Star Wars fans were more than ready to watch the fall of Anakin Skywalker and the rise of Darth Vader all over again on the big screen.
In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith was re-released last weekend, and it absolutely crushed expectations. The film has already become the second-highest grossing re-release of all time.
In just a few days, Revenge of the Sith pulled in a whopping $25 million in U.S. theaters, plus another $17 million internationally. For a little perspective, the only re-release to ever top that is James Cameron’s Titanic back in 2012, which sailed to an insane $350 million during its reissue.
The 20-year-old movie beat out new releases like Ben Affleck’s The Accountant 2 and the still-going-strong Minecraft movie. Of course, the top spot this weekend still belongs to Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror film that barely budged with only a 6% drop in its second weekend.
Still, the victory for Revenge of the Sith is impossible to ignore. With this surge, the film is now edging close to a $900 million global total. Not bad for a movie that, back in the day, was part of a trilogy that fans were seriously split on.
Over time, though, Revenge of the Sith has become the clear favorite of the prequels and it’s currently sitting at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, easily ahead of The Phantom Menace (54%) and Attack of the Clones (61%).
One thing that’s clear from this weekend is that re-releases are having a major moment. In the past year alone, Coraline and Interstellar both pulled in over $50 million each from their respective returns to theaters. Audiences are showing up to theaters to watch older movies, which is great!
If you’re still riding the Star Wars high, you can catch the new episodes of Andor Season 2 now streaming on Disney+. And if you missed Revenge of the Sith in theaters this time around, don’t worry, it’s also streaming on Disney+ whenever you feel like jumping back in to that story.
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