Box Office Mojo and The Numbers sometimes differ because they collect and revise theater ticket reports on different schedules and rules. Both are public box-office trackers. They compile distributor and theater reports into reported grosses, so timing and counting choices change the displayed total.
Neither total is false in most cases. The gap usually reflects estimates, corrections, territory coverage, or how re-releases get counted. Knowing which choice caused the gap helps you pick the right figure to quote.
Table of Contents
- What each site is counting
- Why weekend figures shift after Monday
- Why worldwide totals rarely match
- Which figure should you use?
What each site is counting
A box-office gross is reported ticket revenue, not profit or tickets sold. Trackers build domestic, international, and worldwide totals from separate reports. Domestic usually means the United States and Canada. International covers other reported territories. Each site sets its own rules for what counts in each bucket. One may hold a territory total until a distributor confirms it.
The other may post an earlier trade report and revise it later. Those normal editorial choices create short-term mismatches. Re-releases and special engagements add another split. One tracker may fold a reissue back into the original lifetime gross. The other may keep it as a separate release entry. Readers comparing lifetime totals should check whether reissue money is included.
Why weekend figures shift after Monday
Weekend figures often start as estimates. Studios project Sunday sales before theaters close out the day. Trackers publish those projections so readers get a fast ranking. Actual theater counts arrive later and replace the estimate. A small shift can change the order of close releases.
Daily pages may update faster than summary pages, so two pages can disagree for a short time. Holiday Mondays and preview nights cause added confusion. Some charts count Thursday previews inside the weekend. Others show previews apart from the three-day frame. Check the labels for previews, estimates, and actuals before quoting a record.
Why worldwide totals rarely match
Worldwide means domestic plus reported international, but international reporting is uneven. Some markets report quickly and revise often. Others report slowly, in local currency, or only through the distributor. Currency conversion and reporting cutoffs widen the gap. Trackers may convert on different days or round at different stages.
A territory added by one site on Friday may not appear on the other until the next weekly update. Territory scope also matters. One total may include a market the other still lists as unreported. Long-running films can therefore sit apart by a thin margin for weeks. The totals often move closer once late markets report and corrections settle.
Which figure should you use?
Match the figure to the question you want to answer. Use opening-weekend actuals for records, not Sunday estimates. Use lifetime domestic for a film's home-market run.
Use worldwide only when you have checked the territory list. For careful work, cite both trackers when they disagree and name the likely cause. A note such as "higher because it includes the reissue" helps readers more than picking the larger number. Keep the category fixed if you track a film over time.
- Compare the same category: estimate to estimate, actual to actual.
- Check whether previews and reissues are included.
- Note the update time and whether territories are marked complete.
- Quote the category, site, and access point, such as weekend actuals.