What is the real overseas gross for Return of the Jedi?

[Darth Homer]

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?

[junkshop36]

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.

[lab276]

$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.

[lab276]

Or, they could just be incomplete records.

[Noctis]

Well, considering this film has the Ewoks...no wonder it's the lowest grossing film.

[junkshop36]

$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.

[spazz91]

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

[Rudolf]

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

[Rudolf]

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

[Noctis]

they really seem to be a love-hate kind of thing

No one in their right mind loves the Ewoks. No one.

[Rudolf]

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

[pinocchio]

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.

[Rudolf]

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)

[peludo]

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

Spain: 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.

[peludo]

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.

[darthdevidem01]

A shame it didn't do that well OVerseas. Domestic was amazing.

[Darth Homer]

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

[pinocchio]

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.

[Rudolf]

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

[Darth Homer]

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 . . .