This is a list of films which placed number one at the weekly box office in the United States during 1978 per Variety . The data was based on grosses from 20 to 22 key cities and therefore, the gross quoted may not be the total that the film grossed nationally in the week.
# | Week ending | Film | Gross | Notes | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | January 4, 1978 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | $4,435,990 | [1] | |
2 | January 11, 1978 | $3,377,392 | [2] | ||
3 | January 18, 1978 | $2,274,682 | [3] | ||
4 | January 25, 1978 | $1,622,296 | [4] | ||
5 | February 1, 1978 | $1,774,208 | [5] | ||
6 | February 8, 1978 | $1,489,164 | [6] [nb 1] | ||
7 | February 15, 1978 | The Betsy | $1,339,400 | The Betsy grossed $2,727,084 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended February 12, an opening record for Allied Artists | [9] [10] |
8 | February 22, 1978 | Saturday Night Fever | $1,605,673 | Saturday Night Fever reached number one in its tenth week on the chart | [11] |
9 | March 1, 1978 | $2,171,501 | Saturday Night Fever grossed $3,765,000 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended February 26 | [12] [13] | |
10 | March 8, 1978 | $1,687,869 | [14] | ||
11 | March 15, 1978 | $1,398,108 | [15] | ||
12 | March 22, 1978 | $1,207,132 | [16] | ||
13 | March 29, 1978 | The Fury | $1,444,416 | The Fury reached number one in its second week of release grossing $2,777,291 nationally for the weekend ended March 26 | [17] [18] |
14 | April 5, 1978 | $1,257,159 | [19] | ||
15 | April 12, 1978 | The Goodbye Girl | $969,830 | The Goodbye Girl reached number one in its 19th week on the chart | [20] |
16 | April 19, 1978 | $788,848 | [21] | ||
17 | April 26, 1978 | House Calls | $949,285 | House Calls reached number one in its sixth week on the chart | [22] |
18 | May 3, 1978 | $818,620 | [23] | ||
19 | May 10, 1978 | F.I.S.T. | $724,367 | F.I.S.T. reached number one in its second week of release | [24] |
20 | May 17, 1978 | The Greek Tycoon | $677,300 | [25] | |
21 | May 24, 1978 | $981,908 | [26] | ||
22 | May 31, 1978 | American Graffiti (reissue) | $1,361,800 | [27] | |
23 | June 7, 1978 | Capricorn One | $1,411,600 | [28] | |
24 | June 14, 1978 | Damien - Omen II | $2,216,400 | Damien: Omen II grossed $3,880,880 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended June 11 | [29] [30] [31] |
25 | June 21, 1978 | Jaws 2 | $4,038,800 | Jaws 2 grossed $9.9 million nationally from all markets in the weekend ended June 18, an opening weekend record | [32] [33] [34] |
26 | June 28, 1978 | Grease | $4,174,082 | Grease reached number one in its second week of release, grossing $7,867,000 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended June 25 | [35] [36] |
27 | July 5, 1978 | $3,518,287 | [37] | ||
28 | July 12, 1978 | $2,443,707 | [38] | ||
29 | July 19, 1978 | $2,129,200 | [39] | ||
30 | July 26, 1978 | $1,977,551 | Star Wars (reissue) placed third on the chart from 166 theaters but grossed $10,166,366 nationally from 1,750 theaters in the weekend ended July 23, beating the weekend record set by Jaws 2 | [40] [41] [42] | |
31 | August 2, 1978 | Star Wars (reissue) | $1,891,255 | Star Wars grossed $6,501,185 nationally in the weekend ended July 30 | [43] [44] |
32 | August 9, 1978 | Hooper | $2,476,400 | Hooper reached number one in its third week of release. Its nationwide gross for the week was $9,437,484. | [45] [46] |
33 | August 16, 1978 | $1,988,915 | [47] | ||
34 | August 23, 1978 | $1,747,842 | [48] | ||
35 | August 30, 1978 | Animal House | $2,022,990 | Animal House reached number one in its fifth week on the chart | [49] |
36 | September 6, 1978 | $2,103,917 | [50] | ||
37 | September 13, 1978 | $1,557,835 | [51] | ||
38 | September 20, 1978 | $1,251,100 | [52] | ||
39 | September 27, 1978 | $1,085,881 | [53] | ||
40 | October 4, 1978 | Up in Smoke | $1,109,000 | Up in Smoke reached number one in its second week of release | [54] |
41 | October 11, 1978 | Animal House | $1,868,567 | Animal House returned to number one in its eleventh week of release | [55] |
42 | October 18, 1978 | $1,337,828 | [56] | ||
43 | October 25, 1978 | $1,298,347 | [57] | ||
44 | November 1, 1978 | Midnight Express | $1,300,711 | Midnight Express reached number one in its fourth week of release | [58] |
45 | November 8, 1978 | Up in Smoke | $1,443,320 | Up in Smoke returned to number one in its seventh week of release. | [59] |
46 | November 15, 1978 | Magic | $1,376,000 | [60] | |
47 | November 22, 1978 | $1,177,317 | [61] | ||
48 | November 29, 1978 | Midnight Express | $993,743 | Midnight Express returned to number one in its eighth week of release | [62] |
49 | December 6, 1978 | $746,543 | [63] | ||
50 | December 13, 1978 | $590,763 | [64] | ||
51 | December 20, 1978 | Superman | $3,685,756 | Superman grossed $7,465,343 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended December 17, beating King Kong 's December opening record | [65] [66] [67] |
52 | December 27, 1978 | $4,171,899 | Superman grossed $6,535,784 nationally from all markets in the weekend ended December 24 | [68] [69] [nb 2] | |
Rank | Title | Distributor | Rental [71] [72] [73] |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Grease | Paramount Pictures | $83,091,000 |
2 | Saturday Night Fever | Paramount Pictures | $71,463,000 |
3 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Columbia Pictures | $54,000,000 |
4 | Animal House | Universal Pictures | $52,368,000 |
5 | Jaws 2 | Universal Pictures | $49,299,000 |
6 | Heaven Can Wait | Paramount Pictures | $42,517,000 |
7 | The Goodbye Girl | Warner Bros. | $41,000,000 |
8 | Star Wars (reissue) | 20th Century Fox | $38,375,000 |
9 | Hooper | Warner Bros. | $31,500,000 |
10 | Foul Play | Paramount Pictures | $25,065,000 |
A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is frequently used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a metonym for the amount of business a particular production, such as a film or theatre show, receives. The term is also used to refer to a ticket office at an arena or a stadium.
In the motion picture industry, a wide release is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across a country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical release in which a film opens at a few cinemas in key cities before circulating among cinemas around a country, or a limited release in which a film is booked at fewer cinemas in larger cities in anticipation of lesser commercial appeal. In some cases, a film that sells well in limited release will then "go wide". Since 1994, a wide release in the United States and Canada has been defined by Nielsen EDI as a film released in more than 600 theaters.
Third week - 849 theatres: Average per theatre - $11,116