I think there are several differences.

For one thing, a single brand of beer is not likely to gross $2 million over a single weekend. (Well, maybe Super Bowl weekend, but you get the idea!)

For another, hearing the box office total for a movie you might want to go see provides some validation - if it made that much money, it might be worth going to a theatre to see it. If so many others liked it, goes the logic, I probably will, too. 

It's also a business story, with a very quick return on investment that may predict whether it was a good place for producers and backers to put up all that money. 

And finally, unlike beer, it involves showbiz - which by its very nature is flashy and attention getting and involves well known stars. For better or worse, that interests people. And if it interests people, it's newsworthy.

No, I wouldn't say that. You may be over-thinking the importance of a box office list.

It's what they call a kicker type story - something light or interesting to end a newscast that people are curious about, but wouldn't even notice if it weren't reported at all. Many newscasts employ a kicker to blunt what always seems to be an endless litany of bad news and it's a positive way to end a newscast, usually right before a few sports scores or weather. 

Unless you have an investment in a movie studio or theatre, it's pretty much fluff. But for most people, interesting fluff. 

Not sure why this is such an issue for you, but there's a vast difference between the oil industry and the entertainment business. People are interested in the latter, and it will always be reported on when a movie like the latest "Avatar" sequel opens big. I suppose the answer for someone who doesn't like the reporting on this is simply to change the station. 

What an outrage!  It would be like having a list in the New York Times of the top selling books or spending 4 hours every weekend counting down the top 40 songs of the week.  No one cares!

turkeytop wrote:

Except NYT doesn't try to present the book list as news on the front page. It's in  a special section of the paper devoted to arts and books.

The top 40 songs aren't listed in the news {at least not yet). They are part of a program listened to only people who care about that.

And in neither case do they tell us how much money the book or the song made over the weekend.
 

Isn't a news kicker also relegated to the end of a news cast, thus making it akin to the back pages of a paper?

OK everyone, you all win, I see I'm outnumbered here LOL

For the past two months, we've been at our place here in Florida. My chief source of news down here is NPR. And they've started doing it too. Except they don't wait for Monday morning. They  start on Sunday night.

At least with NPR I can show my displeasure by reducing the amount of my contribution this year,

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