The weekend box office estimates are in, and it looks like the 3D rerelease of Episode I came in with a respectable $23M. Fox isn’t saying anything about further Star Wars 3D rerelease plans yet, but I’d bet that we’ll be seeing Attack of the Clones this time next year.
As predicted, The Vow and the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds thriller Safe House were the top movies this weekend with $41.7M and $39.3M respectively. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island came in #3 with $27.6M. Overall, theaters took in $190M this weekend, an almost 30% increase over this time last year.
That’s a pretty good number. I did my part! I was pleasantly surprised at how many people I saw at the 1pm Sunday showing that I went to. At least 80% of the seats were full. Not bad for that time of day.
There were good crowds at both showings I went to. Color me surprised.
Now, will AOTC kill it off? I don’t know many who are terribly excited about it.
I think AOTC could be even better. Much more action that could work very well. And who doesn’t want to see Anakin riding one of those big tick-looking cow things in the meadow in 3D? That’s gold right there.
For context:
In January of 1997, the A New Hope Special Edition re-release debuted with $35.9M and ended a 14-week run with $138M.
In May of 1999, The Phantom Menace started its original run with $64.8M and ended 37 weeks later with $431M in earnings.
For opening weekend, TPM sits between The Lion King ($30.2 million) and Beauty and the Beast ($17.8 million) among recent 3D re-releases.
It did sell fewer tickets than any of the 1997 Star Wars re-releases, and that’s expected with the movie’s reputation and home video availability, particularly since it was just released on Blu-Ray.
The Phantom Menace moved up from seventh to fifth place on the all-time charts: The Phantom Menace now sits at $454.1 million total, and is expected to surpass A New Hope’s $461 million by next weekend to take first place among all Star Wars movies.