AOTC: $27 million Opening Day

[Super Wookiee]

From BoxOffice Mojo

"HOLLYWOOD (Box Office Mojo) - Maybe George Lucas' concentration of Midi-chlorians was somehow diluted, because if early estimates hold true, the Force wasn't fully with Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones on opening day.

Though figures are still being finalized, Attack of the Clones appears to have grossed in the vicinity of $27 million on Thursday from approximately 6,100 screens at 3,161 theaters, falling short not only of Spider-Man but of The Phantom Menace as well.

Benefiting from 16 years of pent-up demand, The Phantom Menace launched on Wednesday, May 19, 1999 to a then record $28,542,349, playing on around 5,500 screens at 2,970 theaters. It then plunged 57% to $12,307,918 on Thursday, leading to $64,810,970 over Friday through Sunday, the second biggest opening weekend ever at that point. It left theaters with $431,088,297, a total that stands as the fourth highest of all time.

Still, Clones had a huge day. In fact, it was the fourth biggest opening day of all time, should the estimate hold. But it's somewhat of a letdown, especially since prior to this each subsequent Star Wars movie had a much larger opening than its predecessor.

The real casualties of all this, if business doesn't pick up considerably over the weekend, could be the exhibitors. Fox and Lucasfilm required theaters to keep Attack of the Clones for a minimum of four weeks, and they demanded 70% of the box office for the first three weeks, 60% the next two and 50% the two weeks after that. Many exhibitors balked at these terms, and in Quebec many refused them, resulting in Star Wars playing at virtually none of the province's 363 independent screens."

.......................

They are looking at this all wrong. 27M is good really, it should be compared to the 12 million thursday of TPM rather than the 28M Wed of TPM.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am also not sure if it is right, the estimate is coming way early, because usually during the week, they won't announce till 4 or so, so I have no clue where mojo got this information. I also read on theforce.net that it made 6-8 million at the midnight shows which is a lot really so I am think the numbers is wrong right now until they announce the figures later today.

[Dutchy]

Damn, I should have stayed with my original $25M guess. Ah well, my $30M is still better than anyone else. Together with Flagg, of course.

It seems rather low to me, though. I actually thought my $30M was on the low side already.

[Dutchy]

Remember that TPM's opening day was the biggest single day of its entire run. Oh, and Super Wookiee, it shouldn't be compare to TPM's Thursday, coz it TPM had opened on that Thursday it would have grossed in the lights of $28.5M as well.

Still, $27M seems very low to me. All predictions I've read were significantly higher than that.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I still rather wait before we call this official, because I have no clue how they could have come up with the numbers really, actually they do call it an early estimate, whatever that means, I think it will be closer to 30 at least. One possibility is a lot of people didn't want to go Thursday because of all the huge TV finales, ER, Friends, etc. That could have effected it a lot, I know a lot of people who are going today and this weekend.

[Master Yoghurt]

Hmmm.. I have a hard time believing that number is correct either. If it is, then I would start worrying about Spiderman at summer box office.

[Jedieb]

I thought about the "Must See TV" effect also. Thursday is one of the biggest, if not the highest rated day of the week. Most of the top 10 shows come from Thursday night. You throw in the season finales of Friends (WHICH SUCKED) and ER and you've got a lot of people waiting until Friday to watch AOTC. We'll have to wait and see, but I wouldn't be surprised if that number stands.

[CMJ]

Boxofficeguru is reporting a 30.1M figure for the opening. Yahoo just did the same...it looks legit.

[Darth23]

30 million - sound like Harry Potter range - assuming it stayes att he same level all weekend.

[JonathanLB]

Well that is pretty silly that they would even write an article based on partial information.

But I am remembering with TPM how this worked, when the $28 million figure was also seen as a letdown, despite it being the most any film had ever made in a day. Early "estimates" had the movie at like $45 million in its first day, according to someone apparently, and therefore the "only" $28 million looked "pathetic."

LOL, I love it how he is saying that business must pick up. No, that is not accurate at all. I am sure if the movie made $30 million each day for 4 weeks, they'd be quite happy, so I think he meant, "Business had better remain solid for a long time for exhibitors to be happy" or something.

I am not so sure that Thursday will be the biggest day of this film's box office run. I know it was for TPM, significantly, but I'm not entirely sure that will prove true this time. I just don't get that feeling because I think there was more of a rabid attitude about getting out to see TPM IMMEDIATELY. I see Saturday's gross being slightly higher than Thursday. It won't matter either way, though, the movie is going to hold up extremely well.

[Jedieb]

$30M is a great number considering what AOTC had to go up against. This should bode well for the weekend. That first number had me a little worried. After listening to my idiot DJ's this morning and seeing that some of the early Friday shows weren't sold out at my local theater I was a put off a bit. The wife and I are going out to dinner tonight with some friends to a Japanese steak house. After dinner I'm dragging her to AOTC. I'm interested in what her reaction will be.