Meet Mr. Box Office

Paul Dergarabedian Crunches The Numbers To Decide Who Wins The Box Office Title

(CBS)  Paul Dergarabedian is the brains and the voice of the Hollywood horse race, as CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith reports.

Sunday is not a day of rest for Dergarabedian – it can't be when all of America is waiting for the results of the weekend's movie ticket sales.

While each studio tallies up its own sales, it's Dergarabedian, working out of this small, white box-of-an-office in Encino, who compares the numbers and figures out the week's winner.

"It can be stressful – I mean people are counting on these numbers especially the press people," the Media By Numbers chief says.

A line from one of Dergarabedian's favorite movies this summer – Ratatouille – sums up his whole philosophy: "But I've always believed with hard work and little bit of luck it's only a matter of time before I'm discovered."

Growing up, Dergarabedian wanted to make films, but he realized he'd inherited a gift for number crunching from his father, a rocket scientist.

"At some point I realized, 'hey, I'm going to go in the business side and track this stuff because I can't actually make the product, I'm going to track the product'," he says. "But I never lost my love for film and my complete admiration for filmmakers."

His calculations can have a major effect on Hollywood's fortunes.

"When movie-goers see that records are being broken, people going to a movie in record numbers," Dergarabedian says. "It instills in them that want to see factor, they want to be a part of that in crowd."

But Dergarabedian isn't all business. He's been known to dabble in esoteric numbers – like figuring out the highest grossing film in the U.S. of all time.

Adjust ticket prices for inflation and "Gone With The Wind" would have made "somewhere north of a billion dollars," he says.

Try topping that Harry Potter.

[avigil2]

He is a nice guy. I had the pleasure of meeting him once, asking for a job back when his business was called Exhibitor Relations. The new name is Media by Numbers.

[buster1214]

Very interesting guy. Loved the story. What is the name of his business?