

Nice graphic: box office revenues since 1986 - matstc
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html

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iamwil
I went all the way back to the mid 80's, and the blockbuster back then was Top
Gun, which apparently didn't even break 250 mil. Nowadays, we have huge
blockbusters that regularly surpass 250 mil every season. Even though we have
DVDs and can download copies (pirated or not), collectively, we're spending
more on movies than we use to.

However, we don't know whether that's due to more people going to see movies,
or merely just an increase in ticket prices. It'd be more interesting to see
the graph adjusted for this so we can see if more or less people are going to
the movies than before.

It also seems that movies that are series get a second hump, like Jurassic
Park III, Harry Potter, etc.

IMAX movies have a looong shelf-life, compared to all other movie types.
Mysteries of Egypt was there all the way from 1999 through to the end of 2000,
when it had a small resurgence before disappearing.

~~~
wallflower
Less movie goers.

"In 1948, with studios earning all their revenues from the box office, that
audience was moviegoers. Even as late as 1980, when the audience had
television sets and video players, studios still earned 55 percent of their
money from people who actually went to movie theaters. In 2005, however, those
moviegoers provided the studios with less than 15 percent of their worldwide
revenues, while couch potatoes provided it with 85.8 percent."

From 2005 and still relevant <http://www.slate.com/id/2123286>

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aschwo
Reminds me of this last.fm visualization by Lee Byron:
<http://megamu.com/lastfm/>

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edw519
Excellent way to display more than 2 dimensions in 2 dimensions.

Reminds me of this one from 1861 which showed space (map of Europe), time
(length of lines), direction (beige for eastward, black for westward), size of
army (thickness of lines), and even infers weather conditions (what killed the
troops):

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Minard.png>

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wallflower
Beautiful visualization. Reminds me that it is time to browse my neglected
copy of Tufte's Envisioning Information. Thanks

~~~
edw519
Thank YOU. Reminded me that there ARE other people who own some of the same
books as me.

~~~
iamelgringo
I love Tufte's ideas and design. They are on my reading list. I'll be tackling
them after school this summer.

Another thought: I don't know that I'm ready to count the New York Times out
yet. I know that Pmarca is doing their deathwatch:
ttp://blog.pmarca.com/2008/02/irony-is-dead-l.html

But, I'm seeing some impressive changes over there. With the release of their
archives, and some of the changes they're making, I think that it's rapidly
turning into one of the best newspaper presences online. Seems like they have
some people in the right places with their thinking caps on.

