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Episode II Surpasses $116 Million at Box Office
Domasi writes "The Force is with George Lucas again as the fifth installment of the Star Wars saga, 'Attack of the Clones,' took in $116.3 million in its first four days and to become the second-fastest film behind only "Spider-Man"." Spider-man is better. But I plan to see both of them again.
I bet there was no one amongst this crowd who ever thought Spider-Man would out perform -ANY- episode of Star Wars at the box office. Ever.
I certainly didn't see it coming.
It is worthwhile to mention that Spider-Man is being shown on over 1000 screens more than AOTC, etc.
You are only popular on the Internet.
I'd see it again just to see yoda fight. I just wish there was a clear ending to the fight so everyone could have cheered for him.
Yeah I thought so too. I just loved that scene with the New Yorkers on the bridge throwing down junk at the Green Goblin to distract him from beating up Spidey. "You mess with him and you mess with us!".
As plot devices go that's up there with destroying an Alien battle fleet with a PowerMac and Word Macro Virus
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Spider-Man did it in three days without a mid-night opening.
Here's a snippet from hollywood.com: 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm's PG rated franchise installment Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones exploded in first place with an ESTIMATED $86.15 million at 3,161 theaters ($27,254 per theater).
After opening to $30,141,417 for Wednesday midnight screenings and Thursday, its four day cume is approximately $116.29 million. By comparison, Spider-Man's record setting opening was $114.8 million for a normal three day weekend (May 3-5).
Star Wars' average per theater was the highest for any film playing this weekend.
Directed by George Lucas, it stars Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen.
"That's the third best three day regular weekend opening ever after Spider-Man's $114 million and $90 million for Harry Potter," Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said Sunday morning.
"It's the second fastest to $100 million. Of course, Spider-Man did it in three days and this is four. The previous record was Star Wars: Episode I in five days. It opened on a Wednesday (May 19, 1999). Its five day number was $105.659 million. So we've kind of blown past that in four days with $116.291 million on this one. It's just terrific and we're delighted."
Looking back at Episode I -- The Phantom Menace, Snyder noted, "Its Wednesday, the opening day, was $28.5 million. That was the high water mark for the run. The next best day was $24.4 million on Saturday (of weekend one). In this case, we opened to $30.1 million, went to $25.2 million on Friday and Saturday looks like $32.25 million, so it's actually above the opening day and the opening day, remember, had the Midnight shows (from Wednesday) folded in. So this is really a spectacular performance."
Phantom Menace wound up grossing $431.1 million in domestic theaters. Its worldwide total (domestic plus international) was $923 million. Asked about reports that Clones' Wednesday midnight shows had ticket sales of approximately $6 million, Snyder replied, "Something in that area. It depends on how they got folded into (the total for Thursday), but I think that's a fair estimate."
Here's the breakdown of box office report
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A film is a time sequence of images (not necessarily chronological) often intermixed with audio. "Impart[ing] human feelings via relationships and understanding" is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of filmmaking. It's also a muddled notion of aesthetics. Some aestheticians have remarked that, "Art expresses human emotions," but this is a theory of beauty and certainly debatable. Furthermore, some films--concept films mostly--lack both characters and plot, and this is by design.
Distaste is not a reason for trolling.
Let's get drunk and delete production data!
Because Spiderman is pure and simple popular story-telling, while AOTC was full of histrionics and exposition, much of which would probably be useless and/or confusing if you hadn't seen all of the other films.
I know this is going to sound strange, but as far as ease of digestion goes, it's almost as if AOTC is the art house gourmet movie and Spiderman is the summer popcorn movie.
There's a lot to be said for using films as an escape and not taking much at all from them, purely using them as an escapist medium to escape reality.
Star Wars is arguably to most succesful human escapist work ever created, empowering generations to live in a world they could hardly imagine.
That its success is rated in dollars is purely a side effect of todays money biased society.
Who cares about the money and who cares if the film doesn't impart human feelings. If you enjoy it, that's all that matters. A movie isn't _supposed_ to _do_ anything, it's the viewer that interprets things, not the film forcing anything on you.
Rys
- 'sup, G?
First of all, when I'm told a movie grossed the most $$$ ever, I cringe.
These stats are great for me knowing that yes, Spiderman sold more tickets than Star Wars at the box office this year... But don't tell me it's the best selling movie ever. It's probably not!
I mean, look at how much it costs to buy a ticket today.. What, $8.50 round about?
So what you're telling me that year after year, with inflation, there will always be a bigger and better blockbuster according to gross sales?
Why has no one EVER ajusted for inflation? For all I know the best and most watched movie way Ben Hur... hehe....
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
no, becasue Episode I was not that bad.
arg...it was the begining of the entire saga, not a stand alone movie.....saying episode I was a bad movie is about a brilient as the folks who complained about the ending of Felloship of the rings.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I was watching CNN Headline News on Saturday morning when they interviewed the film critic for Entertainment Tonight. My attitude toward the $115 million box office mark is the same as his answer to the AOTC vs. Spider-Man question: Why should I care? I'm not getting a piece of the action.
