Hits and Miss-es
The financial returns of the action heroine

What's the most popular action heroine movie of all time? There is no simple answer to this question, because there are many different ways to measure it. Here, we take a look at the numbers in three areas: straight box-office returns, box-office returns adjusted to take inflation in ticket costs into account, and video-rentals. All the numbers are accurate at September, 2003.

Box-office

This is what people most often think of, though it's only a fraction of the story. The top twenty action heroine films are given below, but the figures don't take things like budget and advertising costs into account, though these would undeniably impact the final profitability, and whether or not a film could be considered a "success".

Title	Box Office ($m)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines	137.5
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	131.2
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	128.1
Charlie's Angels	125.3
Mulan	120.6
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	100.7
Aliens	85.2
Alien	78.9
Kill Bill, Volume 1	70.1
Kill Bill, Volume 2	66.2
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life	65.7
Alien 3	55.5
Underworld	52.0
Resident Evil: Apocalypse	51.2
G.I. Jane	48.2
Alien Resurrection	47.8
Thelma & Louise	45.4
Blue Crush	40.4
Catwoman	40.2
Resident Evil	40.1 --
Enough	40.0
The Long Kiss Goodnight	33.4
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	32.1

Adjusted box-office

You can't do a direct comparison between the box-office receipts for films released in different years - obviously, ticket prices were lower in previous years. However, given information on those costs, you can convert returns from the past into 2002 dollars. This is what I've done with the figures below, to get numbers which can stand side-by-side.

Title	Adj. BO ($m)
Alien	185.4
Mulan	149.1
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	137.8
Charlie's Angels	134.8
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	134.7
Aliens	133.1
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines	132.3
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	96.9
Alien 3	77.5
Kill Bill, Volume 1	67.2
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life	63.2
Thelma & Louise	62.5
G.I. Jane	60.9
Alien Resurrection	60.4
Underworld	49.9
The Long Kiss Goodnight	43.9
Point of No Return	42.1
Blue Crush	40.4
Resident Evil	40.1
Enough	40.0
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	32.9

Rental

These days, it's common for a film to make more money once its left the cinema: between cable, pay-per-view, rentals, sales and TV screening, theatre tickets fall short of telling the whole story. The fine Box Office Prophets site contains a database listing the top video rental titles - it's only from 1998 on, but still contains a number of surprises. Who'd have thought that Crouching Tiger would be more popular than Pearl Harbor, or Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever a better renter than Fight Club?

Title	Rentals ($m)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	89.58
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	62.80
Charlie's Angels	62.32
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life	52.60
Kill Bill, Volume 1	51.80
Enough	50.30
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines	50.30
Mulan	48.03
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttles	46.70
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever	46.28
Blue Crush	46.04
Underworld	45.70
Resident Evil	41.60
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	32.90
The Messenger	26.00
Eight Legged Freaks	23.08
Femme Fatale	19.66
Sugar and Spice	16.30
Spirited Away	7.56
Supercop 2	7.20

The bombs

Not every action heroine movie succeeds. Indeed, some of the biggest failures of all time have been part of the genre. Here are a few contenders, vying for the title of most ferocious flop.

Title	Box Office ($m)	Adj. BO ($m)	Est. Budget ($m)	Loss ($m)
Barb Wire	3.8	4.8	18	13.2
Tank Girl	3.9	5.3	25	21.1
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever	14.3	14.3	70	55.7
Cut-Throat Island	9.9	13.2	92	82.1
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	32.1	32.9	137	104.9

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