Episode II Surpasses $116 Million at Box Office

Domasi writes "The Force is with George Lucas again as the fifth installment of the Star Wars saga, 'Attack of the Clones,' took in $116.3 million in its first four days and to become the second-fastest film behind only "Spider-Man"." Spider-man is better. But I plan to see both of them again.

No one saw this.

[petree]

I bet there was no one amongst this crowd who ever thought Spider-Man would out perform -ANY- episode of Star Wars at the box office. Ever.

I certainly didn't see it coming.

Is this inflation-adjusted?

[danger42]

Has anyone asked the question, are the box office draws inflation adjusted?

My guess would be they are not, because movie studios are desperate to create enough hype to get people into the theatres before word of mouth kills the flick.

What would be interesting would be to see NUMBER of ticket sales, not total dollar amounts. The price of movies is more than double what it was 15 years ago, so it looks like more than twice the number of people are seeing movies now.

I can say that in 1985, when I paid $4.00 to see The Empire Strikes Back, there was alot more interest in the Star Wars franchise than there is now. But the movie studios want you to think the opposite.

How is Spider-Man better than Star Wars?

[Win-Developer]

Both movies had lame dialogue and wooden acting. They both had a character that chewed up the scenery everytime the character was on screen(Jar Jar/ Willem Dafoe). Spider-Man had lame-o effects and a piss poor ending, while star wars had better effects and a piss poor ending.

At least star wars didn't have the oft repeated line "with great power comes great responsibility" :) But Star Wars did have a laughable love story...so I guess they're about even.

But I think I've got Clones nailed down into a single comment..."Attack of the Clones is Pearl Harbor in Space". Both have lame love stories and bad acting, and in the end...everything goes boom!

Spider-man is better?

[schwatoo]

Yeah I thought so too. I just loved that scene with the New Yorkers on the bridge throwing down junk at the Green Goblin to distract him from beating up Spidey. "You mess with him and you mess with us!".

As plot devices go that's up there with destroying an Alien battle fleet with a PowerMac and Word Macro Virus

WTF is Taco smoking?

[Big_Ass_Spork]

The first half of Spiderman is a redundant piece of shit to anyone who read the comic (or even watched the TV show). AotC, OTOH, is the best (by far) installment of the SW saga. Reevaluate thyself, then try again.

Re:Just for Yoda

[Ryan_Singer]

There is an end, when he picks up his walking stick after stopping the falling pillar.

That's when everyone in my theater (12:01 showing, first showing for that theater) erupted into applause for Yoda.

Re:Why $$$?

[necrognome]

A film is a time sequence of images (not necessarily chronological) often intermixed with audio. "Impart[ing] human feelings via relationships and understanding" is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of filmmaking. It's also a muddled notion of aesthetics. Some aestheticians have remarked that, "Art expresses human emotions," but this is a theory of beauty and certainly debatable. Furthermore, some films--concept films mostly--lack both characters and plot, and this is by design.

Distaste is not a reason for trolling.

Re:Why $$$?

[ryszards]

There's a lot to be said for using films as an escape and not taking much at all from them, purely using them as an escapist medium to escape reality.

Star Wars is arguably to most succesful human escapist work ever created, empowering generations to live in a world they could hardly imagine.

That its success is rated in dollars is purely a side effect of todays money biased society.

Who cares about the money and who cares if the film doesn't impart human feelings. If you enjoy it, that's all that matters. A movie isn't _supposed_ to _do_ anything, it's the viewer that interprets things, not the film forcing anything on you.

Rys

These statistics seem meaningless...

[linuxrunner]

First of all, when I'm told a movie grossed the most $$$ ever, I cringe.
These stats are great for me knowing that yes, Spiderman sold more tickets than Star Wars at the box office this year... But don't tell me it's the best selling movie ever. It's probably not!

I mean, look at how much it costs to buy a ticket today.. What, $8.50 round about?

So what you're telling me that year after year, with inflation, there will always be a bigger and better blockbuster according to gross sales?
Why has no one EVER ajusted for inflation? For all I know the best and most watched movie way Ben Hur... hehe....

Re:Episode I

[the_2nd_coming]

no, becasue Episode I was not that bad.

arg...it was the begining of the entire saga, not a stand alone movie.....saying episode I was a bad movie is about a brilient as the folks who complained about the ending of Felloship of the rings.

More AotC talk

[Fjord]

One of the things I liked about AotC is that Lucas used the fact that Jar Jar is a complete idiot and turned it into an important plot device. Jar Jar's action and the fact that he was in such a position of power wouldn't have make much sense without his role the first movie.

It's hard for me to say Spider-man was better. They were both very good in their own right and I plan on owning both of them. The love scenes in Spider-man were hands-down better, though.

Something to think about

[ciurana]

I was watching CNN Headline News on Saturday morning when they interviewed the film critic for Entertainment Tonight. My attitude toward the $115 million box office mark is the same as his answer to the AOTC vs. Spider-Man question: Why should I care? I'm not getting a piece of the action.

The important thing is that, for the $9 I paid for my ticket, I got a comfortable seat and an a magical experience watching the film. I thought both movies were very entertaining and already watched Spider-Man twice. I'm going to watch AOTC again because I want to see the digital version (go Yoda!). Now, I couldn't care less about which movie made the more $$$ because I'm not among the people whose net worth was increased by the box office take.

