That’s how you celebrate May the 4th weekend. The Phantom Menace 25th anniversary re-release defied all expectations for a film that has been available on home video for 24 years and opened at number 2 at the North American box office, bringing in $8.1 million on 2700 screens for a total of $14.48 million globally. That makes for a new lifetime tally of $1,041,563,462, meaning that Phantom is now the 19th highest grossing film of all time adjusted for inflation (right behind Jurassic Park with 90,312,100 tickets sold and an adjusted total of $826,205,195), the 22nd domestically (with a new total of $482,624,677 right behind Finding Dory) and outperforms the 40th anniversary re-release of Return of the Jedi which brought in $5.1 million in April 2024.
Phantom Menace‘s weekend is a nice turn of events for the film. It kicked off George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy in 1999, and for years after, was a punchline for audiences and Star Wars fans, but has grown in appreciation in the decades since, with younger fans who grew up on the film coming into adulthood, and star Ewan McGregor reprising his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi for his own Disney+ series in 2022, helping further build nostalgia for the film. It returned to theaters as part of the film’s 25th anniversary, as well as for May the 4th, the unofficial Star Wars holiday.
- Hardcover Book
- Córdova, Zoraida (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 336 Pages - 08/27/2024 (Publication Date) - Random House/Star Wars (Publisher)
