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For the US I doubt it. EPI only grossed slightly over 400 million and it was #1 at the box office for only 2 weeks, then it was over taken my Austin Powers, even though it was the most anticipated movie in history. I think that it will probally gross in the mid 300's.

I think it can match EpI's box office.

But this thread doesn't really belong here.

Pooooooor queeq, feels thta lack of control over an Episode-II Subject.

Moving!!!

I need control of everything.

DO NOT FORGET that TPM opened on FAR fewer cinemas than most big releases- less than half as many, because GL would only let it show at high-qualitiy cinemas.

I was telling my friends for AGES that this would affect the stupidly-high estimated opening figures for it, and GL was telling everyone that would listen as well.

Ep. II will likely follow the same format.

Sorry, I'm a SW-fan, BUT the truth is that GL demanded a lot from the movietheathers and one of the biggest in USA didn't want to cooperate. So that was the true reason why not all the movietheaters had TPM.
That's the truth, but it doesn't change my view on SW

Ep2 wont make more then EP1 unless it just blows everyones socks off. In a trilogy the second installment usually never grooses higher then the first, like The Empire Strikes Back did not do as well at A New Hope at the box office. P.S. L.A. sucks!

TESB didn't bring in more money, but it was defenitly the best!
Hope it is the same with EP II

LA sucks? Oh dear...

Point is, Yerssot, that it did not get shown, at least for a while, at all the small cinemas all over the staes because of GL's strict instructions over quality control.

GL's insiostnece on all this is what restricted TPM's release.

Oh well, I was wrong

I didn;t say you were wrong. I would not be surprised if GL's strict instructions caused one of the major chains to say 'no deal'

Chinas something said no-deal, wasn't it?

Now that I think of it, Titanic made so much dough because all those teenage girls were flocking to see Leo, and they were intrigued by the romantic story line. We'll isn't Episode 2 suppose to be romantic? and it has that new dude playing Anakin, who knows, maybe there will be more girls seeing this one then guys. P.S. L.A. still sucks!

No steers in LA, Tex?

But teenage girls won't flock to see Ep2, unless Leo played Anakin.

Unfortunately Haydesn teen-appeal rating is a little low, opurely due to low exposure. If the publicity machine gets into gear on him, then the story may change.

No Star Wars movie- or indeed any conceivable movie at all- has a hope of beating Titanic. Titanic broke the demographic- the only film in recent histroy to do so. large amounts of people, who had never seen a film in their lives, went to the cinema purely to see Titanic, and not even ANH pulled that off.

SW will never do that. It's a too specific type of movie, I'm afraid.

"Come here don't be afraid"
said OB1, I think it was just to luer the people to watch the movie

That helped a lot.

What place is ANH on? I mean the list of all-time movies that got the most money back from tickets? (my English sucks!)

Second, with Titainic over doubling it in first.

Mind you, inflation-adjusted Gone with the Wind actually beats them both.

ANH is #2 with $460 after Titanic's $600. Yersott you shouldn’t think your English is bad, you communicate very well. You probably speak better English than half the people in my country anyways!

What? I know Titanic is over 1 billion, Texas.

I think it will gross more than episodeI

i'm of the opinion that if ep2 is darker and more interesting than ep1, not that i'm criticising ep1, it hink it has sent the scene well, but the people who watched ep1 will watch it once or twice and then the SW fans will go back and watch it again and again, I know I will. I know I watch ep1 over and over again as i do with all of the films.

1 billion worldwide, $600,000,000 in the US only!

I can almost see that...

Especialy if its waaaaay better than EP1 (like everyone at LFL is saying.

Well, I say: BRAKE THE RECORD!! SW AT THE TOP!!!

It will NOT beat Titanic. No movie will in the forseeable future.

Hard to see the future is, always in motion.

Hope that it is right!

I have the impression that EpII will be a lot better than EpI (which is not a hrd thing to do ). But maybe EpI did put off some non-fans to go and see the next one. Nevertheless, EPII will probably do better than EpI. LFL's marketing dept. will take care of that.

I don't think the amount of money it makes matters. People were saying that Titanic was one of the greatest films ever made purely because of the money it made, but now it's basically forgotten.

Star Wars will always be THE biggest films around because of the way it takes over everything. It's mentioned on T.V shows, other Films, Comics, Songs, Cartoons. It completley takes over. Just look at how many times you've heard people make Darth Maul references on T.V since TPM was released. That type of thing ensures that SW remains the biggest.

Even if Ep2 made $5 it would still be mentioned everywhere. People will still be making Princess Leia hair jokes long after The Matrix, Lord of the Rings and Titanic are forgotten, so even if it bombs at the box office it doesn't really matter.

But saying all that I still think it will be massive because-
Yoda Fights
There is a doomed romance
Christopher Lee is a type of villain that a lot of people haven't seen for a while.
The effects will be great
The sabre fights will be great
The action scenes will be great
Jar Jar will entertain the kids
Mace Windu will blow everyone away
Lots of Jedi in action at the same time will rock
and lastly it's Star Wars!

I mostly agree with you, though be careful what you say about Lord of the Rings...

He.....he.....he....mentioned Jar Jar....

I love Jar Jar. I still can't figure out why LotR has got people so hyped.

Because it's Lord of the bloody Rings, KJ! Something that had an enormous following before GL was even born! Something that did for books what Star Wars did for film! That is still continually voted as the best book of all time more than 80 years after its release!

