What was the first movie to spend 10 consecutive weeks at number one?
A popular film can infect every crevice of pop culture for months, or even years, as recently demonstrated by mega blockbusters like Barbie and Wicked, both of which spawned endless internet chatter and fierce critical debate.
Even middle-aged dads were weighing in on whether Barbie was worth watching, while non-musical fans were seeing what the fuss was with this particularly flat-looking Wizard of Oz spin-off.
A film as big and as unforgettable that gets everyone talking only comes around every so often, think Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Titanic, The Lord of the Rings, which all did so well at the box office that new records were set and their total grosses probably could’ve cured world hunger and solved homelessness.
Box-office stats tell us a lot about what people are interested in watching during certain moments in history, and there was once a time when a certain movie became the first to sit at the top spot of the United States’ box-office survey (conducted by Variety) for ten weeks in a row, meaning that for over two months, the same movie was raking in more ticket sales than any other, asserting itself as a true cultural and cinematic behemoth.
The first movie to spend 10 straight weeks at number one
Let’s go back to 1965, when the record was first established, starting in the early days of August, when The Sound of Music, which was released in March, returned to the number-one spot after first getting there first on April 7th. Following Goldfinger’s six-week domination, which came before My Fair Lady’s seven-week number one spot run, The Sound of Music entered the chart with a power that wasn’t going to be easily usurped.
The Robert Wise film is a charming tale of a governess who marries Captain Georg von Trapp, the father of the children she teaches, set against the backdrop of proliferating Nazism during late ‘30s Austria. Beloved for hits like ‘Maria’, ‘My Favourite Things’, and ‘Do-Re-Mi’, the movie was anchored by Julie Andrews’ incredible performance, who’d already earned acclaim the previous decade for her tenure as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady onstage.
Impressing everyone so with her performance that she won an Oscar for ‘Best Actress’, becoming an icon just like that. The movie had been number one for two weeks in April before the cinematic adaptation of My Fair Lady, with Audrey Hepburn as Eliza, knocked it off its throne, but, just before the month was up, The Sound of Music returned, remaining at number one in the box-office charts for eight weeks straight.
A few other films had their brief time to shine, like The Yellow Rolls-Royce and What’s New Pussycat?, before the musical staged a comeback to number one for a week in July, then was temporarily kicked from the spot by The Sandpiper for two weeks, before returning with even more of a vengeance. For ten weeks uninterrupted, it stayed at the top of the charts, followed by a brief two-week interlude in the form of The Great Race, before it was back again at number one.
It seemed like people couldn’t get enough of Andrews frolicking around the hills and telling us how alive they were, and while it stayed at the pinnacle for eight more weeks, by that point, it seemed like people were starting to tire of it. Everyone needed a bit of action now, something with a bit of sex appeal, so just a few days before the year’s end, the James Bond vehicle Thunderball, with Sean Connery as the 007 agent, finally toppled the hit musical from its dazzling throne.
The Sound of Music managed to hit number one on and off over the next year, but its consecutive reign was over. Interestingly enough, the film wasn’t even the highest-grossing movie of 1965, a title which went to 1964’s Mary Poppins, also starring Andrews.
