''Menace'' big at box office
By Andrew Hindes
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - With an opening day gross of $28,542,349, ``Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace'' shattered all previous
one-day box office records Wednesday, including the $26.1 million earned by ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' on Sunday, May 25, 1997.
The highest previous Wednesday opening was $17.4 million for ``Independence Day'' on July 3, 1996. Put in perspective, Lucasfilm and 20th
Century Fox's ``Menace'' collected in a single weekday just $100,000 less than ``Titanic'' grossed in its entire first weekend in December 1997.
Bowing on 2,970 theaters, ``Menace'' earned a stunning $9,610 per site -- a number that would be considered great as a full weekend per screen
average for most wide releases.
While no one would deny the first day gross was spectacular, it actually fell below most rival distributors' predictions, which had ranged from $30
million to $45 million based on attendance at post-midnight shows Tuesday night.
While everyone else on earth has been playing the how-high-can-it-go game for weeks, Lucasfilm president Gordon Radley said the filmmakers
went into Wednesday with no particular figure in mind.
``We never really had expectations in terms of a number that was important,'' Radley told Daily Variety. ``It's not about setting a record. 'Star
Wars' is just about people having a great time at the movies with their friends and families. That's what we hoped to accomplish.''
While the huge debut came as a surprise to no one in this galaxy, the question now, of course, is where the picture goes from here. Historical
precedent dictates that the gross should drop significantly Thursday, and then rebound Friday to near Wednesday's levels.
But the first real indicator of ``Menace's'' long-term prospects will come Saturday, when grosses should actually be higher than Wednesday's --
which, of course, would mean a new one-day record.
In ``Menace's'' favor is what might be called the kid factor. One prevalent criticism of the film has been that its eight-year-old central character and
floppy-eared sidekick Jar Jar Binks target it squarely at the four-feet and under crowd.
Since few tykes were staying up 'til midnight Tuesday -- or playing hooky from grade school Wednesday -- their increased availability over the
weekend should give the picture a big lift.
Also, while ``Menace'' was sold out virtually throughout its opening day in major city complexes, small town theaters were relatively quiet, with
some cinemas in the South reporting grosses as low as $500. Attendance in those sites should pick up markedly starting this evening.
Assuming the picture follows the typical grossing pattern -- not that anything about this movie has been typical -- a five-day weekend tally of $120
million is still possible.
That would put it light years ahead of the previous five-day weekend record of $95.8 million (excluding advance screenings), set by ``The Lost
World.''
``We're not evaluating this movie in terms of box office financial results,'' Radley said. ``It will have its own life and destiny. What we're interested
in is hopefully people are enjoying the film.''
While Lucasfilm and Fox have been criticized in the press for ``overhyping'' the picture, ``Menace'' managed to generate its record-breaking
attendance with remarkably little paid advertising. For instance, no ads ran in last Sunday's New York Times, which is virtually unheard of for a
film opening three days later.
``It wasn't like you needed to do advertising to make people aware of this movie,'' said Radley. Still, tie-in ads from Lucasfilm's promotional
partners, including Pepsi-Cola and Taco Bell, have been plentiful.
Radley added that most of the intense media coverage of the film was not orchestrated by Lucasfilm or Fox publicists.
``We weren't out there trying to get a story every day of the week,'' he said. ``In a lot of ways the media ran with it because of their own needs.
(They) created the hype, and then they're sitting around passing judgment on it.'' |
