Cinephiles have long said cinemas should do more wide retro-screenings, and in recent weeks, there have been quite a few which have all been decent.
“Alien,” “Shrek 2,” and “The Mummy” to the Raimi “Spider-Man” trilogy have all seen reissues and the first three all generated a little over $1 million each in their runs.
That’s not the case with the 25th anniversary of “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace”. Arriving in cinemas just in time for Star Wars Day on Saturday, Lucasfilm’s re-release has been a major success.
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The film took in an $8.5 million weekend gross domestically, beating out “Challengers” at $7 million to take second spot at the U.S. box-office this weekend – behind only “The Fall Guy” in first with $28.5 million.
It marks the second-best opening weekend haul for a re-release this decade – between “Avatar” in 2022 with $10 million and “Titanic” with just under $7 million last year.
On top of that, the film pulled in an additional $6 million overseas – bringing the re-release weekend total to $14.5 million.
The film also handily beat the 40th anniversary re-release of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” which opened to $5.1 million domestically in April last year.
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