101 Dalmatians beats Avatar at box office

While the movie world is trumpetting Avatar as the highest grossing movie of all time, many are missing the fact that it was actually beaten at the box office by a 1961 animated Disney classic about dalmations.

It also still lags behind movies like Star Wars, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Sting, The Sound of Music and Doctor Zhivago.

Of course it all depends on what you’re using to determine the biggest movies of all time. Avatar certainly is the highest grossing movie of all time. That means it’s taken the most money of any movie ever produced but it’s only at number 26 (so far) as far as tickets sold. I have no doubt that it will continue to climb but it may never even reach the top ten.

The Hollywood Reporter has pulished an article titled Why ‘Avatar’ is actually the 26th biggest movie. It lists the biggest movies by ticket sales rather than income.

There are so many factors that will have an effect on the statistics such as price of tickets over the years, the introduction of things like television, video, DVD, Blu-ray, internet and a range of other entertainment alternatives. I suppose it’s easier to simply quote the dollar amounts that a movie is making.

So which movie has put the most backsides on seats at the cinema? It’s still the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind, selling 202,044,600 tickets.

Just for the record, here are the top 20 movies in order of tickets sold.

1 “Gone With the Wind” (1939) 202,044,600
2 “Star Wars” (1977) 178,119,600
3 “The Sound of Music” (1965) 142,415,400
4 “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) 141,854,300
5 “The Ten Commandments” (1956) 131,000,000
6 “Titanic” (1997) 128,345,900
7 “Jaws” (1975) 128,078,800
8 “Doctor Zhivago” (1965) 124,135,500
9 “The Exorcist” (1973) 110,568,700
10 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) 109,000,000
11 “101 Dalmatians” (1961) 99,917,300
12 “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) 98,180,600
13 “Ben-Hur” (1959) 98,000,000
14 “Return of the Jedi” (1983) 94,059,400
15 “The Sting” (1973) 89,142,900
16 “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) 88,141,900
17 “Jurassic Park” (1993) 86,205,800
18 “The Graduate” (1967) 85,571,400
19 “Star Wars: Episode I” (1999) 84,825,800
20 “Fantasia” (1941) 83,043,500



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Talking to Adam Harvey

Adam Harvey - Both Sides NowGeelong born country music singer Adam Harvey has worked as a truckie and a goldminer. Since those days he’s certainly struck gold with a swag of golden guitar awards.

His amazing voice was on display for a wider audience when he took part in Channel 7’s It Takes Two in 2008.

Adam has achieved one of country music’s ultimate dreams by performing at the Grand Ole Opry, yet he’s still a very down to earth person. He even dropped in to his local primary school a couple of months back to sing Christmas carols.

He’s travelled west this week to take part in tomorrow’s Hope from Ashes Toodyay Benefit Concert and he joined me in the studio this morning as part of my programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM. It was a true delight to chat with Adam and thankfully he brought his guitar to perform standout acoustic versions of Stuck in the Middle and King of the Road.

You can listen to the interview by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

In October last year Adam released an album of duets titled Both Sides Now. It features artists such as Troy Cassar-Daley, Wendy Matthews, Kasey Chambers, Shannon Noll, David Campbell, Leo Sayer, Renee Geyer, Tommy Emmanuel and Guy Sebastian.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR290110_1041.mp3]

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Barking Mad

I noticed in The West Australian newspaper today that a survey of local councils shows that barking dogs, loud music and construction noise are overwhelmingly the biggest noise issues across the metropolitan area.

Residents have lodged thousands of complaints to councils about noisy nuisances which also include noisy air conditioners and even birds.

In the story Barking dogs top noise complaint list, The West says that the nature of noise complaints is different from area to area.

Ihave to admit that we have a ‘barker’ in our immediate neighbourhood. We could do without hearing him first thing in the morning when we’re trying to sleep. Loud music doesn’t seem to be so much of an issue for us, though my kids have asked me to turn my music down a few times.

What are the noise problems in your neighbourhood? Is there a local dog that’s a little too vocal? Do your neighbours crank up the stereo just a little bit too much?

The noise I’d like to complain about is the sound of my alarm clock when I’m enjoying some deep sleep but I’m not sure that the local council would be able to help me with that one.



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What’s on your bucket list?

Do you have a bucket list? Is there a list of things you’d like to achieve before you die?

The Canadian Press has published a story titled, US teacher, 100, gets overdue degree a day before dying, crossing last item off “bucket list”. It tells the story of Harriet Richardson Ames, a retired US teacher who turned 100 on the 2nd of January. Her dream was to earn her bachelor’s degree in education. She received the degree on Friday and passed away on Saturday.

Harriet’s daughter, Marjorie Carpenter, says getting the degree was the last item on her mother’s bucket list.

The work required for the degree had been completed some years ago but Harriet didn’t know if she’d earned enough credits towards the bachelor’s degree. With her health failing she had been living in hospice care. College officials drove the document to Harriet’s bedside on Friday.

Through the years, she had taken classes to earn credits for her degree. With her eyesight failing, she stopped after retiring in 1971 and was never sure if she had enough credits.

Her wish for a degree became known when a Keene State film professor interviewed her a couple of years ago for a piece on the college’s own centennial, which the school celebrated last year.

The school decided to research her coursework and see if it could award Ames her long-sought diploma. The offices of the provost, registrar and other departments worked quickly in the last month to determine, that indeed, it could. – Canadian Press

I’ve heard many stories of people hanging on to life until they achieve something or see a particular person one last time. It’s amazing how strong the human will can be. That being the case maybe I should add something to my bucket list. “Live long enough to celebrate my 100th birthday.”

I wonder if this story is also a warning to us to make sure that we’re always moving forward and working towards something. Do you think that having specific goals gives us the strength and a reason to face and embrace each new day?

So what’s on your bucket list? What do you want to do before leaving this earth?



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Digging up Da Vinci

ABC News has published a story titled, Mona Lisa mystery: Da Vinci to be exhumed.

The story reports that Leonardo Da Vinci’s remains are to be exhumed so that scientists can attempt to establish whether or not the Mona Lisa is a disguised self-portrait.

Scientists and historians from Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage have sought permission to open the artist’s tomb in France’s Loire Valley.

They hope to find his skull which they can use to reconstruct his face to discover whether his famed masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is in fact a self-portrait in disguise.

Really? Is it that important that we need to dig up the man’s bones? Is it really necessary to spend money on satisfying the curiousity of scientists?

The identity of the woman portrayed in the Mona Lisa has been a mystery for so many years and while it would be interesting to know the truth, isn’t this just taking things too far?



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