Scott Mendelson, writing over at Forbes, looks back 18 years to the summer of 1999 when The Phantom Menace exceeded all box office expectations and ran through the spring and summer for one of the longest engagements in recent history.
Yes, I know, we all allegedly hate The Phantom Menace. It destroyed our childhood, wrecked Star Wars, etc., etc. But it also made an unholy amount of money in the summer of 1999. It earned $431 million in domestic release (around $754m adjusted for inflation) and $924m worldwide (on a $115m budget) sans any kind of IMAX or 3D upcharges, which was the third-biggest domestic grosser (behind Titanic‘s $600m gross in 1997/1998 and Star Wars lifetime total of $460m) and the second-biggest global grosser (behind Titanic‘s $1.8 billion gross) ever at the time.
As George Lucas said when promoting Attack of the Clones(paraphrasing): “I made More American Graffiti, I know what happens when people don’t like a sequel, no one goes.” But audiences did go and see The Phantom Menace in theaters that summer. More importantly, at least to the conventional wisdom that folks hated the movie as much as the hardcore fan base did, that movie didn’t just snag a huge total box office sum 18.5 years ago. It played all summer long, becoming one of the leggiest blockbusters of the modern era.
