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The LAT's Michael Hiltzik isn't swallowing Universal's publicity load about the $600 million figure that's been attached to Deep Throat's all-time gross, a number recently splashed around to promote their doc Inside Deep Throat. It's shocking to learn that mobsters, accountants from the dawn of the adult film industry, and studio publicity departments might not use "best practices" in regards to accurately reporting financial information:

Leaving aside that "Deep Throat" was financed by mobsters and that therefore any figures are suspect, logic and arithmetic alone are enough to tell you that its box-office gross could not remotely have approached $600 million.[...]

The No. 1 mainstream movie of the 1970s, by the way, was "Star Wars." To date, its domestic theatrical gross is $461 million. You want to tell me that "Deep Throat" has sold more tickets than "Star Wars"?

Today Deep Throat wouldn't stand a chance against Star Wars, especially since George Lucas shrewdly added that new scene of Obi Wan convincing Princess Leia that tickling the clitoris at the back of her throat with his lightsaber is the only way to stop the Empire.