Errol Flynn Movies-Best to Worst-With Box Office Results-Reviews-Awards
Errol Flynn has 63 acting credits. This hub will look at 50 of his movies. The other 13 acting credits are either bit parts or tv parts and are not included. There will be a Top Ten Box Office table, a Top Ten Critic and Audience table and a Cogerson Movie Score table that will rank all 50 of his movies from Best(Robin Hood) to Worst (Cuban Rebel Girls). And at the end there will be 10 interesting facts about Errol Flynn.
Special thanks to Bruce Rogers!
— David DeWitt
Inga
October 20, 2012 at 5:43 am
The ratings are interesting. I was wondering where the author got the fan rating from and how many fans were asked. Also, I think if the European box office were considered, the results would probably be quite different…
Cogerson
October 21, 2012 at 12:01 am
Hey Inga….thanks for reading my Errol Flynn hub. They way I calculate the critic/audience rating is by looking at IMDB, RottenTomatoes.com…, Leonard Maltin’s movie reviews, VideoHound reviews, and TV Guide Video and Movie reviews. Normally(sometimes not all older movies are listed)…IMDB gets 35% of the score…..RottenTomatoes gets 35% of the score…with their audience score getting 17.5% and their critic score gettint 17.5% as well…..the rest get 10% each….so a movie could possibly get 100%. As the amount of people voting…for Robin Hood the numbers are:
IMDB….28,974 goers
Rotten Tomatoes….44 professional critics and 31,907 voters from movie goers.
The fact that more people vote at these two places is why the get a bigger % of the pie. Whereas the people at Leonard Maltin, Video Hound and TV Guide are one or two people at the most…so their % is lower.
For current movies…I include Fandango and Roger Ebert in the equation.
Sadly I have not been able to secure the international numbers for most of Flynn’s movies….of the major studios back then Warner Brothers is my achilles’ heel….I have tons of info on MGM, RKO, and many other studios but not Warner’s….but I am always looking for more information.
Hope that answers some of your questions. I have to ask…..how do the rankings look to you? I have only seen 18 of his movies so I can not be 100% sure that the rankings are on target or way off target.
Inga
October 21, 2012 at 9:36 am
Thank you for explaining!
As for how the ratings look for me… my ranking would be totally different, I think every fan’s would be due to different tastes etc. We discussed this a while back here, if you have time and are interested, you could search the site for the keyword “favorite movie” I think. The problem I see is that not everybody can vote at imdb, if I’m not mistaken? You have to register first and even pay? But all in all, I think that you ranking mirrors the opinion of most US movie goers. Don Juan, for example, would be a much bigger success in Europe, but there don’t seem to be statistics available.
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
October 20, 2012 at 6:33 am
I agree Inga, the ratings are interesting and wondering how everything was compiled.
Cogerson
October 21, 2012 at 12:22 am
Hey Mary Ann…thanks for reading my hub on Errol Flynn….I explained the audience/rating on the other comment. As for the Cogerson Movie Score…..it takes box office results, critic and audience reviews, and award recognition and puts them altogether.
Box Office = 40% of score.
Critic/Audience = 35% of score
Awards and nominations = 25% of score
For Robin Hood here is the breakdwon
Box Office was $166.30 million(ceiling for top score is 200 million)…so it got 33.36 points
Critic/Audience Rating was 86%….86% of 35 points = 30.10 points
Awards = got 6.67 points for it’s 4 Oscar noms and 3 Oscar wins as well as some points for an Oscar Best Picture….for a grand total out of 70.13…..his personal score would have been higher if his performance would have gotten an Oscar nomination.
I have ranked over 7,500 movies this way….and The Adventures of Robin Hood comes in at #152….where his Cuban Rebel Girls comes in at #7207.
I hope that helps…basically I collect all of the statistics a movie generates….put them into my movie database…..the computer spits out a score…normally the best of someone’s career surfaces near the top.
Cogerson
October 21, 2012 at 12:26 am
Thanks to everybody that checked out my Errol Flynn hub….it is greatly appreciated.
ILIKEFLYNN
October 21, 2012 at 2:28 am
Yes, I found the ratings interesting.
