Genre, Elements, Corollary

Genre Abstract: Over View of Comedy

There's a reason why comedies are popular not just with the movie going audience but with the studios as well. When we look at comedies, as a whole, and examine how comedies that received a theatrical release have performed in domestic box office (from 1978 to Present), we see that the average gross is $38.8 million dollars. (This figure reflects domestic box office totals across multiple subgenres and incorporates 366 films with budgets as low as $27 thousand and theatrical releases as limited as one theater.)

When we look closer at the comedy subgenres two emerge as relating most strongly to our picture; the high school comedy and the what if comedy. The high school comedies tend to have a lower budget than other comedies but still perform quite strongly. When we look at the 49 films released since 1980 that qualify as high school comedies, we see that on average they gross $30.2 million dollars during their domestic theatrical runs.

What If comedies are among the strongest performers of all the comedy films. The 31 films released theatrically since 1977 that qualify as what if comedies have averaged $56.8 million dollars in total domestic box office.

Elements Abstract: Over View of Time Travel in Movies

Time travel has been a popular element of fantasy and science fiction movies since HG Wells' Time Machine was first brought to the small screen in a British live teleplay in 1949. But it wasn't until decades later in the mid 1980's that time travel fully caught on in the American public consciousness with hits like Back to the Future and the Terminator. When we take a broad view of all movies released since 1980 with time travel as a major element we find that 39 films have enjoyed theatrical releases and averaged nearly $44 million dollars in domestic box office.

From these films we can pull the strongest corollary to Future Spence, a picture which performed very typically for time travel movies, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Released in 1989 Bill & Ted's grossed nearly $40.5 million dollars and qualifies, like Future Spence, as a comedy, a high school movie and a time travel movie. It also spawned a sequel (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) as well as an animated series (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures).