We all knew it was going to be big out of the gate, and STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH delivered a record-breaking $158,449,700 for its first four days in release, Thursday through Sunday, May 19-22, 2005. That number eclipses SPIDER-MAN 2s $130.5M. Along the way, SITH (with eye-catching vfx from ILM) also racked up records for midnight showing, opening and single day, two-day and three-day. For the weekend, SITH collected $108,435,841: the second-best weekend ever next to SPIDER-MANs $114.8M. Meanwhile, the last STAR WARS movie smashed all records overseas with $145.5M, eclipsing the $129.7M opening from THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING.
The rest of the top 10 looked like this:
New Lines MONSTER-IN-LAW finished second with $14.3M in its second week for a total of $44.1M. Universals KICKING & SCREAMING followed in third with $10.7M and $34.1M. Lions Gates CRASH moved up to fourth with $5.5M and $27.6M. Focus UNLEASHED fell to fifth with $4.1M and $17.8M. Foxs KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (with vfx from The Moving Picture Co., Double Negative, Framestore CFC and Clear) dropped to sixth with $3.5M and a cume of $41.2M. Warner Bros. HOUSE OF WAX (with vfx by Photon VFX) came in seventh with $3.2M and $26.9M. Universals THE INTERPRETER held the eighth spot with $2.9M and $65.4M. Buena Vistas THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (with vfx by Cinesite) settled for ninth with $2M and $46.9M. Dimensions MINDHUNTERS (with vfx from Cinesite) held the 10th spot with $1M and $3.5M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
