$12.8M for AOTC's 2nd Friday

[Dutchy]

That's a 48% drop from last Friday and LOWER than TPM's $13.5M on the same day.

I'd say that number is a lil underwhelming.

[Dutchy]

TPM dropped 27% on its 2nd Friday, by the way.

[JMK]

Ouch. A thousand times ouch. I think.

[Jedieb]

Congrats Dutchy, you got them posted first!! :thumbup

Darker SW films make less money because they're less kid friendly. AOTC is just as dark as ESB, maybe even a bit darker. Just wait until EP3, you'll probably see an even lower gross. I've seen this with my OWN eyes. Show SW films to a group of 9-10 year olds and ANH, ROTJ, & TPM are their favorites, but ESB bores them a bit. They like it, but they're not mature enough to get it. They certainly don't want repeated viewings of it. But get a crowd over 15 and the rankings are almost reversed. At SWCon2 ESB and ANH got the most overwhelming responses at screenings. All the films were wildly received, but you only heard grumbling during TPM.

I still don't care, iAOTC has made more than enough money to insure we'll see the final installment. That's all that should matter to anyone.

[Jedieb]

Dutchy, where have the numbers been posted?

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by Jedieb
Congrats Dutchy, you got them posted first!! :thumbup

Yes! I was surprised, because I wasn't even constantly reloading the sites. :p

Oh, I found them on Boxoffice Guru's site: http://www.boxofficeguru.com/052502.htm. He's been tracking AOTC's grosses on a daily basis. Boxoffice Mojo has them too now I see: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/

Anyway, I feel more and more confident about my predictions on AOTC's total gross. :)

[flagg]

Box Office Mojo has the numbers.
I think this is really disappointing. I don't buy the AOTC is too dark excuse. FOTR was even darker, and that had great legs.
What I can't understand is that nearly all regular moviegoers seem to enjoy the film, moreso than TPM, but it's falling behind TPM's gross already. I think the bad reviews have really done the harm this time. Star Wars is no longer critic proof. I bet there are a lot of people avoiding the film because of the bad buzz who would actually enjoy it if they saw it. We need to get the word out, somehow.
And Fox need to rethink their marketting.

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by flagg
Box Office Mojo has the numbers.
I think the bad reviews have really done the harm this time. Star Wars is no longer critic proof. I bet there are a lot of people avoiding the film because of the bad buzz who would actually enjoy it if they saw it. We need to get the word out, somehow.
And Fox need to rethink their marketting.

No way man, AOTC got great reviews. Better than TPM actually.

Like I said before AOTC opened, AOTC is TPM's sequel and sequel's usually don't perform as well as their predecessor, not even if they're a Star Wars movie, or so it seems.

[Jedieb]

FOTR was dark and that's ONE of the reasons it made just over $300M and not over $400M. AOTC is going to have strong legs, but not as strong as TPM. Remember, TPM had stronger legs than the aforementioned FOTR. Did you like TPM better than FOTR?

[JMK]

So what's AotC's final number looking like now???

[Jedieb]

That would take some work, but off the top of my head I'd have to say it's going to trail Spidey by at least $40M-50M. I figure Spidey will cross over the $400M mark and make a run at TPM and ET. So I think we may now be looking at $350M-$400M. That's kind of where I thought it would end up months ago, but I just got caught up in all the excitement. Anyway, it's still an impressive gross, we need to keep that in mind.

[flagg]

Yeah, but FOTR had a much lower opening that AOTC or Harry Potter, so making it to $300 million was quite an achievement.
I've always said that no new Star Wars film would make less than $300 million. AOTC should reach that total, but it's starting to look like that's as far as it will go. Unless it shows great legs after Memorial Day, it won't reach my 360 prediction. :(
Like I said, AOTC has been well received by the public (an A- on Cinemascore) so the only explanations I can think of for it falling so quickly is the media attacks on Star Wars and Fox doing a poor job of distribution and marketing. I don't really care if AOTC is the lowest grossing Star Wars film, because I love it anyway. But you have to admit that the SW haters in the media will have a lot more ammunition if the film doesn't display the same legs as its predecessors.
It could be an unpleasant three years.

[JMK]

Sadly, you're right.

People were starving for a Star Wars movie after 16 years, and now they aren't. They've had their fill and that's it. The whole "Star Wars is back!" phase is over. Lucasfilm and Fox do need to do something about their marketing this time though.

[Jedieb]

flagg, I'm not saying FOTR didn't have great legs, it did, but they weren't nearly as impressive as TPM's. TPM's opening weekend was only around $13M bigger than FOTR, but's its total gross was more than $100M greater than FOTR. It just had stronger legs.

