‘Return of the Jedi’ Re-Release Cracks Top 5 of the Weekend’s US Box Office
Return of the Jedi returned this weekend to theaters in North America, and despite only showing on 475 screens, it still managed to crack the top 5 of the weekend’s box office. The film also played in some specific international markets, but we don’t have those numbers at hand.
Initial estimates published on Deadline and Collider put the weekend’s gross at $4.7M, averaging $10,300 per theater; it seems like they were getting this from The Numbers. However, both Box Office Mojo and The Numbers updated their numbers once the box office finals came in on Monday, and are reporting that Return of the Jedi actually grossed $5.1M, averaging $10,738 per theater. While box office numbers databases are a little fuzzy from 40 years ago, The Numbers says its lifetime domestic gross sits at $314M, with the worldwide number being $480M.
With this number, Return of the Jedi came in at #4 at the weekend’s box office, behind Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which cracked the #3 spot with $6.74M on its debut, Evil Dead Rise, with $12M on the #2 spot (50% drop from last week), and The Super Mario Bros., which on its fourth week of release still came out on top thanks to another $40M, which, with the help of new international markets like Japan and South Korea, helped the film crossed the $1 billion line.
Despite its big per-theater average, the film was #3 on that ranking, behind 32 Sounds, which grossed $10,842 on a single screen, and The Eight Mountains, which pulled in $50,060 on two screens (average of $25,030). It did beat out, however, The Super Mario Bros., which was #4 on the per-theater average list with $9,713/screen.
Return of the Jedi was released in 1983, directed by Richard Marquand, and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. A new poster was made for the re-release and unveiled during Star Wars Celebration last month:
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