STar Wars did an impressive thing by JOINING LOTR in the ranks of unforgettable stories. Let's give them bot credit.

I'm not saying anything bad about LotR, just that it doesn't appeal to me.

That's fair enough. I was just saying it will not be forgotten, like you sugested. Certainly not in a time when Star Wars will till be remebrred.

But then LOTR has not got the widespread popular attention these days as SW has. It is not quoted and satirised in tons of tv shows. Can' t beat that easily.

King Jedi is a blasphemer , Just kidding King Jedi, I still love you

As an overall phenomenon, Queeq, LOTR is as big as SW.

almost as big as SW

I understand that Lord of the Rings is ahead in the anticipation polls right now...

That's because it's opening is just around the corner. If EPII and Lord of the rings were opening at the same time, I have no doubt that SW would be #1. The Lord of the Rings preview looks pretty awesome, I saw it when I went to see AI and POTA.

Ushgarak (can I call you Ush? ) Your right that LotR the book will never be forgotten. It has it's own special place in literature but I was really talking about the film.

There is so much fuss over it right now but I think it's going to dissapoint a lot of people. How can Peter Jackson satisfy all of those fans expectations? Lucas thought he had a hard job bringing back SW after 20 years but as you said LotR has been around for 80. That's 80 years of fans imagining what's written in the book. So when it does appear in film I think it's going to split fans right down the middle.

It will be the same with Harry Potter. It can't live up to expectations.

Well, if you are talking about JUST the film, you may be right (mind you, it is looking DAMN good)... but I still think both things should be looked at in terms of being overall phenomenons rather than specific things. Neither will be forgotten.

Harry Potter will almost certainy be a bad thing; also, if they are making a full film out of the shortest book I have no idea how threy expect to make a film the same size out of the fourth book which is some three times as long.

Call me Ush all you like, KJ...

Harry Potter is mainly targeted at a younger audience, dont think I'll be seeing that one

We can all agree that Ep. II will be better than Ep. I, right? Well, theatre costs have increased in the last 3 years, and Ep. I made abou 465 million. I will say 550 million sounds about right to me!

If you look at a world-wide view, costs have slightly increased in Europe as well, but I reckon the final total both US and worldwide will be about the same.

Regardless, it won't come close to Titanic.

Even if it doesn't make as much as Ep. I, it could still be a better movie. Oh well. I guess you all are already aware of that.

I don't want EP2 to be the biggest movie of all time. I'd rather it be remembered for more than just the money it made.

Does it annoy anyone else when Hollywood announces sequels before the first film is out? They did it with the Mummy and Harry Potter.

And LOTR and Matrix II and III, I think.

It definatley happened with the Matrix. It was only meant to be one film but then after it made some money they decided that it was actually part of a trilogy, but they'd just forgot to tell people that.

The Matrix being a Triloigy is EXACTLY the same as Star Wars. They had the idea of it being a triolgy beforehand but didn;t tell anyone until after its release. It is extremely hypocritical for any Star Wars fan to criticise it so.

BTW, accusing LOTR of having sequels ready before it is released is a crud accusation as well. Not only was the entire point of the story that it HAD to be three parts, all three parts were filmed at once. All three films are ready; the only thing stopping them being shown now is spacing.

The Matrix was never written as a trilogy. They only decided that after it was released. One of the Wachoiski (sp) brothers said so. The studio asked them to do a sequel and they said it was part of a trilogy so that they could get more money for making 2 more movies instead of one. Even Keanu Reeves said during interveiws for the first one that he hadn't signed for 3 films because that had only been decided after the first one was made.

Strange; the interview I have read said they envisgaed it as a possible three films from the start, but as they were originally planning the next to be a prequel Keanu wasn't needed because he wasn't around then.

how could the matrix not at least have a sequel if not 2, there was so much stuff left unanswered. They find Neo, and all he does is kill 3 agents when there is a whole human race to free and a whole compuer network to fight, that's like luke just saying, "we'll i've killed three stormstroopers, work done, see ya". They may have originally planned the matrix to be a single film because they created a happy ending like SW, however like SW (vader still being alive) the matrix left the bigger bad guys still around. the genious behind these films is that regardless of whether the film does good or bad the fans go away being satisfied with the ending, if there's a sequel its a bonus. this has to be credited with the writers and directors for allowing such a feature into their films.

I'm going to hold back here because let's just say I don't think much of the Matrix.


Ushgarak this is from an interview with Andy Wachowski which was in Dreamwatch magazine-

INTERVIEWER - There seems to be an unprecedented amount of sequels coming up in the next few years. Is it just Hollywood cashing in?

WACHOWSKI - Well I'm not going to criticise Hollywood for doing sequels when we are doing the same. (laughs) But I don't think you can blame studios for trying to hang on to a good thing. There is such a shortage of good stories and scripts out there so when they find something that works they want to use it to it's fullest. Something like Jurassic Park is a safe bet for studios because they know it's going to make money and hopefully The Matrix falls into that category.

INTERVIEWER - I can imagine that there was a lot of pressure for you to do sequels.

WACHOWSKI - Yes there was. But it's a good kind of pressure(laughs), we knew when we saw the first film that we would be doing more. When the studio came to us we played around with a few ideas but trilogies are really the thing these days, so that's what we decided. It came down to production costs. The ideas that we had were pretty far out and needed a fair amount of time and money. We knew that we could get more of that if a third film depended on the success of the second.