Sci-Fi at the Box Office
By SFMZ Webmaster

While Sci-Fi films seem to be shunned by the Oscars for the most part, the box office has been a bit more generous with praise, or at least monetarily. Since it's introduction in cinema history, the Sci-Fi genre has grossed close to 40 billion dollars, according to the-numbers.com.

This amount towers over the Horror genre, Westerns, and the Thriller/Suspense genre which have earned 15.5 billion, 1.99 billion, and 22.6 billion respectively. But Sci-Fi cowers in the shadows of Romantic Comedies earning 76 billion and the Action genre at 68.3 billion. The popularity of sci-fi film oscillates with highs and lows over the decades of cinema history.

Perhaps the very first successful sci-fi film regarding box office would be Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis, which earned $615,000 in the U.S alone. The budget of the film is not an easy thing to find. Researching the web, the closest figure I could find regarding the budget is 1.3 million "Reischmarks."

According to a RM to U.S. Dollar conversion, that would be approximately $300,000. Also unknown is the film's worldwide gross, but it was released in Germany and other European countries. With the U.S. revenue combined with the unknown other countries revenue, it wouldn't be a stretch to think that the studio received a profitable return.

Metropolis was almost 2 hours long, a rarity not just for the fledging sci-fi genre, but for any genre of that time. U.S. and some theaters in other countries were reluctant to show a film that ran longer than 90 minutes. According to Wikipedia, "Before it was shown outside Germany, the film was cut and re-edited, changing many key elements."

Going back to the 1930's, sci-fi enjoyed mild success with Flash Gordon, the Frankenstein films, King Kong, The Invisible Man and a few others. But the late thirties saw box office flops such as H.G. Wells' Things to Come along with others that scared filmmakers into virtually eliminating the genre all through the forties. Sci-fi films of the thirties paled in comparison to the epic drama of the same decade, Gone With the Wind, which is currently the number one film worldwide all time adjusted for inflation.

It took the Atomic Age, the 1950's, to revive the sci-fi genre, but with a few exceptions such as The Thing and Forbidden Planet, unfortunately the fifties were dominated with cheesy B movie quality. Even with the fifties sci-fi revival, no fifties sci-film is in Box Office Mojo's top 200 all time box office adjusted for inflation. Biblical epics, big production adventures, and Disney animated rule the fifties box office.

There were notable but isolated sci-fi box office winners in the sixties and part of the seventies such as Fantastic Voyage and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, but no sci-fi genre films were top box office draws in the sixties. 2001 ASO is the only sci-fi film of the sixties that currently sits at number 154 in Box Office Mojo's top 200 all time box office adjusted for inflation.

It was 1977 that sci-fi finally made an impact at the box office when a young director named George Lucas introduced us to the Star Wars universe. Since then, sci-fi has never really experienced a severe slump in popularity. Adjusted for inflation, Star Wars 1977 currently sits at number two worldwide all time behind Gone With the Wind.

The eighties had its share of sci-fi B movies, but it also saw a number of highly profitable films such as E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Star Trek films, Aliens, The Terminator, Star Wars V and VI, Back to the Future, Predator, and Total Recall. Adjusted for inflation, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial currently sits at number four worldwide all time. Star Wars: Episode V and Episode VI combined for $1.8 Billion, also adjusted for inflation.

The same could be said for the nineties which gave us theater packing movies like Star Wars Episode 1, The Matrix, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, more Star Trek, Twelve Monkeys, Independence Day, and Jurassic Park - Spielberg's dinosaur epic is the sci-fi king of the nineties, with an adjusted for inflation gross of $860 million. Star Wars Episode 1 is a close second at $846 million adjusted for inflation.

Entering the new millennium, the 2000's were a little on the quiet side, but this decade brought in high end ticket sales in the sci-fi genre I, Robot and The War of the Worlds. A number of the new millennium's first decade sci-fi and superhero films currently sit in Box Office Mojo's top 200 all time box office adjusted for inflation including The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 1, 2, & 3, Star Wars Episodes 2 & 3, Transformers, The Matrix Reloaded, and Iron Man. One exception would be Avatar, discussed just below.