You've got some good points about the media. But I don't think that media bashing is as important as other factors like, darker tone, no 16 year build up, and TPM backlash. But all 4 of those have taken a toll. And like you, I don't care if it makes less, I loved it!

[Jinn Fizz]

It's interesting to look at the figures for yesterday and see that the number of screens still makes a difference. While AOTC made only about $5 million more than Spider-man, it's per screen average was more than twice that of Spidey's. Just a technicality, but still interesting to note.

I'm still stumped by the whole Spidey phenomenon. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, thought it was well worth seeing, and I'll be buying it on DVD the day it comes out. If I knew someone who hadn't seen it but was interested in going, I'd go with them to keep them company. But overall, I have no active plans to see it again, and I don't know anyone who's going to see it over and over and over again. So who are all these people who keep seeing it and driving the grosses right through the roof?

But kudos to Fox for making the Yoda/Spidey commercial. It acknowledges this silly Spidey vs. AOTC battle head-on, and in a very amusing way. :lol

[Jedieb]

I think Spidey has just done a better job with casual movie goers than AOTC. I go back to a thread I has days ago to a couple of my local DJ's. They trashed AOTC, but had nothing but praise for Spiderman. Simply put, Spidey is reaching a wider audience than AOTC has.

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by Jedieb
That would take some work, but off the top of my head I'd have to say it's going to trail Spidey by at least $40M-50M. I figure Spidey will cross over the $400M mark and make a run at TPM and ET. So I think we may now be looking at $350M-$400M. That's kind of where I thought it would end up months ago, but I just got caught up in all the excitement.

Same here, I felt confident with my $350M prediction, but uppered it to $390M, coz of the Spider-Man hype. Well, at least my arguments seem to turn out right and besides that it still could end up in the $350M-$390M range.

[CMJ]

Dude...I'm devastated. I never thought we'd actually lose the summer BO crown, especially with a film this damn good. :(

[JMK]

Don't be devastated dude. Like you said, AotC is a great movie, and I can't think of a better way to spend 2 hours these days. People have been waiting for a real Spider Man movie for decades, and what was produced has delivered on all levels. People have been waiting for SW for 3 years. That's a huge discrepancy. Still though, Lucas has given us a great movie.

[CMJ]

I know, I know. I root for films I enjoy to do well at the BO(and awards season depending on the films). AOTC is doing quite well, I realize, but man alive it'll be the 1st SW film not to win it's year. For one of the better one's in the series(I know it's at least #3 perhaps #2) that's a tad on the disappointing side.

[JMK]

Yeah, I agree, on the fact that the first one not to win its year is a bitter pill to swallow, but who knows, maybe if Lucas is secretly concerned about winning the box office, it will motivate him to make Episode 3 even better than he has planned.

And let's not get into the awards, AotC, IMO is going to walk away with as much as TPM, if not less. You do the math,

[CMJ]

LOL....well no AOTC isn't an award type movie. I understand that. :)

Actually if Lucas makes Episode III as good as he can, the film might REALLY tank at the BO, cause that sucker has got to be DARK. ;)

[Jedieb]

I really think that Lucas is only concerned with making enough money so that he can continue to make films without any interference from the studios.

[CMJ]

He shouldn't have to worry about that with all the money he has. :)

[JMK]

I've always loved the way Lucas made money to finance his projects without really having to spend anything except advertising money.

-Released OT THX box set to finance the production/release of the SE's.

-Used the gross of the SE's to finance TPM,

-Uses TPM's money to do AotC, release a TPM DVD and invest in the company.

Pretty slick George, pretty slick...:pimp

[JonathanLB]

I dunno, this sort of blows away box office theory in general. It's like we need a new analysis of the box office just to figure this out. Good word of mouth has always meant great staying power. The two are directly correlated... or I thought they were, before AOTC came out. I've never seen a film so well loved that has performed so far below expectations.

You could see this coming from a mile away after the Mon-to-Tues drop, though, I was already worried but grasping at straws just hoping.

I don't buy the whole "TPM backlash" BS and I don't think Dutchy buys that either. Perhaps what he says about it being a sequel is quite accurate (they used to figure sequels did 2/3 as much as the "original," or TPM, if you will). TPM had the most amazing staying power for any film ever to open above $60 million, and behind only Jurassic Park when it comes to massive opening AND great staying power. No other film achieved that degree of success, which is why I felt TPM deserved a book and deserved massive attention for its accomplishments. It set more records than I can count off the top of my head.

AOTC, so far, has been quite underwhelming at the box office besides Friday and Saturday of last week, both of which I felt were very good. Sunday was a bit of a downer, opening day was great, just a tiny bit lower than I thought, then Monday was a bit lower, but great, Tuesday was good, but lower than I thought it should have been, and Wednesday flat out sucked, as did Thursday, at least for a Star Wars film.

I'm very disappointed with AOTC's performance so far, and that is not a reflection of the film itself, Lucas, any companies involved (except maybe Fox), it is merely the number of people who have seen the film. I am disappointed, then, at the people who have chosen not to see this movie for whatever reason, perhaps a bad review (and I agree with Dutchy, most reviews were great! There were only a few bad ones, a significant number of mediocre ones, and A LOT of great ones!), perhaps because they feel they would be lost as they didn't see TPM, or something like that.

I will say that time has a way of putting things in their place, even as events unfold in a chaotic manner at times, time fixes that usually. Take a film like Annie Hall beating Star Wars at the Oscars, well time has rendered a different verdict about which film is the greatest of that year (and all time, according to almost every poll I have ever seen). Time decides that Blade Runner, a box office failure and critical dud, is actually a classic movie revered by sci-fi fans for being ahead of its time and brilliant. Ultimately the quality of the craft and the film shines through, even much later when history seems to have spoken, time can rewrite the record books and the "facts."

Each SW film gets its re-releases, and as you saw from the Special Editions, ESB did pretty darn well on re-release and is now a highly appreciated sci-fi classic. People love AOTC, sci-fi fans (like the guys at Cinescape who reviewed it) love AOTC, and fans who we somewhat "lost" a little bit because of TPM (not the fault of the film; it really was their fault) are now back on board with AOTC, which is nice. It's something to please everyone I suppose, between those two films.

I think Dutchy's $390 million is optimistic, to be honest. Let's hope we see the light of $350 million.

It's disappointing to see a SW film not be the highest grossing of the year. If there is one thing you could always count on, regardless of every other failure around you and the screwups of series' like Star Trek and Alien and whatever else, you could count on each Star Wars film being 1) critic-proof 2) invincible at the box office 3) and the highest grossing film of the year.

I still think our victory will come overseas with more intelligent foreign audiences, to be honest (think A.I., where U.S. audiences obviously don't have the brain capacity to understand the film, lol, j/k actually, but you get the point). Spider-Man will do very well overseas, but AOTC is doing better overseas than it is here I think, we shall see.

I didn't appreciate that comment earlier this week about how I would come in and put a positive spin on things. I don't try to spin anything, I call it as I see it.

Right now, I'm very disappointed with AOTC's recent numbers. There is no other way to put it. It's depressing, even. Such a great movie, I saw it again today, btw, going again tonight with some friends.

Portland, Oregon established our first FAN FORCE meeting here today!! It was pretty neat...

As I said before, "STAR WARS FOREVER!"

[JMK]

fans who we somewhat "lost" a little bit because of TPM (not the fault of the film; it really was their fault)

It's not their fault that they didn't like the movie. It just didn't reach out to them like the OT did. However, it IS their problem that they didn't like the movies. 2 separate things altogether.

Also, you said that "fans" liked the movie, yes, they did, but *maybe* casual moviegoers aren't so nuts about it. Hence the underwhelming performance.

[Jedieb]

20th Century Fox forked over $10M to help pay for the ANH:SE. FOX still owns the rights to ANH I believe, all the sequels belong to GL free and clear.

[JonathanLB]

That is not so, but I used to think so too.

As part of the whole 20th anniversary re-release, Fox gave over all rights to Star Wars to George Lucas. He is sole owner of all the Star Wars films.

JMK, it is their fault for not understanding the film. It was just as good as the OT, or actually better in many ways, and if they couldn't appreciate TPM's genius, that was their loss. I still believe it is nice to have some of those fans back on board with AOTC, and perhaps in time they will appreciate TPM as it should be appreciated, but it was their fault for not liking it. The film itself is just as it is supposed to be, so if they have changed in the 16 years since ROTJ (and now 19), then you cannot blame that on the film or on Lucas. Blame is squarely on the fans who felt that way.

[Marcus Telcontar]

THEIR FALUT?!?!

