Some interesting Facts About the Movies

Do you love the movies as much as I do? Do you like learning about the interesting things that take place onscreen and behind the scenes? If so, you'll enjoy this collection of interesting facts about movies and films.

Who knows — these facts might even help you win Jeopardy some day! Stranger things have happened. So without further ado, let's go to the movies...

Interesting Facts

1. The first movie with sound was shown in New York City in 1923. The short film ushered in the era of talking pictures, or "talkies." The first full-length movie with sound was The Jazz Singer (1927).
2. The longest movie ever made was The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple, a 27-hour silent film released in China in 1928. Technically, it was a series. The so-called "movie" was shown in 18 parts (each as long as a regular movie).
3. Other long movies that have gone the distance (and then some) include Gone With the Wind at 238 minutes, Lawrence of Arabia at 217 minutes, and Lord of the Rings, Return of the King at 200 minutes. All of these movies were highly acclaimed as well.
4. At the time of this writing, the highest grossing movie in the United States was Titanic (1997) starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet. This movie about the doomed ocean liner has grossed more than $600 million dollars to date.
5. The record held by the Titanic movie will likely be surpassed in the near future by the latest installment in the Batman saga. The Dark Knight (2008) is on track to gross $500 million or more in its first year of release.
6. Another money-related movie fact for you: The Dark Knight holds the record for most money grossed during the opening weekend. The popular Batman movie earned more than $158 million during the weekend it was released (Friday - Sunday).
7. It's a fact that the most expensive movies have all been action films with a superhero or fantasy element. These include Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), Superman Returns (2006), Spiderman 3 (2007), and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Eye-popping special effects account for much of the cost in these movies.
8. While the reported numbers vary based on the source, stunt men and women die every year while making movies. According to industry data, most injuries and deaths occur from falls (when the stunt person is falling from a building or cliff, for example). Smoke inhalation and auto accidents were also high on the list.
9. One of the most high-profile stunt deaths occurred when Brandon Lee (son of legendary Bruce Lee) was killed while filming the movie The Crow. A prop gun believed to hold only blanks had an actual bullet in the barrel.
10. If you count the extras in the movie as part of the cast, then the film Gandhi had the largest cast of all time. During the funeral scene at the end of the movie, more than 250,000 extras were used. [Definition: An "extra" is a background actor who doesn't have a major speaking role in the film.]
11. A "box office bomb" is a movie that didn't gross very much money upon release. Specifically, it's a movie that cost more to make than what it earned. Some of the biggest bombs have included Howard the Duck (1986), The Postman with Kevin Costner (1997), and The Adventures of Pluto Nash with Eddie Murphy (2002).
12. One of the most infamous (and frequently cited) box office bombs was Ishtar, starring Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty. Fortunately, both of their careers survived beyond that movie.
13. Based on a ranking created by the American Film Institute (AFI), some of the funniest American movies of the last 100 years included Tootsie (1982), Blazing Saddles (1974), Airplane (1980), and Raising Arizona (1987).
14. Based on the same "AFI 100 Years" ranking, some of the best movie villains have included the man-eating Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) from The Silence of the Lambs, the deeply troubled Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) from Psycho, and the heavy breathing Darth Vader (voice by James Earl Jones) from Star Wars.
15. What about the good guys? The AFI ranking of top heroes included Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) from the movie by the same name, Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in To Kill a Mockingbird, and Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) from The Silence of the Lambs, and — of course — Rocky Balboa. "Yo Adrienne! We did it!"
16. The Silence of the Lambs was the only movie to have both a villain (Dr. Lecter) and a hero (Clarice Starling) in the AFI's top-ten rankings. "Well, Clarice ... have the lambs stopped screaming?"
17. In movie lingo, a "triple threat" is somebody who can sing, dance and act well. Frank Sinatra was one of the most famous triple threat actors of all time. In addition to being a famous singer, Sinatra also won an Oscar for best supporting actor (From Here to Eternity, 1953).
18. Depending on how you define them (and there's plenty of debate), there are more than a dozen different film genres. Most movies fall within these genres in some way. Modern film genres include horror, comedy, drama, adventure, animation, thriller and several others. Some genres can be broken down into sub-genres (for example, the romantic comedy is a sub-category of the comedy genre).
19. At the time this article was published, the three highest paid actors in the U.S. were Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. According to Forbes magazine, Johnny Depp earned $92 million in a single year (June 06 - June 07).
20. As of 2008, the actor with the most Oscars / Academy Awards is Katharine Hepburn (1907 - 2003). The film legend won a total of four Oscars in the Best Actress category. In chronological order, the movies were Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).
21. As far as movies go, there is a three-way tie for the number of Oscars won. Ben-Hur (1959), Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), and Titanic (1997) have all won 11 Oscars each.

I hope you enjoyed perusing these movie facts as much as I enjoyed collecting and writing them. Movies are a big part of our culture, so it can be both entertaining and enlightening to learn some of the interesting things that happen behind the scenes.