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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back dominates the weekend box office

By Dan Selcke

Actors dressed as fictional characters Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO, and stormtroopers, who all appear in the Star Wars franchise, attend the royal premiere of 'The Empire Strikes Back' at the Odeon Leicester Square, London, UK, 20th May 1980. (Photo by Paul Thuaban/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Actors dressed as fictional characters Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO, and stormtroopers, who all appear in the Star Wars franchise, attend the royal premiere of 'The Empire Strikes Back' at the Odeon Leicester Square, London, UK, 20th May 1980. (Photo by Paul Thuaban/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) /
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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back may be a 40-year-old movie, but that didn’t stop it from dominating the box office this weekend like it was 1980 again…or 1982…or 1997.

It’s been 40 years since The Empire Strikes Back debuted in theaters…and 38 years since it was reissued in 1982…and 23 years since a new edition edited by Lucas was released in 1997; the movie has been rereleased a lot.

And why not? It’s one of the most influential movies out there, the rare big-budget sequel to build on its predecessor rather than rehash it, and a movie that many Star Wars fans claim remains the best in the series. In the age of COVID-19, studios are releasing old movies to what theaters are still open — mostly drive-ins — while the industry struggles to get back on its feet. This past weekend, The Empire Strikes Back came back for another go-round, grossing somewhere in the high 400k to low 500k range, making it the top earner of the weekend, according to Deadline.

It’s like 1980 all over again.

It’s definitely cool that this is happening in the year of the film’s 40th birthday, and indicates just how persistent Star Wars mania has been for near half a century. Adding to the serendipity, today is Harrison Ford’s 78th birthday! The stars are truly aligning.

This is a fun moment for Star Wars fans, although at the end of the day, obviously 500k is still very small compared to what new movies usually take in. Most theaters remain shut down thanks to the coronavirus, and with cases on the rise again in the US, there’s no telling when things could return to normal.

There were some normal theaters starting to open up again, but there’s been no stability. Last weekend, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the closures of businesses in 19 counties, much to the chagrin of theater owners. “Theaters are one of the safest things to do now for getting out of the house,” argued independent movie theater owner Rick Roman. “A moviegoer typically spends about 5 to 7 minutes getting their tickets and concessions, then go to their socially distanced seat to watch a two-hour movie. There is no talking, no servers and bus boys walking around you. The people in the country have this itch to get out of the house. The states should be encouraging the theaters to get open because we are the safest thing out there to scratch the itch. Maybe if the itch got scratched there be less people going out breaking the social distance rules.”

Not sure if I buy all of that, but there it is.

Anyway, congrats to The Empire Strikes Back, again, and let’s hope that theaters can safely get back to normal. Stay safe, everyone.

Next. Every numbered Star Wars movie, ranked worst to best. dark

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