Well, I guess that might be the POV from one way, but the thing is, I dont think AOTC is really catching anyone other that SW fans. The casual moive goer sees this once and has nothing to go back for. Took my wife to see AOTC - and believe me, she GETS Star Wars and loves the OT, doesnt mind TPM - and her comment was that AOTC was nothing more than eye candy, a shallow polt, cringing dialogue. Yoda was good and Christensen was a perfect Anakin, fact she thinks that was the lighlight. Oh, she also said Portman was worse than watching a plank of wood. She was scathing and she does NOT read the critics. This is her view 100% and Lucas put no soul in the movie.

Ouch.

To be honest, I could go back to see Christensen again. That kid can act.

Now, I think that if you discuss LOTR's B.O. run, it has to be qualified by the fact it was an hard movie to sit through, with it's length. It's not the type of movie that would normallly get repeat viewing, except that it was a truly compelling movie that was so damn good. And I might add, 5 months after release, it is STILL in the top 20 and made 411,000 last weekend. By the looks of it, it will eventually take out Lion King and still be in hte top 10 all time. Maybe it will still be in theatres by hte time TTT comes about! FOTR did not do it's numbers with huge days, but always a steady pace and just kept on going.

[JMK]

I disagree about TPM being better than any of the OT in ANY way except for effects, but that's a matter of taste, and a separate topic altogether.

[BUFFJEDI]

DO NOT BELIEVE THE BOX OFFICE NUMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats all i got to say about that.

[JMK]

I knew you'd say that Buff!

[BUFFJEDI]

Your inside's serve you well :lol

[dbn]

I still think we have the number one movie of the summer at the box office, and we are going to have to get use to the idea of a slow success--more than a fast moving success story. I would be very happy if we had higher numbers yesterday at the box office, but I do believe Attack of the Clones will be a slow moving box office draw...

[JMK]

*whispering*
I think you meant insight Buff.
But as for my insides, yeah, I guess I'm pretty regular! :lol

[Jedi Master Carr]

I looked at the numbers some and I have to say hardly anybody went to the movies yesterday. Every film did worse than what I thought except for Insomnia which did about what I expected. I though Enough would have done a lot better for example (because it seems like a movie women would force their dates to go see and Friday night is date night) I guess Spiderman did about what you would expect, but still what happened did something go on Friday night that I wasn't aware of? I know the Kings and Lakers played but I doubt a lot of people stayed home for that. Maybe there a lot of schools had there graduation ceremonies last night, I remember mine was on Friday.

Well, I still expect a decent boost for Saturday, for example the theater near me was twice as crowded today over Friday. It could make over 20 and then make about 15-20 on Sunday and do around 13-15 on Monday that would put it around 60-70 which would give maybe a slight increase over TPM's memorial day (I know it made around 60) and if it does that it still has a chance to clear 400 which would be what I expected originally before I again I start hyping up the numbers.

[BUFFJEDI]

well around here we had NASCAR going on so maybe around here it will pick up.But still we had sold out's ???

Why the increase of Screens for Spider-man?? I know money, But there has to be another reason.

[BUFFJEDI]

Yeah , Insight Thats what I ment to sayO_o :D

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am not sure why the increase for Spiderman but it sure didn't help on Friday.

[CMJ]

Sony actively pushed to get more theatres to play the webslinger this weekend.

[JMK]

Those conniving bastards!

[BUFFJEDI]

But would that not be another sign of the C word?

[CMJ]

No...it's just Sony tried to flood the marketplace. You really think a RIVAL STUDIO would be involved in a conspiracy?!?

*shakes head*

I'm not gonna get mad, I'm not gonna get mad, I'm not gonna.....

[Jedi Master Carr]

Yeay Buff no more Jed3167 impressions :p

[Quadinaros]

Originally posted by JonathanLB
I didn't appreciate that comment earlier this week about how I would come in and put a positive spin on things. I don't try to spin anything, I call it as I see it.


Jonathan, I'm very sorry I made that comment earlier this week. I wasn't trying to imply that you twist the truth in any way. It just seemed like you always had an optimistic take on each day's numbers. I didn't have a problem with that. I look forward to reading all of your posts. You're obviously a real Star Wars fan.

As for AOTC, I am the one feeling optimistic now. As I read all these posts about disappointment, I still feel it will hold up well. It may have been somewhat underwhelming during the week, but all that positive buzz will eventually show in the numbers. I think AOTC will play strong throughout the summer, in spite of all the competition. :smokin

[CMJ]

Thanks for keeping the faith Quad. :)

[BUFFJEDI]

'

[BUFFJEDI]

Well speaking of COn...Just kidding :) I swore I would stop :)


Anyway, Did you hear about the man at the bar?? he would take a shot of vodka, reach in his pocket and pull out a picture and look at it. well about the 5th time doing this the barteneder asked him, Sir after each shot why do you reach in your pocket and pull out a picture and look at it.

the man Sadly looks up at the bartender and say's

I'm waiting for my wife to look good :)

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by JonathanLB
I think Dutchy's $390 million is optimistic, to be honest. Let's hope we see the light of $350 million.