The important thing is that, for the $9 I paid for my ticket, I got a comfortable seat and an a magical experience watching the film. I thought both movies were very entertaining and already watched Spider-Man twice. I'm going to watch AOTC again because I want to see the digital version (go Yoda!). Now, I couldn't care less about which movie made the more $$$ because I'm not among the people whose net worth was increased by the box office take.
Discussing this box office take rivalry is like arguing who is the coolest millionaire, Ellison or Gates? I don't really care. All I care is how their products perform and how they affect my business.
Cheers!
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No, Anakin wins BECAUSE he's evil. Don't you know that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb?
> Discussing this box office take rivalry is like
> arguing who is the coolest millionaire, Ellison or
> Gates? I don't really care. All I care is how their
> products perform and how they affect my business.
Frankly, neither of them is very cool (pure evil and whatnot). My vote has to go for Mr. Buffet. You've got to respect a man who:
1. never got caught up in the tech buying spree
2. was eating a Dilly Bar one day and said, "Damn, this is good. I'm going to buy Dairy Queen."
3. only uses his computer for playing games (bridge) and slapping Bill Gates around (at bridge)
If Warren had a console out, it would cost $1,000, have the best games possible, and come with ice cream. He wouldn't lower the price (like his stock price) because it would actually be worth a grand.
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I am an expert in electricity. My father held the chair of applied electricity at the state prision.
With regards to the SW vs. Spider-Man, I'm reminded about what the Green Goblin tells Spidey in the movie. He basically tells him that it is no use being the good guy because everyone will try and tear you down anyway. People like building someone up and then tearing them down.
The new SW movies are evidence of that. Far too many of the "fans" are just out there to tear down SW with any nitpick they can come up with and build up a new "hero". Sure there are many problems with the new SW films. But there are many problems with the old ones as well (whiney Luke, bad dialog, etc).
I think people are too quick to tear down SW. It is a movie, not a religion. And it is a film for everyone, not just geeks. I think the general public likes the new SW films more than the hardcore geeks like to admit. I showed the Phantom Menace to my mother-in-law on Friday and she loved it. So much that our whole family saw AOTC on Sunday. The exit polls show people rating AOTC as a A-. I bet the minus comes from SW "fans".
In fact, the hardcore SW fans are hurting SW more than anything. By dressing up and standing in line and such they are threatening to reduce SW to simple geekdom (see Star Trek). Normal people generally avoid geekdom, and I bet alot of people are turned off on SW just because of the so-called-fans.
My final rant is that if Lucas was in it SOLELY for the money he would have made 10 SW films by now and 7 of them would be cheap crappy films (see Star Trek). Also he would have shown them on as many screens as possible instead of limiting them to the ones with digital sound.
Sure he likes a profit as much as anyone, but he is also SW's biggest and best fan.
Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see how much the Slashdot crowd turns on Spider-Man 2 and the Matrix Reloaded.
Brian Ellenberger
Spoilers ahead, folks:
Now, I don't know about you, but I identify with Anakin: his mother dies in his arms and he massacres men, women and children in the Tusken Raider settlement for revenge. The boy is conflicted and in massive pain. Add that to Obi-wan dismissing Anakin's dreams of his mother ("Dreams pass in time") and you have a very upset, very powerful individual. I suspect, once all is said and done, we will actually understand why Anakin would turn...we might even be sympathetic.
According to CNN, "[In Quebec, Canada,] Fox is believed to be demanding 70 percent of box office receipts for the first three weeks and insisting that 'Attack of the Clones' stay in the biggest hall for 12 weeks. The studio-theater revenue split is more commonly 70-30 in favor of the studio for only the first week, dropping to 60-40 the second week, 50-50 the third week and 40-60 by the fourth week." That's why most of Quebec's independent theater owners refused to book AotC in their theaters. If Fox's demands were similar here in the States, it may also explain why fewer theaters are showing it vs. Spider-Man... regardless of how Fox tries to spin (no pun intended) the numbers in their favor.
>(whiney Luke, bad dialog, etc).
Bad dialogue? I think the dialogue from the "holy trilogy" is filled with gems. "Never tell me the odds", "I love you, I know", "sorry about the mess", and so forth.
But yes, that kid sure is a whiner.
I seriously considered that possibility. Then I downloaded the script of Star Wars (aka "the first movie") and read it through. My reading confirmed my impression that it is far superior to AOTC. A few differences:
the tone of a very unrealistic movie in which the heroes would perform superhuman feats. And sure enough, the characters go through a lot of stuff that would surely have killed or maimed them, like jumping out of an aircraft in flight. In Star Wars, I think the closest thing is Luke and Leia swinging across the shaft. That was risky but believable.
I could write a lot more, but I think the movies are deeply different. Certainly there are some aspects that remain the same, and to that extent your remark about rose-colored glasses could be true. But on the whole, AOTC is a very inferior movie.