Two things though. In the trivia section you state “the Case of the Curious Bride” is the first ever “Perry Mason” movie. I believe this is incorrect. I believe 1934’s “The Case of the Howling Dog” is.
Also while not a blockbuster hit. “the Son of Captain Blood” was not a failure. Although not doing so well in the USA, the movie fared better in Europe where it did very well!– A. R.
Cogerson
October 21, 2012 at 3:03 am
Hey ILIKEFLYNN….you are 100% correct that Case of the Curious Bridge was the first Perry Mason….which is why I put “was one of the first Perry Mason movies”….as it was 2nd of 7 Perry Mason movies produced from 1934 to 1940….hard to believe that it took Hollywood 74 years to make the 8th one….with Robert Downey, Jr.
I did see that The Son of Captain Blood performed well in Spain….but here in the states in did not even crack 250,00 in rentals in 1964….it took 2 years to get released here for some reason….but I have gone back and changed the wording in that possibly interesting fact….thanks for the input.
ILIKEFLYNN
October 21, 2012 at 9:05 pm
Yes! Looking back at your wording, you did say “one of the first “Perry Mason” films.”
Yes and thank you for noting that “Son of Captain Blood” did do well in Europe, especially Spain, but according to author, Jeffrey Meyers, Sean made a few (seven in total) very profitable movies, before heading out to South Vietnam, except as I noted before they were profitable in Europe; not so much in the US. (He made his last film while on respite from duty in Vietnam.)
Thank you for your “hub” The statistics are most interesting indeed!–A. R.
ILIKEFLYNN
October 21, 2012 at 11:58 pm
Yes, to answer your question as to why it took two years for ” the Son of Captain Blood” to premiere in the US,we need to backtrack a little. First, Harry Joe Brown one of the producers of the film, first approached Sean about starring in movies after meeting him at Errol’s funeral. The project did not begin filming in Italy and Spain until late, 1961. As a European co-production, it premiered in Italy, Spain, France and West Germany in 1962, where it did well. The English version premiered in Great Britain in 1963 where according to reports I have read also did well.
In the US tastes were changing and a pirate film may not have been a popular release. While in England the film was released by Warner-Pathe, in the US, Mr. Brown probably had trouble finding a distributor, when Paramount Pictures agreed to release the film in 1964 but only as the bottom half of a double bill with the Jerry Lewis film, “The Patsy.” In the late fifties and early sixties, Jerry Lewis films were very popular. But by 1964 his films’ popularity was beginning to wane. So Sean’s film’s poor showing in the US could be attributed to many things,
BTW, when you say it did not crack 250..00 in rentals what do you mean. Is this a way of counting how many theaters showed the film or a way of counting the profits? Also did you mean to say $250,000,instead?
Also would it be possible to let us know where you got your statistics? Especially when it is so obvious that you put in a lot of time and labor into your hub!–A. R.
Cogerson
October 22, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Hey InLikeFlynn…..thanks for the information on the delayed release of Son of Captain Blood….now that is an interesting double bill….a Jerry Lewis and a pirate movie….The Pirate Patsy….or The Patsy Pirate…lol.
I get most of my box office information from old Variety magazines….they report the box office numbers in rentals which is basically the amount of money the studio gets back from the theaters versus the box office total that gets reported today.
With the information you have provided about the double bill….I just checked my Variety magazine for January 6th 1965…page 39…..I see that The Patsy was the 38th biggest hit of 1964….with rentals of 2,250,000 which translates to about 5 million in box office gross in 1964 and about 43.5 million in 2012 dollars….I am not sure how they split the difference in movies that get double billed….but I think more people saw Son of Captain Blood than I original thought….and I will change the wording of that fact……thanks for all the information….as I try to continue to make my hub as accurate as possible.
Cogerson
October 22, 2012 at 1:19 pm
FYI….you might find this interesting as well……back during Flynn’s movie days….box office reporting was very very weak and not very accurate. Some of the main accountants of the studios kept ledgers that reported how much a movie cost, made in North America and overseas. profit loss and profit margin. I have been able to get the Eddie Mannix ledgers from MGM and the CJ Tevlin ledgers from RKO….but sadly I have not found a copy of William Schaefer’s Warner Brothers ledgers…which should have most of Flynn’s career.
