Box-Office Reporting….1981
According to the 1996 book The Hollywood Reporter Book Of Box Office Hits, Raiders Of The Lost Ark earned $115 million in domestic rentals between June 1981 and 1996. Superman II earned $65 million in domestic rentals between June 1981 and 1996.
According to the 1990 book Box Office Champs, Raiders Of The Lost Ark earned $90.4 million in domestic rentals in the year 1981 alone, which is quite a bit more than what Superman II earned in the year 1981 alone. Superman II earned $64 million that year. Raiders Of The Lost Ark was #1 and Superman II was #2 in 1981.
And according to a 2021 magazine on Indiana Jones from Hollywood Spotlight, on page 37 the magazine reported the following about Raider’s box-office performance: “Thanks to good word of mouth and repeat viewings, the film returned to the top box-office spot in its sixth week of release. It would stay there for another nine weeks…”
But according to online box office reporting, Raiders Of The Lost Ark ranked #14 in 1981 according to the grosses made in 1981 alone, as the site claims it grossed just $21.8 million in the year 1981. But the movie, released on June 12, according to that very same online source, was #1 according with a lifetime gross of $212 million. A $212 million lifetime gross after a dismal $21.8 million gross during its first 6.6 months…
ACCORDING TO THE ONLINE SITE…Raiders Of The Lost Ark grossed at the domestic box office…
- $8.3 million during its first 3 days
- $13.5 million during the following 6.5 months…for a total of $21.8 million between June 12, 1981 and December 31, 1981
- $191 million since January 1, 1982 after only earning $21.8 million in its first 6.6 months…for a total of $212 million.
In other words, the online site reports it had a decent opening weekend in mid-June of 1981, then utterly tanked for the rest of the year…but made an unheard-of explosive word-of-mouth rebound at the box office grossing 90% of its life-time gross after its first 6.6 months in the theaters. Makes no sense. Complete and utter nonsense. So obviously false.
Never mind that the site shaved off 12% of the $242 million gross reported by more reliable Almanacs from 1999 and 2005.
More Misinformation From AI
May 30, 2026 by Blogging For 20 Years • Dancing, Education, Entertainment, History, Politics, Society, Television 0 Comments
A QUESTION I ASKED: Why doesn’t AI admit that the line about television from Quiz Show is “It’s the world’s biggest something”?
AI’s ANSWER: The line you are referring to from the film Quiz Show is most likely delivered by Herb Stempel, who describes television as the “world’s most expensive and energy-intensive plagiarism machine” in a recent quote related to the topic of AI and the movie.
However, the specific quote from the film that is most similar to your phrasing is:
“That box is the biggest thing since Gutenberg invented the printing press, and I’m the biggest thing on it”.
This line is said by Herb Stempel (played by John Turturro) to a reporter outside the congressional hearing room, highlighting his ego and the perceived power of the new medium.
It seems AI might not have initially confirmed your exact phrasing because:
Ultimately, the model provides information based on the statistical likelihood of word sequences in its data, rather than a human understanding of implicit “somethings”.