The Hangover Only Makes 13th Top Gambling Movie

What makes a good gambling movie? This is perhaps a question that doesn’t just have one answer and indeed the best ones have a subtle combination of characteristics including an enticing plot and great cast that put them in that category.

While this isn’t necessarily a standalone genre in the movie world, there is no doubt though that there are many movies out there that have gambling as a main theme.

There is clearly something about them that makes them attractive viewing for the audience and it is the case from the perspective of the most popular ones that they have a compelling storyline.

However, in what is perhaps a, ah, ’hangover effect’, it has been revealed that the 2009 release The Hangover only ranked 13th in a study of the top gambling movies by leading gambling resource, NewCasinoSites. This took statistics and data from established sources and calculated an overall percentage which was able to rank the top 21 gambling movies of all time.

Despite featuring star turn, Bradley Cooper the movie did not perform as well as some might expect, in regards to the gambling theme and was arguably more known for its comedic, almost slapstick style.

A movie that flattered to deceive or tough competition?

With 77.50 percent of the overall vote, it would be remiss to label The Hangover as a failure; afterall, two further movies followed which means that it clearly had a good amount of success at the box office.

To say that gambling wasn’t necessarily the main theme of the movie as well, the overall score could be deemed as creditable.

Essentially though, this is a comedy and what a lot of the higher ranking gambling movies have is a number of different elements combined, such as action, comedy, grit and even some romance, which make them arguably more rounded gambling movies. Some of them even have an all-star cast which also helps and could go a long way to explaining why The Hangover only came in at 13th place.

Also, it finished 26 percentage points higher than the movie which came last in the study, which was a gripping portrayal of a true story, solely about gambling (21), starring Kevin Spacey, which is definitely quite impressive.

The Statistics clearly don’t lie

As far as how The Hangover performed, in the opening weekend of its release in July 2009, it grossed just shy of $45 million at the box office, which means that it was definitely eagerly anticipated, while the complete series managed figures of nearly $1.5 billion. Not a bad return for a budget of $218 million.

These numbers without a doubt contribute to being able to attract the requisite talent for the film itself to make sure that every element of the movie was as good as it could be. When you factor this in, 13th place in the study about gambling flicks does not seem that bad as well, when you consider the gulf in percentages.

Indeed, it was only three percentage points off making the top five and 9.5 percent away from first placed Casino Royale.