I’m a box office nerd and I love seeing how much movies make or don’t. In this day and age, opening weekends are the most important numbers you’ll need to show whether or not your film is a success.
The Phantom Menace was going to be a test.
Angry fanboys in many circles were convinced that since they were boycotting it it would do poorly in the theatre.
More level headed fans like myself relished the thought of taking our kids to see it for the first time on the big screen and were rewarded with a great time and the single best post-conversion 3D we’ve ever seen.
But how well did it do?
Well, the weekend estimates are in and it’s being guessed that The Phantom Menace in 3D pulled in $23 million dollars.
Sure, it came in fourth at the box office, but for a rerelease of a movie that everyone and their cousin has seen and was allegedly despised by all, that’s a pretty incredible number. And I don’t see it dropping off much any time soon with all the good press the conversion has been getting. And I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed, but with the softened expectations and people enjoying the film for what it was instead of what it wasn’t, the reviews that have been coming in from sensible critics have been unanimously more good than bad. (Check out this balanced EW piece, for instance.)
You should check out my full review of the 3D here.
I’ll update this post with the actual numbers, but as it stands, $23 million is impressive… Most impressive.