Saga Number of tickets sold for each Star Wars movie.

Spider-Man was released at the beginning of May in the US and Canada, which is what matters to the domestic numbers posted here.

If you're referring to me, I've got no agenda here whatsoever.

 

I don't know. Personally, I have no point, I just find it kind of interesting.

 

For what it's worth, TPM is my least favorite prequel. I much prefer AotC to it.

Those films' respective numbers are basically the opposite of what they should be if I was trying to be all, "My opinions match up with the numbers and are therefore fact!" as you're implying.

 

Not really : Superman came in 1978, Flash Gordon in 1980, Batman in 1989, Dick Tracy in 1990,....., and last, but not least, HOWARD THE DUCK in 1986 !

You probably meant the first Marvel comics ever made since modern CGI and digital FX made its way to the big screen. But even then, X-Men was released 2 years before (2000).

But of course it was highly anticipated as the cultest of all Marvel comics with the Fantastic Four, and a cult director (S.Raimi) behind the camera.

 

He meant that it was the first time anyone had made a Spider-Man movie, rather than it being a sequel or a reboot. So it had the novelty factor.

 

OK.

I did saw she mentioned Batman in a previous post, but really couldn't get it...

Sorry.

 

Thought of another one I wanted to check out and figured I'd share:

Star Wars - $307 million
Budget $11 million (2791%)

The Empire Strikes Back - $209 million
Budget $18 million (1161%)

Return of the Jedi - $253 million
Budget $32.5 million (778%)

The Phantom Menace - $431 million
Budget $115 million (375%)

Attack of the Clones - $302 million
Budget $115 million (263%)

Revenge of the Sith - $380 million
Budget $113 million (336%)

This is of course not at all taking into account the revenues gained from merchandise, tie-ins, etc.

 

Kind of interesting how both trilogies have the same high-low-high. First film does very very well, second film sees a major drop, third film bounces back somewhat.

FWIW, I'd bet the prequels made a hell of a lot more on merchandising, just because of the presence of video games, plus the books/comics onslaught.

 

Maybe it's just about ticket sales and the numbers?

Do not derail this thread.

 

To add something :

- the ticket sales comparison of the first post includes the SE for the OT movies.

- STAR WARS/ANH has been re-released multiple times between 1977-1978 and 1997.

A proper and more meaningful chart should take this into account, and only keep ticket sales regarding 1977, 1980, and 1983 for the OT movies, thus erasing most of the missing home video factor of the era.

The Gross chart by JKH above, converted into ticket sales, is fairer, although it still includes re-release for SW/ANH.

 

?? say what ?

 

Relax it's a Belloq quote.

 

well I know you're para-phrasing Belloq , but what point are you trying to make ?

 

TPM is going to take the record for highest box office, because it's out this year in 3D.

Then the Mayan calendar ends, so the other ones won't be re-released, and the apocalypse will seal TPM's victory for the rest of eternity.

 

TPM will still never beat the original three adjusted for inflation, of course.

Oh yeah I'm really hoping that apocalypse thing happens! Then The Dark Knight Rises will definitely beat The Hobbit.

 

I agree. Does anyone have the numbers for each of the Star Wars movies EXCLUDING re-releases?

 

That would be a bit difficult, especially for the OT. Those films had several re-releases before the '97 SEs. I think SW had at least a few before ESB was even released.
But it would be interesting to see SW, ESB, and ROTJ's original theatrical release numbers.

 

I'm impressed with how much information can be found on boxofficemojo.com. Below are the estimated ticket sales only for each of the six movies' initial release. Sometimes a movie was taken out of theatres, and then came back a couple months later. I include only those ticket sales that were sold in its initial, uninterrupted release.

For each movie I list the following:
1. The dates of its first release
2. The estimated number of tickets sold during its first release
3. This number expressed as a percentage, defining TPM as 100% (since it sold the most)
4. The link to the information on boxofficemojo

Star Wars (May 20-Sept. 1, 1977): 56,497,600 (67%)
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=starwars4.htm&adjust_yr=1&p=.htm

Empire Strikes Back (May 16-Aug. 14, 1980): 52,629,300 (63%)
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=starwars5.htm&sort=date&order=DESC&adjust_yr=1&p=.htm

Return of the Jedi (May 20-Oct. 27, 1983): 76,761,800 (91%)
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=starwars6.htm&adjust_yr=1&p=.htm

The Phantom Menace (May 14-Nov. 4, 1999): 84,194,800 (100%)
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=starwars.htm&adjust_yr=1&p=.htm

Attack of the Clones (May 10-Oct. 31, 2002): 52,011,100 (62%)
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=starwars2.htm&adjust_yr=1&p=.htm

Revenge of the Sith (May 13-Oct. 20, 2005): 59,324,600 (70%)
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=starwars3.htm&adjust_yr=1&p=.htm

 

Let's correct for changes in the population of the United States. Following are the U. S. Census Bureau's estimates for the U. S. population on July 1 of each of the following years:

1977: 220,239,425
1980: 227,224,681
1983: 233,791,994
1999: 272,690,813
http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/totals/pre-1980/tables/popclockest.txt
2002: 288,368,698
http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/totals/2002/tables/NA-EST2002-01.pdf
2005: 296,410,404
http://www.census.gov/popest/data/state/totals/2005/tables/NST-EST2005-01.xls

Here are the ticket sales of the films' initial releases expressed as percentages of the population in the years in which they were released:

SW: 25.65%
ESB: 23.16%
ROTJ: 32.83%
TPM: 30.88%
AOTC: 18.04%
ROTS: 20.01%

 

I would like to see a week by week chart for each movie's time in the theaters. Noting any and all re-releases. That way you could compare how they did to one another for similar time frames.

 

Well, Star Wars was a slow burner if were going by similar time frames. It just opened and then didnt leave for months inititally. Nowadays, films are Big Bang and then out (except for Titanic).
Still, SW was only in theaters for 4 months first go round.


Binary, I'm surprised that information was so readily available, but it's fascinating. Nice work.


edit: I have to say I'm impressed with how well TPM compares to the OT with ticket sales. Then again, people were starved for a new SW film by then and had been whipped into a frenzy.
AOTC surprises me with how weak it was with sales. ROTS didn't fare much better.

However, what this does is point out what a touchstone SW was and remains. In that context, SW was a bolt out of the blue with only TPM from the PT coming anywhere close.

 

I, too, am surprised by how well TPM did.

My single biggest surprise, though, is how well ROTJ did. In terms of percentages, it did better than any other Star Wars film! I never would have guessed that.

 

These are what we call "next level" statistics.