This week The Hangover became the all time top R-Rated comedy in terms of domestic box office. It also currently ranked as the #57 domestic grossing movie of all time. This is a big achievement, since comedies don’t normally attract large audiences. Perhaps moviegoers simply prefer to pay $10 to see an big-budget action movie or a movie with lauded Hollywood actors. In any case the ticket sales speak for themselves. Out of the top 20 domestic grossers of all time, none are comedies. Out of the current top 100 domestic grossers of all time, not including any animated movies, only are nine comedies:

1. Meet The Fockers (#39)
2. Bruce Almighty (#54)
3. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (#57)
4. The Hangover (#58)
5. Beverly Hills Cop (#60)
6. Mrs. Doubtfire (#72)
7. The Wedding Crashers (#85)
8. Austin Powers in Goldmember (#82)
9. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (#88)

Out of this list of top comedy performers, only three are R-rated: The Hangover, Beverly Hills Cop and The Wedding Crashers- an R-rating inherently limits the potential audience of any title. Given this ratings barrier and the genre’s historical performance, top-rated R comedies can almost be considered overachieving misfits.

Note that although The Hangover has surpassed Beverly Hills Cop in terms of gross revenues, it has yet to reach half of the latter’s ticket sales. The Hangover has had the benefit of higher ticket prices, Beverly Hills Cop had the benefit of a longer theatrical run.

(Side note: See how Scary Movie was the strongest opener, but lost steam quicker than others? This fad effect is typical of movies targeted at teens.)

Beverly Hills Cop was in theaters for over 33 weeks, selling almost 70 million tickets. Given today’s ticket prices, to surpass this The Hangover would have to gross just over $500 million; this is highly improbable given that the top R-rated grosser, The Passion of The Christ, has sold only $320 million.

The difficulty in comparing these two titles reflects how much the movie industry has changed. In 1984, when Beverly Hills Cop was released, there were less entertainment alternatives, theatrical release windows were much longer, and less consumers opted to wait for titles to be released on home video. Still, the 69.9 million tickets that Beverly Hills Cop sold is an undeniable achievement of how many people saw the movie and a more true comparison of box office performance. More impressive still would be to gauge the amount of tickets sold as a percentage of the population, which was drastically lower 15 years ago.

In any case both movies are very funny. Go watch The Hangover if you haven’t already. You won’t regret it.