I only uppered my original $350M prediction (the one on which you said on numerous times I was gonna be proven very wrong) because of Spider-Man's amazing performance.

Like I've also said back then, audiences loved TPM, and I didn't see how they could love AOTC more than TPM. That combined with it being a sequel and inflation gave me a $350M prediction.

[JonathanLB]

Yup...

Well I am enjoying AOTC, I hope you all are, and that's what counts the most. How many other people see it, eh, that's really their problem. Seeing Star Wars on the big screen is a wonderful experience. If they choose to miss it, that is fine, it doesn't really affect me personally, but I would just like to be able to see AOTC on the big screen throughout the summer. I have really enjoyed it so far, I always notice some little new thing (thanks to you guys, the fans, hehe), and Saturday we had the first Portland Fan Force meeting! Only four people, kinda sad, but we will grow. It was kinda neat at least, whatever. We'll get our chapter going here and try to build from 4 to 8 to 12 and so on. It was just that people were working Saturday and didn't have the time I guess to show up.

I was pretty mad at Regal again, though. Those idiots... they cut Yoda's line! "The shroud of the Dark Side has fallen... Begun the Clone War has!" They cut everything about shroud, then just started with the Clone Wars part, lol. They must have cut out 100 frames of film. It was pretty embarrassing. That's the last time I go to that theater.

I also got another person to see AOTC Saturday, at a separate showing (I went twice, hehe), then Ben saw it for the 3rd time and said it keeps getting better, he'd like to see it again even, because it makes him want to see it again immediately after, hehe. Ben's brother went too, I think it was his second time. He wanted to see a movie and I have seen everything out except About A Boy and Insomnia, but he just saw Insomnia and they all wanted to see AOTC again, so I was NOT going to pull them away from a Star Wars movie. "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!" Hehe, this is a most desperate hour, I try to help all I can. :)

I guess maybe I can get to my 50 viewings still, I just don't know. I will do my best, but last time with TPM I saw it 50 times during EIGHT months: May, June, July, August, September, October, December, and January. This time, I just don't think I'll have more than May - August at best. Three times a week, though, would put me at 50 by the end of week 15 because I'm ahead of that pace now, so... we'll see.

*shrug* doesn't matter how well AOTC does at the box office, I loved it, always will love it, and I'll keep going to enjoy it again and again just as I did TPM. It's a very fun experience and I'd regret not seeing it as many times as possible.

It will still do amazingly well for a fifth part. Sadly, if you think about it, I think AOTC is already easily the highest grossing 5th part in any series ever. Mostly, by the time movie #4 rolls around, it's getting ugly and the $100 million mark is looking darn good. AOTC will easily hit $325M, so... it's not exactly "HORRIBLE!" lol. I had just hoped for even more because I think people who are seeing this movie really love it! I hear so many good comments, whereas I admit I found myself defending TPM more than I have AOTC. AOTC just defends itself mostly, although I've had to defend certain parts as general audiences do not often understand everything (and that's acceptable; I thought ESB was boring before I became a fan and realized, wow, what an awesome, genius movie).

[Jedi Master Carr]

Box Office Mojo reports that AOTC looks to make 64 million this weekend and they say that is pretty good for its second week. I think if it does that, then it could still cross 400 but I guess we will have to wait and see.

[CMJ]

I know...I still want my Saturday numbers...:) C'mon get realesed.....

[Jedi Master Carr]

Will they release them? I know in past Memorial Day weekends that didn't release the numbers till Monday, though with all the internet sites out there now it might be different story.

[Dutchy]

They'll release Saturday's estimate, and I think I remember they've released a 3 day weekend estimate in the past as well.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Saturday I would expect, unless they are just plain lazy. I expect the final numbers though to come late tomorrow, they will be slow on a holiday.

[CMJ]

Yeah...I think I'll check back in a few hours. They won't be up anytime soon, most likely with it a holiday weekend.

[Master Yoghurt]

Well, at the end of Lee's saturday update, it says:

"For Weekend Estimates be sure to tune in on Sunday, May 26 between 10 am and 1 pm PST"

Should be updated sometime the next few hours. :)

(although, dont complain to me if they dont! :p)

[JMK]

Glad to hear that some are still optimistic about 400M!! :D