List of 1972 box office number-one films in the United States

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This is a list of films which placed number one at the weekly box office in the United States during 1972 per Variety. The data was based on grosses from 20 to 24 key cities and therefore, the gross quoted may not be the total that the film grossed nationally in the week.

† This implies the highest-grossing movie of the year.[nb 1]
# Week ending Film Gross Notes Ref
1January 5, 1972Diamonds Are Forever$1,551,359[1]
2January 12, 1972$1,717,800[2]
3January 19, 1972$963,450[3]
4January 26, 1972$834,600[4]
5February 2, 1972$660,962[5]
6February 9, 1972The French Connection$769,200The French Connection returned to number one in its 18th week on the chart[6]
7February 16, 1972$711,400[7]
8February 23, 1972Dirty Harry$601,500Dirty Harry reached number one in its ninth week on the chart[8]
9March 1, 1972The Last Picture Show$465,350The Last Picture Show reached number one in its 21st week on the chart[9]
10March 8, 1972The Hospital$623,380The Hospital reached number one in its twelfth week on the chart[10]
11March 15, 1972Dirty Harry$726,500Dirty Harry returned to number one in its twelfth week on the chart[11]
12March 22, 1972The Godfather †$568,800[12]
13March 29, 1972$2,698,500[13]
14April 5, 1972$2,495,100[14]
15April 12, 1972$2,348,100[15]
16April 19, 1972$1,978,300[16]
17April 26, 1972$1,775,800[17]
18May 3, 1972$1,574,200[18]
19May 10, 1972$1,313,600[19]
20May 17, 1972$1,164,700[20]
21May 24, 1972$3,188,000First film to gross over $3 million in a week in the cities sampled[21]
22May 31, 1972$2,976,600[22]
23June 7, 1972$2,691,200[23]
24June 14, 1972$1,814,100[24]
25June 21, 1972$1,633,600[25]
26June 28, 1972$1,687,800[26]
27July 5, 1972$1,398,541[27]
28July 12, 1972$1,112,900[28]
29July 19, 1972$1,811,400[29]
30July 26, 1972$1,316,800[30]
31August 2, 1972$1,275,435[31]
32August 9, 1972$895,500[32]
33August 16, 1972$719,200[33]
34August 23, 1972$610,810[34]
35August 30, 1972Butterflies Are Free$678,900Butterflies Are Free reached number one in its eighth week on the chart[35]
36September 6, 1972The Godfather †$1,029,900The Godfather returned to number one in its 25th week of release[36]
37September 13, 1972$668,000[37]
38September 20, 1972$456,150[38]
39September 27, 1972Super Fly$625,500Super Fly reached number one in its eighth week on the chart[39]
40October 4, 1972$457,050[40]
41October 11, 1972The New Centurions$652,550The New Centurions reached number one in its tenth week on the chart[41]
42October 18, 1972$429,950[41]
43October 25, 1972Slaughter$525,000Slaughter reached number one in its tenth week on the chart[42]
44November 1, 1972Deliverance$324,720Deliverance reached number one in its thirteenth week on the chart[43]
45November 8, 1972The Valachi Papers$749,000The Valachi Papers reached number one in its third week on the chart[44]
46November 15, 1972$740,300[45]
47November 22, 1972Lady Sings the Blues$868,300Lady Sings the Blues reached number one in its fifth week on the chart[46]
48November 29, 1972$924,250[47]
49December 6, 1972$581,600[48]
50December 13, 1972$468,245[49]
51December 20, 1972Man of La Mancha$365,996[50]
52December 27, 1972The Poseidon Adventure$777,700The Poseidon Adventure reached number one in its second week of release[51]

Highest-grossing films

Highest-grossing films of 1972 by calendar year gross based on the cities covered by Variety for the weekly charts.[nb 2][52][53]

RankTitleStudioPlaying weeks[nb 3]Gross ($)
1. The Godfather Paramount 2,176 43,170,087
2. Fiddler on the Roof United Artists 920 13,714,068
3. Cabaret Allied Artists 1,254 10,869,847
4. The French Connection 20th Century Fox 1,279 10,868,314
5. What's Up, Doc? Warner Bros. 733 8,714,177
6. A Clockwork Orange Warner Bros. 611 8,039,240
7. Diamonds Are Forever United Artists 683 7,526,861
8. The Hospital United Artists 953 6,878,594
9. The Last Picture Show Columbia 911 6,824,005
10. Dirty Harry Warner Bros. 750 6,392,199
11. Super Fly Warner Bros. 399 6,279,996
12. Butterflies Are Free Columbia 639 5,092,177
13. Lady Sings the Blues Paramount 435 4,874,806
14. Frenzy Universal 601 4,819,132
15. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) United Artists 533 4,718,382
16. Play It Again, Sam Paramount 442 4,700,092
17. The New Centurions Columbia 628 4,629,644
18. Nicholas and Alexandra Columbia 463 4,311,812
19. Deliverance Warner Bros. 265 4,048,073
20. The Valachi Papers Columbia 272 3,713,719
21. Fritz the Cat Cinemation 388 3,683,108
22. Midnight Cowboy United Artists 10 3,335,739
23. Shaft's Big Score Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 225 3,151,923
24. Buck and the Preacher Columbia 276 3,089,286
25. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes 20th Century Fox 375 2,638,754

See also

Notes

References

Chronology

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