Take aim: record holders to beat

IT’S the lifeblood of entertainment, the goal of industry players and wannabes alike. No, not a driving desire to make it in the business, to be discovered, to land the perfect role. The real Hollywood dream is to open big. Preferably, shattering-all-records big. Nowhere was that made more apparent than on HBO’s Hollywood send-up “Entourage,” as the Vince Chase team celebrated the opening numbers for his star turn in “Aquaman.” The goal wasn’t just to do well, it was to unseat the reigning opening weekend box office king, “Spider-Man.” But why stop at opening weekend? Why not shoot for topping the all-time record holders? Here’s a look at a few box office bests worth setting sights on:

*

MOVIES

“Entourage” got it right. The best opening weekend is 2002’s “Spider-Man” with a $114.8-million three-day take. But the best domestic gross of all time is “Titanic” with $600.7 million since its 1997 release.

What does this mean?

“Spider-Man’s” success “was a monumental achievement,” says Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking company Exhibitor Relations. “Till then, a $50-million weekend was pretty good; $100 million was almost unfathomable. It was a watershed event. There still have been only five films to open over $100 million for a three-day weekend.”

Is the record breakable?

“We’ve come close enough that it may be possible,” Dergarabedian says. “It’s sort of like ‘Titanic’s’ domestic gross, it’s one of those achievements that’s going to be really tough to beat. It may fall someday, but it may take increased ticket prices to push it over that level. It’s a big deal.”

**

TELEVISION

The most-watched telecast of all time remains the finale of CBS’ “MASH” on Feb. 28, 1983, which averaged 106 million viewers.

Is the record breakable? “With the fragmentation of the TV audience, it would be very difficult to get a show as big as ‘MASH’ these days,” says Tom Bierbaum, NBC’s vice president of ratings and program information.

**

MUSIC

The highest-grossing North American concert tour is the Rolling Stones’ “A Bigger Bang,” collecting $162 million in 2005 at the box office and toppling the record held for a decade by -- the Rolling Stones, with their 1994 tour total of $121.2 million. The top-selling album in the U.S. is the Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits -- 1971-1975,” released in 1976, with certified sales of 29 million copies. No. 2 is Michael Jackson’s 1982 release, “Thriller,” at 27 million copies.

What does that mean?

“From a business point of view, it’s more bragging rights than being able to negotiate better terms in their next contract deal,” says Geoff Mayfield, senior analyst at Billboard magazine, of the Eagles’ achievement. “It doesn’t mean they’ll replicate that with their next album.”

Is the record breakable?

“I don’t see any real contenders,” Mayfield says, pointing out that the Eagles anthology works on many levels as it covers so many years: selling to those just discovering the band, to those who never bought a particular track when they first heard it, and to those nostalgic for the time in their lives when the songs originated. Mayfield did note that Shania Twain, as the youngest performer among those whose albums have sold 20 million copies, could conceivably go on to challenge the record.

**

THEATER

The longest-running Broadway show is “The Phantom of the Opera,” which opened in 1988 and went on to more than 7,660 performances and counting (and a box office total of $1.9 billion in the U.S., including touring productions).

What does that mean?

“We certainly noticed an uptick in business following the record breaking [in January] and all the publicity that was generated in conjunction with it but, at the time, we were doing virtual sellout business anyway,” spokesman Marc Thibodeau says.

Is the record breakable?

“It’s impossible to know,” says Howard Sherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, the founding organization of the Tony Awards. “With every successive generation we get a new record-setter. In the 1970s, a special Tony was awarded for ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ setting the all-time record with something in the neighborhood of 3,000 performances. What’s changed on Broadway is the tourist audience and international audience ... you have a larger body to draw on and sustain a show in a way long-runners of 30 years ago didn’t have.”

*

Staff writers Mike Boehm, Scott Collins, Randy Lewis and Elena Howe contributed to this report.