I have found some summarys of the ledger…which gives me the following information.
Errol Flynn appeared in 12 Warner Brothers films from 1931/32 to 1938/39…..the average cost of those 12 films was 989,200 dollars with an aggregate rate of return of 23.8%. ….That would translate in 2012 dollars to roughly each film would have a 30 million dollar budget and would return about 88 million dollar box office.
During that time frame his movies had the third highest average cost of all the Warner Brother stars….only Claude Rains and Oliva de Havilland movies cost more to make.
If interested I do have a breakdown of his movies during this time frame that breaks down his movies by high budget movies and low budget movies.
Inga
October 22, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Yes, this would be very interesting!
Cogerson
October 22, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Hey Inga….since you said you were interested…..when doing the research on Errol Flynn for my hub I was able to locate worldwide box office on 6 of his movies….thanks to the William Schaefer Ledgers…..but 6 was not enough to included in the hub ….so until right now I had no place to put this information.
Captain Blood…..North America Box Office 87.5 million in 2012 dollars…..International Box Office 103.50 million in 2012 dollars …for a grand total of 185.00 million.
Charge of Light Bridage….North America 104.30 million International 111.70 million for a grand total of 216.00 million
Prince and Pauper….North America 70.90 million International 45.60 million…total of 116.50 million
Robin Hood….North America 166.30 million International 136.10 million….total of 302.40 million
Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex…..North America 61.10 million…International 42.40 million….total of 103.50 million
Sea Hawk….North America 104.30 million International 66.80 million….total of 171.10 million
I think that depletes the vault of unused Errol Flynn information….lol.
Inga
October 22, 2012 at 7:18 pm
LOL…. thank you very much. Erm… sorry to ask AGAIN… could you specify what “international” is?
Cogerson
October 22, 2012 at 9:14 pm
No problem…..North America would include the box office totals of the United States and Canada….International would represent the rest of the world and its box office total….so for Robin Hood it earned 166 million in the US and Canada….and 136.10 everywhere else in the world….so the final number is total worldwide box office…and in Robin Hood’s case over 300 million.
Inga
October 23, 2012 at 12:21 pm
No reply buttons again… It’s strange that sometimes the US and Canada numbers ONLY are almost as high as the international numbers. That’s what irritated me – so I was wondering what international meant? Are you sure that it’s really all countries in the world? Hard to imagine somehow…
ILIKEFLYNN
October 22, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Wow, thank you, Cogerson! This has proven most interesting. So it seems that international profits are very important! I know that it is a fact that sometimes a movie will do better internationally, than in the domestic North America. And thank you to this blog and people like Inga who remind us of the international appeal of a star like, Errol Flynn!
BTW, I like your “alternate reality” movie titles! Here is one I’d like to see, “Patsy, the Son of Captain Blood”! Wait a minute I think that movie was already made starring Johnny Depp! –lol
Oh, and I like the new wording, Also I hate to be a nudge, but “Captain Blood” is 1935, not 1936.
Again thank you for the information you have provided. I will be sure to look up the other stars you have given hub pages to.–A. R.
ILIKEFLYNN
November 11, 2012 at 4:42 am
Hi, Inga! In this case “International” would most likely mean those markets outside of North America that were still available for rental sales from the US. As the aforementioned figures are for years leading up to US involvement in WW II, the number of countries outside the US available as markets for those films would be few, which might explain why international box office is so close to North American box office. As you yourself well know, many of Errol’s movies did not get release in some European markets until after the war; not to mention Asian markets.–A. R.
Inga
November 11, 2012 at 6:23 pm
You’re right, A.R. – the question is if these late releases are also included in the statistics?
ILIKEFLYNN
November 12, 2012 at 5:18 am
I would imagine that these statistics do not include later releases or include box office for reissues in the US, for that matter, but only for the initial year of release.–A. R.
Cogerson
March 15, 2013 at 12:59 am
A friend of mine did another tribute to the film career of Flynn on HubPages as well….worth checking out.
stevelensman.hubpages.com…