Discussing this box office take rivalry is like arguing who is the coolest millionaire, Ellison or Gates? I don't really care. All I care is how their products perform and how they affect my business.

Cheers!

E

Re:Just for Yoda

[Anonymous Coward]

There was a clear ending. Yoda demonstrated the true power of a Jedi, compassion and caring for others. Yoda could have easily taken Count Dooku, yet when faced with the decision to keep fighting, or to save young Anakin, and Obi-Wan from certain fate.... Yoda chose to save his padawans. Then to pontificate the situation even more, we realize that there was no clear, and definative possibility for a conclusion, as Master Yoda says, because the Clone War has begun.............
Biatch!

Re:WTF is Taco smoking?

[joshsisk]

The first half of Spiderman is a redundant piece of shit to anyone who read the comic

So you think they should limit the movie's audience to only those who read the comic? Sounds like a good business strategy.

I mean, LOTR was pretty redundant, if you look at it that way. And something tells me I already know what's gonna happen in the next two in the series as well...

I'm just reminded what Green Goblin tells Spidey..

[Brian_Ellenberger]

With regards to the SW vs. Spider-Man, I'm reminded about what the Green Goblin tells Spidey in the movie. He basically tells him that it is no use being the good guy because everyone will try and tear you down anyway. People like building someone up and then tearing them down.

The new SW movies are evidence of that. Far too many of the "fans" are just out there to tear down SW with any nitpick they can come up with and build up a new "hero". Sure there are many problems with the new SW films. But there are many problems with the old ones as well (whiney Luke, bad dialog, etc).

I think people are too quick to tear down SW. It is a movie, not a religion. And it is a film for everyone, not just geeks. I think the general public likes the new SW films more than the hardcore geeks like to admit. I showed the Phantom Menace to my mother-in-law on Friday and she loved it. So much that our whole family saw AOTC on Sunday. The exit polls show people rating AOTC as a A-. I bet the minus comes from SW "fans".

In fact, the hardcore SW fans are hurting SW more than anything. By dressing up and standing in line and such they are threatening to reduce SW to simple geekdom (see Star Trek). Normal people generally avoid geekdom, and I bet alot of people are turned off on SW just because of the so-called-fans.

My final rant is that if Lucas was in it SOLELY for the money he would have made 10 SW films by now and 7 of them would be cheap crappy films (see Star Trek). Also he would have shown them on as many screens as possible instead of limiting them to the ones with digital sound.
Sure he likes a profit as much as anyone, but he is also SW's biggest and best fan.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see how much the Slashdot crowd turns on Spider-Man 2 and the Matrix Reloaded.

Brian Ellenberger

Re:More AotC talk

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't want to seem like a troll, but Kirsten Dunst would look MUCH hotter naked and petrified than Natalie Portman. God, did you guys see her breasts? The dark alley rape scene when it was raining was fantastic. And her low cut shirt in the beginning field trip was amazing. She is truly a hotty.

Re:My Star Wars Strategy:

[nido]

>>Movies are getting more and more expensive (2 people = $8 tickets x 2, popcorn = $4, 2 drinks = $7, candy = $4 = 16 + 4 + 7 + 4 = $31 just for the movie experience).<<

Simple solution: don't buy the popcorn, drinks or candy, and you've saved yourself $15. Have dinner before you head out to the theater, and not only will you not be hungry for popcorn, but you could have eaten something healthier to boot.

Re:4th & 5th episodes dull as can be

[gamgee5273]

Umm...you mean the first and second episodes, lad. Fourth was ANH, fifth was ESB.

Spoilers ahead, folks:

Now, I don't know about you, but I identify with Anakin: his mother dies in his arms and he massacres men, women and children in the Tusken Raider settlement for revenge. The boy is conflicted and in massive pain. Add that to Obi-wan dismissing Anakin's dreams of his mother ("Dreams pass in time") and you have a very upset, very powerful individual. I suspect, once all is said and done, we will actually understand why Anakin would turn...we might even be sympathetic.

Re:I'm just reminded what Green Goblin tells Spide

[neurojab]

>(whiney Luke, bad dialog, etc).

Bad dialogue? I think the dialogue from the "holy trilogy" is filled with gems. "Never tell me the odds", "I love you, I know", "sorry about the mess", and so forth.

But yes, that kid sure is a whiner.

Do you smoke crack?

[Fooknut]

To sum up my comment, it seems almost like complaining about star wars is fashionable lately, and I hate it.

Frankly Episode II wasn't the best movie I've seen or even the best Star Wars movie i've seen, but it did not suck.

I think it's stupid to expect perfection in Star Wars. The originals weren't perfect, and the new movies won't be either, but perfect or not, they are still better than most of the movies coming out these days. Lucas is locked into the story no matter what does. He must follow the storyline because these movies already have prequels and sequels. IMHO this is something to take into account when critizing the movie.

Complaints about Jar-Jar and CGI are pathetic excuses. These are complaints merely for the sake of complaining. ILM's effects are still some of the best in the industry, and Jar-Jar was so small of a part that I can't believe anyone would focus on that rather than focusing on the myriad of other *GOOD* things.