The inimitable Joe Gandleman discusses the new Star Wars attendance record over at Dean' World, but I think he missed an important point.
The headlines read 'Star Wars' Breaks Single-Day Sales Mark
The Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith record should include a very large asterisk next to any entry into a book of records.
$16.5 million of that $50 million came from the special midnight early showing held across the nation on 2,900 screens, a little detail which isn't featured very prominently in news articles, although it is mentioned in passing near the bottom. What is also rarely mentioned is that the cinemas involved used every screen available for the midnight showing, not just one or two.
Now I can't say how many seats were in each theatre, but assuming $9 per ticket, I get: $16.5 million / $9 = 1,833,333 tickets, or 632 tickets per screen (rounded off).
In other words, nearly two million people were willing to go to that extra midnight showing.
Now. How many movies do you really think audiences will line up for in that manner? Seriously?
So let's take that $16.5 million off, and the result is $33.5 million for one day; very respectable, but hardly a record-breaker.
By the way, there's been a lot of fuss about a "political" comment near the end of the film: "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes!"
That's not the line. The actual line is "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!"
Now, I don't know if the critics all misheard that line in some sort of aural Rorschach test, or if Lucas changed it after the pre-release fuss from critics. Either way you can develop some interesting speculations...
Posted by Casey at May 22, 2005 3:19 PM | TrackBackI went to see the new Star Wars movie noonish on Thursday, at a big theater complex where they were showing it on most of the screens, and starting a new showing every half hour; and even so, the place was packed.
Loved the movie. Must confess, at one key point I did have a flashback to Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
Anakin: "It's just a flesh wound... Come back here, Obi-Wan, and fight like a man! I'll bite your kneecaps off!" ;)
LOL!
You aren't the first to note the similarity there, my friend.
Heh...
"Now. How many movies do you really think audiences will line up for in that manner? Seriously?"
Exactly, so why shouldn't it be included in the number? You could just as easily say, "Titanic broke opening day records; but how many movies do you think audiences would go to on opening day? Seriously?" If Legally Blonde 2 wants to have a midnight showing on opening day, nothing's stopping them. No one will go, of course; but that's because Legally Blonde 2 obviously sucks.
In essence, you're saying, "The Star Wars opening day figure shouldn't be trusted because Star Wars warrants a higher opening day number than movies whose opening day numbers are lower."
Posted by: dowingba at May 25, 2005 4:23 AM