$17 Million in 'Sith' Sales!

$17 mil. in one night and six tix a second.

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Thursday, May 19th 2005 at 7:33 AM

Well, Star Wars: Episode III is off to quite a start as it pulled in an estimated $16.5 million-to-$17 million in receipts from the this morning's midnight shows alone and Fandango is reporting that they are currently selling six Sith tickets a second and the company expects the number to grow by the weekend.

Fandango is currently the largest online ticketing service so when it says that with 98 percent of all Fandango sales week-to-date (as of May 19) were devoted to Sith, it is no surprise the film is expected to dethrone Fandango's current ticketing champ, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

As for the box-office numbers just consider that the $150 million budgeted Kingdom of Heaven brought in only $20 million in its first weekend while Revenge of the Sith brings in $17 mil during its first screenings. The Hollywood Reporter is carrying a quote from Bruce Snyder, president of domestic distribution for Fox who said, "We'll be counting the grosses for a while. It's an absolutely remarkable number. It seems like the industry got kickstarted last night at midnight."

Kickstarted indeed, there had been so much talk swirling about how this was the worst year in ages at the box-office, but it seems Star Wars is here to save the day. Currently sitting with an 83% approval rate at RottenTomatoes the critics seem to believe it is a success from a movie standpoint, so now I guess we just have to wait and see how big it can get.