Sci-Fi: The box office king of all genres

The Sci-Fi box office champ is James Cameron's Avatar released in 2009. Not only does it reign over the Sci-Fi box office, it is number one over all genres, earning an amazing 2.92 billion (not adjusted for inflation). With it's appeal to the family audience, presented in digital 3D, and positive reviews, it remained the number one movie for seven weeks on its first run.

Avatar actually drops down to number 15 in Box Office Mojo's top 200 all time box office adjusted for inflation. Cameron's previous film Titanic held on to the box office record for over a decade with 2.26 billion (not adjusted for inflation), but eclipsing that amount with Avatar, his sci-fi adventure on Pandora could potentially remain number one for a generation or more.

A little sci-fi film that roared at the box office

A big budget and a nine digit figure in gross is not necessarily a watermark for what makes a sci-film successful at the box office. Neil Blomkamp's 2009 District 9 (produced by Peter Jackson) collected a gross of 200 million dollars, certainly not near the astronomical numbers of Avatar or the Star Wars films.

However, with a budget of 30 million dollars, considered to be a shoestring budget compared to other major productions made today, it's ratio of budget to gross is quite impressive. A studio receives 45 to 55 percent of the total gross, that means the studio (TriStar) received approximately a 105 to 110 million dollar gross return. Their net profit would be in the range of 50 to 60 million dollars if you figure in other expenses such as marketing costs.

On the other side of the spectrum, classic sci-fi greats such as Blade Runner which resides in many of the top sci-fi all time lists, performed rather poorly at the box office. Blade Runner's success was gained mainly from the VHS tape and DVD industries. With a budget of 28 million dollars, Blade Runner grossed only 32.9 million.

Figuring in the 45-55% percent studio return figure mentioned above, Ridley Scott's sci-fi hallmark lost millions. The film's lack of performance at the box office could be attributed to the film critic community's poor reviews and it was released the same month as the blockbusters E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn. A director's cut and a final cut were released in 1992 and 2007 respectively, however both were limited releases and their audience attendance was insignificant.

The Mega Franchises

It probably goes without saying that the most successful sci-fi franchises at the box office would be Star Wars and Star Trek. After four decades plus, the original Star Wars (A New Hope) is still in the top ten sci-fi film list regarding box office gross all time. When figuring in inflation, George Lucas' sci-fi adventure is currently ranked second (including all genres). Episodes one through nine along with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story have accumulated an astounding 11 billion dollars plus (non-adjusted worldwide including multiple releases).

The Star Trek franchise has been fairly popular throughout its 40 year run for the most part, but it wasn't as profitable as the Star Wars franchise, its collective worldwide gross non-adusted for all 14 films was in the range of $2.1 billion dollars. That pales in comparison to the Star War franchise sitting at $11 billion plus. Of the 14 Star Trek feature film franchise, Star Trek: Into the Darkness holds the highest box office gross at $467 million.

The franchise experienced declining interest in later films such as Nemesis, which suffered a substantial loss at the box office, bringing in only $67 million gross. A lackluster figure considering its budget was $60 million. J.J. Abrams' 2009 release which focuses on the crew's beginnings, rejuvenated the Star Trek universe, bringing in a gross of 386 million dollars worldwide.

The Elusive Best Picture Oscar

With a handful of Oscars in the visual effects/art direction categories and zero best picture wins throughout the Academy Award's history, sci-fi films seem destined to find praise mainly at the box office.....that is, until 2022 when Everything Everywhere All at Once won Oscar Best Picture. Since then, there's been endless debates on the web whether it is really a sci-fi film.

Others contend that the Shape of Water is the first sci-fi film to win Oscar Best Picture. It's a moot point considering the momentum of numerous media sources designating EEAAO as the first science fiction film to win Oscar Best Picture. Rotten Tomatoes, DigitalTrends.com, Space.com, even Smithsonian magazine, and many more are all calling EEAAO a sci-fi film.

In conclusion, we can always cover all bases by saying EEAAO is the first fantasy / science fiction / surreal comedy / martial arts / immigrant narrative movie to win Oscar Best Picture. ;)

References and excerpts from:
the-numbers.com, boxofficemojo.com, IMDB.com, Wikipedia.org