the films performed / or were received in other countries (specifically non English speaking) I would be thrilled.

I will share any data I get back on this noticeboard (unless the person sending it to me says that they don't want me to).

Thanks in advance...

Best

Stringy (T. Carter, Cultural & Social Anthro, Stanford)

[monkey]

"Archaeology and the Public Imagination"?

And for the first class you have to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Wow! How do I sign up for that class? I bet you don't have many empty seats.

I wish I could help you out with your statistical research Stingy, but I don't know any of that data.

But if you are interested in any anecdotal evidence of the effects of Indiana Jones on the Public's interest in Archaeology I, and others here I'm sure, would be happy to oblige.

[Stringy]

Thanks for offer.

I think given that I have met so many people who do like the film, I'd almost be interested more if there was a pattern with regard to those people who didn't like it...

I'd also love to know how the film was received overseas, say in France, Germany, Greece or wherever.

Stringy

[MP3]

Here's some info you probably know already, but I'll say it anyway.

As you may have guessed from the sales figures, ToD was not as successful as the others, to say the least. It was severely pounded by critics for just about everything from being too harsh for a PG movie (it was bumped up to PG-13 - in fact, ToD and Gremlins were the two movies that inspired the creation of the PG-13 rating) to the fact that it was "patronizing" more primitive cultures - i.e. that the Indians needed Indy as a "Messiah" to save them.

However, the key point of my post is this: you wanted to know how it was received in other countries, so I'll tell you - the British version was cut (they removed the heart ripping scene), so I guess you might say that the BBFC didn't receive ToD [i its original form] very well. As for what the British public feels - well, those that I've heard wanted the original version, but there may have been other people who found it to be better cut. I remember someone on this board saying how when they were a child, they would fast-forward the heart-ripping scene because it was too "intense" for them, so I guess some people (certain kids, maybe) prefer the cut version.

[Stringy]

Hey MP3

Thanks for all of that. I had picked up on the reaction to ToD and the fact that a lot of people were pretty uneasy with the representation of the 'native' group, and as you said the Messianic role of Indy. I didn't know about the ratings issue though, thanks a lot.

Still trying to hunt down contacts in Lucas Films and the like to talk to about all of this, tricky.

Again, thanks for feedback - appreciated

Tristan