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| Star Wars fans all across the nation turned out en masse to give their beloved prequel trilogy a final send off. Then they came back two hours later to do it again. I imagine an inordinate number of them did so four or five times over the four day weekend. Opening day, Thursday, was an event of box office history proportions with the movie simultaneously running in nearly ten thousand theaters and bringing in the largest amount of ticket sales for a single day in history. However, that wasn't the weekend and doesn't count for our weekend review.Even without Thursday's crowning count, Revenge of the Sith continued to be hoisted on the shoulders of nerds and fans everywhere bringing in just over $100,000,000 over the weekend. It's an impressive achievement to be sure (kinda like all those 300 lb. Star Wars fans squeezing into undersized ewok suits for the midnight madness). The question now becomes, how will it do next week?The Star Wars prequels don't seem to have the staying power their elder trilogy showed back in the 70s and 80s. The new films have seen rapid declines when the fans realize they blew their cash for the sixth through twelfth showings on the Leia Unleashed collectible figurine. To make matters more interesting, two potentially heavy hitters will be bombarding theaters next week. The Longest Yard starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock will butt heads with Madagascar, the acclaimed animated comedy. Between the two of them they may very well send Anakin and friends straight to number 3 next week.Even if that's the case, Revenge of the Sith has made its mark on the movie world. If nothing else it proved that Lucas had at least one good movie left in him. It also proved that people are still willing to hand over copious amounts of cash at the box office. Is this the beginning of the end for the box office dry spell, or just one final hurrah before a very hot and dry summer season? Next week's Memorial Dat weekend will tell the tale.TOP TEN: May 20 - May 22, 2005 |
| 1. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith* - $108,500,000 ($158,500,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 2. Monster-in-Law - $14,350,000 ($44,173,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 3. Kicking and Screaming - $10,531,000 ($34,006,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 4. Crash - $5,500,000 ($27,603,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 5. Unleashed - $3,841,000 ($17,567,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 6. Kingdom of Heaven - $3,350,000 ($41,031,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 7. House of Wax - $3,159,000 ($26,783,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 8. The Interpreter - $2,802,000 ($65,295,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 9. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - $2,006,000 ($46,854,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| 10. Mindhunters - $909,000 (3,465,000) [CB REVIEW] |
| * Denotes new release. |
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