With the end of the latest Star Wars trilogy, I wanted to compare, contrast, and explore Lucas vs Disney era domestic box office revenue.

The analysis and python code below will parse weekly ticket sales from Box Office Mojo, adjust revenue numbers for inflation, visualize, and attempt to uncover insights from the data.

TL;DR

  • The top 3 revenue generating films (inflation-adjusted) are the first movie for each trilogy
  • Disney era films do not make it past week 20 compared to the Lucas era
  • On average, Lucas era movies generate 80% of their revenue within the first 10 weeks of release while Disney takes 2.8 weeks

Load modules

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

sns.set(style="darkgrid")

Define function

def movie_revenue(era, trilogy, movie, url):
  
  # RETRIEVE DATA FROM URL
  movie_data = pd.read_html(url)[0]

  # CUMULATIVE REVENUE: TRANSFORM TO FLOAT AND CALCULATE PER MILLION (1e6) 
  movie_data['Cumulative_Revenue'] = movie_data['To Date'].str.replace(',', '').str.replace('$', '').astype(int)
  movie_data['Cumulative_Revenue'] = movie_data['Cumulative_Revenue'] / 1e6

  # WEEKLY REVENUE: TRANSFORM TO PER MILLION (1e6) FLOAT
  movie_data['Weekly_Revenue'] = movie_data['Weekly'].str.replace(',', '').str.replace('$', '').astype(int)
  movie_data['Weekly_Revenue'] = movie_data['Weekly_Revenue'] / 1e6

  # SELECT WEEK INDEX & REVENUE DATA
  movie_data = movie_data[['Week', 'Weekly_Revenue', 'Cumulative_Revenue']]

  # ADD ADDITIONAL COLUMNS
  movie_data['era'] = era
  movie_data['trilogy'] = trilogy
  movie_data['movie'] = movie
  
  return(movie_data)

Set parameters

# LIST: PRODUCER ERA, TRILOGY, MOVIE NAME, URL TO CRAWL
sw_list = [['Lucas','Prequel','The Phantom Menace','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2742257153/weekly/'], 
           ['Lucas','Prequel','Attack of the Clones','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2809366017/weekly/'], 
           ['Lucas','Prequel','Revenuge of the Sith','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2943583745/weekly/'], 
           ['Lucas','Original','A New Hope','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2759034369/weekly/'], 
           ['Lucas','Original','The Empire Strikes Back','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2775811585/weekly/'], 
           ['Lucas','Original','Return of the Jedi','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2792588801/weekly/'], 
           ['Disney','Sequel','The Force Awakens','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2691925505/weekly/'], 
           ['Disney','Sequel','The Last Jedi','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2708702721/weekly/'], 
           ['Disney','Sequel','The Rise of Skywalker','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3305145857/weekly/'], 
           ['Disney','SW Story','Rogue One','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2557707777/weekly/'], 
           ['Disney','SW Story','Solo','https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1954383361/weekly/']]

Retrieve and parse data

star_wars = []

for m in sw_list:
  data = movie_revenue(m[0], m[1], m[2], m[3])
  star_wars.append(data)

star_wars = pd.concat(star_wars)

Spot check

from random import randint

star_wars.iloc[randint(0,len(star_wars))]
## Week                                     10
## Weekly_Revenue                     0.762516
## Cumulative_Revenue                  514.326
## era                                  Disney
## trilogy                              Sequel
## movie                 The Rise of Skywalker
## Name: 9, dtype: object

Inflation-adjusted revenue

# MOVIE TITLE
m = []
for t in sw_list:
  title = t[2]
  m.append(title)

# YEAR OF MOVIE
y = [2000, 2002, 2005, 1977, 1980, 1983, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2017, 2018]    

# INFLATION RATE (https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm)
i = [0.497, 0.433, 0.32, 3.254, 2.129, 1.588, 0.074, 0.027, 0.008, 0.052, 0.027]

