But in a phone conversation with Goldberg, initiated because as she tells me the article set her off when she saw it, believing that it short-changed the true power of the film including her co-star, the late Swayze, and perhaps the value of a mixed cast among other things. Pretty impressive, yet Forbes intimates unlike many similar blockbusters, it was a one-off, even largely forgotten in this summer of its 30th anniversary where many beloved above-named past hits are once again topping box office charts from largely drive-in revivals in light of the coronavirus pandemic. This original, non-franchise, PG-13, female-targeted supernatural romantic thriller was far more successful than the deluge of 1980’s and 1990’s action movies and fantasy properties that now make up our nostalgic pop culture.
Not until 2013 ( Thor: The Dark World and Man of Steel) did we got a single non-Spider-Man/Iron Man/Batman comic book superhero movie that even topped $500 million. That includes Aladdin, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Beverly Hills Cop, Twister, Mission: Impossible, Toy Story, every Rocky and Rambo, the first two Star Wars sequels (until Empire’s SE reissue in 1997), the initial Indiana Jones trilogy, every 007 movie until Casino Royale and every non-Spider-Man comic book superhero movie until 2008. By its tenth anniversary, it was still the sixteenth-biggest grosser of all time (counting those Star Wars Special Edition reissues),” the piece by writer Scott Mendelson points out.Īrguably more important is the list of movies that earned less worldwide than Ghost.
Over the next decade, it would be surpassed only by Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($516 million in 1991), Jurassic Park ($922 million in 1993), The Lion King ($763 million in 1994), Forrest Gump ($677 million in 1994), Independence Day ($817 million in 1996) and finally pushed to 11th place in 1997 by The Lost World ($619 million), Men in Black ($577 million) and Titanic ($1.8 billion). ($663 million in its original 1982 release).
“By the end of 1990, Ghost’s $505.702 million global cume was just behind Star Wars (“just” $503 million in its original release and $530 million counting reissues) and E.T. After His Op-Ed Got 'Gone With The Wind' Pulled From HBO Max, John Ridley Ponders Permanent Change In Hollywood - Deadline Q&AĪn article last week in Forbes, which calls Ghost the “blockbuster Hollywood forgot” with “no sequels or spinoffs, nostalgic reissues, ripoffs or copycats” (it did inspire a tepid Broadway musical version) reminds us of the sheer box office power of this word of mouth hit.