'Attack of the Clones' on Course to Third Biggest Weekend Ever
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones is poised to post the third biggest opening of all time as it continued to outpace its predecessor on Friday.
Playing on approximately 6,100 screens at 3,161 theaters, George Lucas' digital epic took in an estimated $24.7 million on Friday, ranking as the 12th biggest day ever and more than doubling No. 2 Spider-Man's estimated $11,566,000. Clones eased 18.2% from its mid-week record-breaking $30,141,417 Thursday debut.
After two days, the total stands at an estimated $54.8 million, nearly matching the $59,317,780 that The Phantom Menace earned in its first three days.
Three years ago, The Phantom Menace drew in $18,467,513 on its first Friday and third day of release, playing on around 5,500 screens at 2,970 theaters. It enjoyed a 32.2% bump-up on Saturday to $24,414,123, and then dipped just 10.2% on Sunday to $21,929,334. That added up to a $64,810,970 weekend, the second biggest opening ever at the time. It ended its run at $431,088,297, a total that stands as the fourth highest of all time.
If the Friday estimate holds and if Clones follows a similar pattern to Menace, it would generate an $85 million opening weekend, which would rank only behind Spider-Man's $114,844,116 and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's $90,294,621 on the all time list. At any rate, there's a lot of leeway here as the current No. 3 is The Lost World: Jurassic Park with $72,132,785, a number Clones should exceed by a minimum of 10%.
By weekend's end and its fourth day of release, Clones will likely have hit $110 million at least, making it the second fastest movie to cross the century mark, behind Spider-Man's three-day sprint.
Clones plan from the start was to be a marathon runner, something it will have an excellent chance to display over Memorial Day weekend. The Phantom Menace slowed just 21% on the same frame to $51,399,863 and added $15,504,435 on the Monday holiday itself for a four-day weekend total of $66,904,298 that exceeded its opening by 3%.
As phenomenally popular as it is, Attack of the Clones' performance may lose some of its luster when the history of Star Wars is taken into account. Return of the Jedi shattered all records and The Phantom Menace nearly all of them at the time of their releases. In fact, Jedi was so dominating, its $23,019,618 opening weekend beat the previous record holder by over 60%. The first Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back don't count as they started as sold out limited releases, but Star Wars did set a new weekend milestone in its 1978 re-release and blew away all January records with its 1997 special edition re-issue.
Related Story: 'Spider-Man,' 'About a Boy' Survive 'Attack'
click here for the
'ATTACK OF THE CLONES' BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
Playing on approximately 6,100 screens at 3,161 theaters, George Lucas' digital epic took in an estimated $24.7 million on Friday, ranking as the 12th biggest day ever and more than doubling No. 2 Spider-Man's estimated $11,566,000. Clones eased 18.2% from its mid-week record-breaking $30,141,417 Thursday debut.
After two days, the total stands at an estimated $54.8 million, nearly matching the $59,317,780 that The Phantom Menace earned in its first three days.
Three years ago, The Phantom Menace drew in $18,467,513 on its first Friday and third day of release, playing on around 5,500 screens at 2,970 theaters. It enjoyed a 32.2% bump-up on Saturday to $24,414,123, and then dipped just 10.2% on Sunday to $21,929,334. That added up to a $64,810,970 weekend, the second biggest opening ever at the time. It ended its run at $431,088,297, a total that stands as the fourth highest of all time.
If the Friday estimate holds and if Clones follows a similar pattern to Menace, it would generate an $85 million opening weekend, which would rank only behind Spider-Man's $114,844,116 and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone's $90,294,621 on the all time list. At any rate, there's a lot of leeway here as the current No. 3 is The Lost World: Jurassic Park with $72,132,785, a number Clones should exceed by a minimum of 10%.
By weekend's end and its fourth day of release, Clones will likely have hit $110 million at least, making it the second fastest movie to cross the century mark, behind Spider-Man's three-day sprint.
Clones plan from the start was to be a marathon runner, something it will have an excellent chance to display over Memorial Day weekend. The Phantom Menace slowed just 21% on the same frame to $51,399,863 and added $15,504,435 on the Monday holiday itself for a four-day weekend total of $66,904,298 that exceeded its opening by 3%.
As phenomenally popular as it is, Attack of the Clones' performance may lose some of its luster when the history of Star Wars is taken into account. Return of the Jedi shattered all records and The Phantom Menace nearly all of them at the time of their releases. In fact, Jedi was so dominating, its $23,019,618 opening weekend beat the previous record holder by over 60%. The first Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back don't count as they started as sold out limited releases, but Star Wars did set a new weekend milestone in its 1978 re-release and blew away all January records with its 1997 special edition re-issue.
Related Story: 'Spider-Man,' 'About a Boy' Survive 'Attack'
click here for the
'ATTACK OF THE CLONES' BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