# JOIN ALL THREE LISTS
inflation = list(zip(m, y, i))

# CONVERT TO PANDAS DATAFRAME
inflation = pd.DataFrame(inflation)

# CREATE & APPLY COLUMN NAMES
labels = ["movie", "year", "inflation_rate"]
inflation.columns = labels

# COMBINE DATAFRAMES
star_wars_adjusted = star_wars.merge(inflation, how='left', on='movie')

# INFLATION-ADJUSTED REVENUE: WEEKLY & CUMULATIVE
star_wars_adjusted['Adjusted Weekly Revenue'] = star_wars_adjusted['Weekly_Revenue'] * (1 + star_wars_adjusted['inflation_rate'])
star_wars_adjusted['Adjusted Cumulative Revenue'] = star_wars_adjusted['Cumulative_Revenue'] * (1 + star_wars_adjusted['inflation_rate'])

Final spot check

star_wars_adjusted.iloc[randint(0,len(star_wars_adjusted))]
## Week                                   46
## Weekly_Revenue                   0.792809
## Cumulative_Revenue                213.955
## era                                 Lucas
## trilogy                          Original
## movie                          A New Hope
## year                                 1977
## inflation_rate                      3.254
## Adjusted Weekly Revenue           3.37261
## Adjusted Cumulative Revenue       910.166
## Name: 101, dtype: object

What is the total ticket sales for the entire franchise?

star_wars_adjusted.agg({'Adjusted Weekly Revenue':'sum'})[0]
## 6125.216885688999

Over $6.6 billion in gross revenue (inflation-adjusted) was made from the US box office alone.

Which era produced the most revenue?

era_comparison = star_wars_adjusted.groupby(['era']).agg({'Adjusted Weekly Revenue':'sum'}).reset_index()
era_comparison = era_comparison.sort_values('Adjusted Weekly Revenue', ascending=False).rename(columns={'Adjusted Weekly Revenue':'total_revenue'})
era_comparison
##       era  total_revenue
## 1   Lucas    3183.601435
## 0  Disney    2941.615451

The winner here goes to the Lucas era at 56% of total domestic ticket sales by a difference of $731M (inflation-adjusted) over Disney.

How much revenue did each movie generate?

star_wars_summary = star_wars_adjusted.groupby(['era','trilogy','movie']).agg({'Adjusted Weekly Revenue':'sum'}).reset_index()
star_wars_summary = star_wars_summary.sort_values('Adjusted Weekly Revenue', ascending=False).rename(columns={'Adjusted Weekly Revenue':'total_revenue'})
star_wars_summary
##        era   trilogy                    movie  total_revenue
## 2   Disney    Sequel        The Force Awakens    1005.975230
## 10   Lucas   Prequel       The Phantom Menace     642.104488
## 6    Lucas  Original       Return of the Jedi     637.805882
## 3   Disney    Sequel            The Last Jedi     636.926279
## 5    Lucas  Original               A New Hope     609.842877
## 0   Disney  SW Story                Rogue One     559.850545
## 4   Disney    Sequel    The Rise of Skywalker     519.324162
## 9    Lucas   Prequel     Revenuge of the Sith     501.957162
## 8    Lucas   Prequel     Attack of the Clones     433.039987
## 7    Lucas  Original  The Empire Strikes Back     358.851039
## 1   Disney  SW Story                     Solo     219.539235

A few points to highlight:

  • The first movie for each trilogy shows up in the top 3 on our inflation-adjusted list
  • Disney’s “The Force Awakens” generated over one billion dollars in domestic box office revenue (!)
    • Why was this so popular? My first guess is older fans who now have kids and Disney’s powerhouse marekting machine
  • Solo (Disney) performed the worst coming in just shy of $220M (inflation-adjusted), nearly -50% less than “Attack of the Clones” (Lucas)

This is interesting but movie industry analysts already report on these statistics in some way, shape or form.

Let’s take a different approach by visualizing the revenue run rate for each movie after its release.

