Darth Homer Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Box Office Mojo and most other sites have $165.8m as its lifetime OS gross. But worldwideboxoffice.com (a site that's been around forever) has it at $263.7m. I find it very hard to believe ROTJ only made $165 including the '97 SE release. That would mean it basically flopped overseas compared to ANH ($314m) and ESB ($247m). But if this number is accurate, what do people think is the reason for the huge drop?Obviously, video piracy was a non-issue in '77 and '80. But growing up in the UK in the 80's, I don't remember ROTJ being pirated enough to hurt its box office. Any insiders able to shed some light on this mystery? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junkshop36 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 BOM separates the grosses for the movies from there initial runs from the SE releases. They have ROTJ at 163.8m for its first run and 43.8m for the SE release. That adds up to 209.6m so not sure where that 263.7m gross comes from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lab276 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 $263.7m is also probably wrong, because the special edition made $43.8m OS.As for why it dropped, I'm not certain. 1984 was a particularly bad year in the OS box office, most markets had a significant decrease compared to 1983, for example in the UK, there were only 54m tickets sold. So if it was released towards the end of 1983 in most places, it might have just been affected by that drop-off. BOM separates the grosses for the movies from there initial runs from the SE releases.Not true, Titanic has had its OS number updated, same with TLK etc... You have to take away the rerelease OS gross from the lifetime OS gross. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lab276 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Or, they could just be incomplete records. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noctis Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Well, considering this film has the Ewoks...no wonder it's the lowest grossing film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junkshop36 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 $263.7m is also probably wrong, because the special edition made $43.8m OS.As for why it dropped, I'm not certain. 1984 was a particularly bad year in the OS box office, most markets had a significant decrease compared to 1983, for example in the UK, there were only 54m tickets sold. So if it was released towards the end of 1983 in most places, it might have just been affected by that drop-off.Not true, Titanic has had its OS number updated, same with TLK etc... You have to take away the rerelease OS gross from the lifetime OS gross.I was looking under the Franchise section. When they list ally's movies in that particular franchise they separate out any SE releases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spazz91 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Well, considering this film has the Ewoks...no wonder it's the lowest grossing film.they really seem to be a love-hate kind of thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 (edited) For Germany insidekino has 4.125.315 + 929.320 = 5.054.635 admissions, so about 20% in the re-release in todays $ about 40m alltogetherCorpse lists 6.9m admissions for it in Japan Edited August 14, 2012 by Rudolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 (edited) in Sowjetunion it was never officially released, I think the same is valid for China and India was never so into Holywoodin Spain it is not in the top30 alltime so sub 5m admissions for sure Edited August 14, 2012 by Rudolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noctis Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 they really seem to be a love-hate kind of thingNo one in their right mind loves the Ewoks. No one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 (edited) French JP's-Boxoffice http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=11575gives $43,790,543 for OS-total 1997for France 966,979 admissions for 1997 (sounds inline with Germany)for Italy 683k adm. in the 12 largest cities http://boxofficebenful.blogspot.co.at/2009/03/box-office-italia-1983-84.htmlin 1983 - should translate to about 4m in total Italy Edited August 14, 2012 by Rudolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinocchio Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 In George Lucas' book Blockbusting it says: ROTJ made 309 mio domestic with re-releases and worldwide 476 million. So 167 million overseas seems be be accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Box Office Mojo and most other sites have $165.8m as its lifetime OS gross. But worldwideboxoffice.com (a site that's been around forever) has it at $263.7m. I find it very hard to believe ROTJ only made $165 including the '97 SE release. That would mean it basically flopped overseas compared to ANH ($314m) and ESB ($247m). But if this number is accurate, what do people think is the reason for the huge drop?Obviously, video piracy was a non-issue in '77 and '80. But growing up in the UK in the 80's, I don't remember ROTJ being pirated enough to hurt its box office. Any insiders able to shed some light on this mystery?OS in those years was mainly Western Europe - here cinema audiences were still declining (US was already past that phase) so 6 years difference mean a lot for Star Wars and Return Of The Jedi (especially in Italy and Spain were 70s was the peak for their cinema) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peludo Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 in Sowjetunion it was never officially released, I think the same is valid for China and India was never so into Holywoodin Spain it is not in the top30 alltime so sub 5m admissions for sureSpain: 2,653,364 admissions / 775,815,712 pesetas (That's 4,662,746 €). I have found an economical article dated August 9th 1983 in Spanish press which says 1 dollar = 152.5 pesetas. Asuming a similar number for the whole year, we have Return of the Jedi did about 5-5.2 million $ in Spain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peludo Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 OS in those years was mainly Western Europe - here cinema audiences were still declining (US was already past that phase) so 6 years difference mean a lot for Star Wars and Return Of The Jedi (especially in Italy and Spain were 70s was the peak for their cinema)Absolutely true. in Spain, Episode IV sold 6.9 million admissions in 1977. Episode V plummeted to 2.8 million, and Episode VI still dropped to 2.6 million. There are quite 70s movies in top 50 adjusted in Spain, but I can't remember any from 80s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthdevidem01 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 A shame it didn't do that well OVerseas. Domestic was amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 BOM separates the grosses for the movies from there initial runs from the SE releases.They have ROTJ at 163.8m for its first run and 43.8m for the SE release. That adds up to 209.6m so not sure where that 263.7m gross comes from.Isn't that 43.8m included in the total $165.8 OS gross, though? That means its original 1983 OS gross was less than half its domestic total. Pathetic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinocchio Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Isn't that 43.8m included in the total $165.8 OS gross, though? That means its original 1983 OS gross was less than half its domestic total. Pathetic Yes, they are included. ROTJ made something like 67/33 domestic/overseas during it's first run it seems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudolf Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Isn't that 43.8m included in the total $165.8 OS gross, though? That means its original 1983 OS gross was less than half its domestic total. Pathetic Star Wars was by far more an American thingTitanic and AVATAR underperformed in America (compared to the market)Batman, Spider-Man and The Avengers overperform in America (north and South) compared to the market Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 Star Wars is more popular domestic than overseas, sure. But that doesn't explain why ROTJ has by far the lowest OS ratio of any of the saga. Unless it really was the Ewoks . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...