MAGNUM FORCE: Business and Promotion 2: Box Office

[mgk]

Domestic box office total for Magnum Force, according to www.variety.com (subscription only), was $39,768,000. Surprisingly, the total domestic box office for Dirty Harry, from the same source, was $35,976,000. Why do you suppose Magnum Force brought in almost $4,000,000 more than the original Dirty Harry?

[Brendan]

Well, obviously people who liked the first one and just Clint's general appeal decided to go see this one.

Also around the time Magnum Force was released some other movies were released such as the Paul Newman $100 million hit The Sting as well as The Exorcist. Magnum Force could have just got lost in the shuffle there.

[Matt]

It's been said that the spaghetti westerns made Eastwood a star, but it was Dirty Harry that made him a "superstar". I'd say that had something to do with why Magnum Force fared a little better at the box office than Dirty Harry, just because of all the "buzz" about who this Eastwood guy was, and hearing about Dirty Harry all the time must have gotten all those folks who still hadn't seen him into the theater to finally see what all the talk was about. Plus, you had fans from the original film that were excited to see a sequel.

[Matt]

This topic is now closed, please post any additional thoughts in the Dirty Harry forum.

[The Schofield Kid]

This topic has been temporarily unlocked.  Feel free to post any additional thoughts or discussion here.