What is the weekly cumulative revenue for each movie?

plt.figure(figsize=(20,15))

g = sns.FacetGrid(star_wars_adjusted, col="trilogy", hue="movie", col_wrap=2, height=5)
g = g.map(plt.plot, "Week", "Adjusted Cumulative Revenue", marker="o")
g = g.add_legend().set_titles("{col_name}").set_xlabels("Weeks Since Release").set_ylabels("Cumulative Revenue ($ Millions)")

plt.subplots_adjust(top=0.90)
plt.suptitle('STAR WARS\nWeekly Cumulative Revenue (inflation-adjusted)', fontsize=16)
plt.figtext(0.9, 0.02, "by: @eeysirhc", horizontalalignment="right")
plt.figtext(0.9, 0.01, "source: Box Office Mojo", horizontalalignment="right")

plt.show()

Note: “The Empire Strikes Back” (Lucas) has inaccurate data for weekly numbers

Now this is something different:

  • With the exception of “The Force Awakens”, all Disney era films do not make it past week 20
  • The Lucas original trilogy & “The Phantom Menace” exhibits a gradual accumulation in revenue over time
  • The cumulative revenue for Disney movies (and the last two from the Lucas prequel) appear to flatten within the first month of release

I suspect we might be onto something here.

How long does it take to achieve 80% of total revenue?

# WEEKLY REVENUE PER MOVIE
star_wars_total = star_wars_adjusted.groupby(['movie','Week']).agg({'Adjusted Weekly Revenue': 'sum'})

# WEEKLY % OF TOTAL
star_wars_pct = star_wars_total.groupby(level=0).apply(lambda x:
                                       100 * x / float(x.sum())).reset_index()

# WEEKLY CUMULATIVE % OF TOTAL CONTRIBUTION
star_wars_pct['cumulative_contribution'] = star_wars_pct.groupby(['movie'])['Adjusted Weekly Revenue'].cumsum()

# VISUALIZE 
plt.figure(figsize=(20,15))

p = sns.FacetGrid(star_wars_pct, col="movie", hue="movie", col_wrap=3, height=5)
p = p.map(plt.plot, "Week", "cumulative_contribution", marker="o")
p = p.add_legend().set_titles("{col_name}").set_xlabels("Weeks Since Release").set_ylabels("% of Total Contribution")

plt.subplots_adjust(top=0.90)
plt.suptitle('STAR WARS\nWeekly Revenue Contribution (inflation-adjusted)', fontsize=16)
plt.figtext(0.9, 0.02, "by: @eeysirhc", horizontalalignment="right")
plt.figtext(0.9, 0.01, "source: Box Office Mojo", horizontalalignment="right")

plt.show()

# FILTER CONTRIBUTION > 80%
threshold = star_wars_pct[star_wars_pct['cumulative_contribution'] > 80]
threshold_parsed = threshold.loc[threshold.groupby('movie').cumulative_contribution.idxmin()]
threshold_parsed = threshold_parsed[['movie','Week','cumulative_contribution']].sort_values('Week').merge(star_wars_summary, how="left", on="movie")
threshold_parsed[['era','movie','Week','total_revenue']]
##        era                    movie  Week  total_revenue
## 0   Disney    The Rise of Skywalker     2     519.324162
## 1   Disney                Rogue One     3     559.850545
## 2   Disney                     Solo     3     219.539235
## 3   Disney        The Force Awakens     3    1005.975230
## 4   Disney            The Last Jedi     3     636.926279
## 5    Lucas     Revenuge of the Sith     4     501.957162
## 6    Lucas     Attack of the Clones     5     433.039987
## 7    Lucas       The Phantom Menace     7     642.104488
## 8    Lucas       Return of the Jedi    11     637.805882
## 9    Lucas  The Empire Strikes Back    11     358.851039
## 10   Lucas               A New Hope    15     609.842877

This illustrates there is a clear distinction between the two Star Wars producers.

On average, Disney era movies generate 80% of their revenue within the first 2.8 weeks of release while Lucas takes 10 weeks (excludes “The Empire Strikes Back”).

A few follow-up questions quickly come to mind:

  • How many movie theaters were there in the 1970s? 2000s? 2010s?
  • Have moviegoers been forced to travel to a few central locations (ex: strip malls) instead of being dispersed throughout a region?
  • How is Disney delivering their content to movie theaters?
  • If it’s digital, could this explain the steep vs gradual revenue generated over time because the film doesn’t need to be physically delivered to all theaters?
  • Has the movie industry evolved to the point where logistics and operations are now a science?

This definitely warrants further exploration and I encourage the reader (or movie enthusiast) to take this and run with it.

If you found this article useful or interesting then please do not hesitate to share with others!