Star Wars making millions
2005-05-20 23:19
Los Angeles - The Force was with the last Star Wars movie when the Revenge of the Sith raked in a record $16.5m in its first wave of North American midnight screenings, distributors said on Friday.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith began screening on 2 900 screens across the continent at 12:01 on Thursday, to the delight of the legions of fans anxiously awaiting the sixth and final film in the series.
"The midnight shows were sold out everywhere," said an official at 20th Century Fox studios, which is distributing George Lucas's Star Wars finalé.
The haul of $16.5m includes only the midnight showing and not any of the later screenings of the picture that played solidly for 24 hours in some theatres.
The huge midnight haul puts the film well on its way to shattering the record box office take for a single day set by Shrek 2, which notched up $44.8m in ticket sales on its first day last year.
Broke Matrix record
Overseas, midnight screenings of the film in Mexico generated $5.3m on Thursday, while German midnight showings raked in $2.9m.
In France, Revenge of the Sith broke the record of 576 544 set for ticket sales by The Matrix Reloaded, while in Belgium it set a one-day record of 452 000.
Then-unknown Lucas launched the now-cult franchise with the original Star Wars movie in 1977.