Star Wars
Action & Adventure 20th Century PG 1h 59m Released May 25, 1977 Discussed 2021–2024
Opening (limited)
$1.6M
43 theaters
Per-theater average
$36,151
opening weekend
Domestic total
$461.0M
Worldwide total
$775.4M
59% domestic
Production budget
$11.0M
70.5× worldwide
RT critics
93%
RT audience
96%
+3 vs critics
Metacritic
90
Platform release: the opening figure is its limited debut in 43 theaters, not a wide-release weekend.
Where it turns up
Friday, June 11, 2021 Second weekend of June 2021
In the note
It’s like saying Star Wars and THX 1138 are the same thing; they’re both from George Lucas, they’re both terrific and groundbreaking films, but they’re not the same.
Friday, November 11, 2022 Wakanda Forever weekend 2022
In the note
If it had more of a normal arc it probably would have been closer to 180 instead of 200. Second, there’s a lot of Marvel content out there these days, so we might see a little bit of a decay because the genre is a little saturated now, similar to what we saw with Star Wars.
Friday, December 16, 2022 Avatar: The Way of Water weekend 2022
In the note
Like I said, all those pre-sales and all that tracking doesn’t mean the same thing this time of year, the data is good, it’s the people interpreting it that aren’t. As I’ve spoken to people in the biz over the last couple of weeks I’ve heard ‘but….it’s like Star Wars!…but….it's like Spider-Man!…..), uh huh, this ain’t that.
Friday, December 30, 2022 New Year's weekend 2022
In the note
Avatar or Spider-Man No Way Home (or the Star Wars films) offered an upgraded experience compared with watching a TV movie at home, so they did just fine.
Thursday, November 23, 2023 Thanksgiving 2023
In the note
We actually saw the flip side of this when Disney was white hot and a couple of those Star Wars films got rave reviews, but later the fans weighed in with a significantly different tone.
Friday, December 8, 2023 Second weekend of December 2023
In the note
So the 2019 2nd weekend in December is probably closer to next weekend’s films (Jumanji: The Next Level showed what a Jumanji movie could open to without a Star Wars movie against it at $59.3 million, plus Richard Jewell and Black Christmas opened), and clearly we’ll be way behind that total.
Friday, June 7, 2024 First weekend of June 2024
In the note
Same with other franchisees like Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, the list goes on and on.
Friday, November 22, 2024 Glicked weekend 2024
In the note
If today holds it's only down 20% from last weekend for a gross in the low 4's. It’s true, but what’s so mind blowing is that both of them (yes, even Empire after the insane success of Star Wars) went limited, because clearly they needed to build word of mouth to be successful.