The box office sales have slowed down because it's been out over a month now, that always happens to movies. ROTS is no exception.
Also, if you read this article (scroll down to where it says "Company Claims it was Slandered by MPAA"😉, you'll see that they greatly exaggerate how much money is lost by pirating.
http://us.imdb.com/news/sb/2005-06-22/#3
Not that I'm condoning it, or anything, but obviously pirating hasn't hurt ROTS that much. After all, how many box office records did it shatter?
any person who watches a pirate crappy copy on the PC or TV of ROTS is not a fan and will not go see it in a theater anyway so there is no loss of money there. here's an example I downloaded the War of the Worlds soundtack last night and listened to it, if it was good I would go and buy it but it is not that great so I won't, I could wait and go into the store and ask to listen to it before I buy it and with this one I wouldn't of bought it. same goes for the movies
SITH has made over $350 million dollars nationwide. After this weekend it will be the 10th highest grossing motion picture of all time. Explain to me how bootlegging hurt this fiilm's gross?
If anything...there is better competition this year. Right now, I would rather seen Batman for a second time than SITH for the fifth time. Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a great freakin' movie too. I still haven't seen Cinderella Man and will probably see that before seeing SITH Again.
As far as comparing it to TPM, I saw that around 17 times in the theatre. I liked it a lot more and coud stand to see it over and over. AOTC I only saw 9 times or so...maybe 10. I got bored with it. I've seen SITH 4 times in the theatre, twice at home...and even though I have a clean DVD rip...I haven't watched it because I am bored as all hell with the movie.
I think more goes into SITH's box office than OMG...people bootlegging. In fact, I think bootlegging has little to no effect on theatre grosses.