> > Nothing needs to be said about this. Everybody will see it, even though the backlash against Episode I was harsh. Probably won't out-gross Spiderman, though, which is pretty surprising.
>
> Really? I haven't heard the figures for Spider-Man, so I suppose it's possible.

Spiderman is a phenomenon at the box office right now. It was the first film ever to exceed $100 million in its opening weekend, and it has also reached $200 million faster than any other (in ten days, compared to the 13 days it took Phantom Menace). More telling, however, is its percent drop in the second weekend. Most summer blockbusters will drop 45-55% in the second weekend, and this initial drop tends to forecast the performance of the film in the remainder of its theatrical life. When Titanic and There's Something About Mary opened to respectable-but-not-great and disappointing opening numbers, respectively, the expected total box office take said nothing about how well they'd do. But when they dropped by only a single-digit percentage in the second weekend, I'm sure a lot of studio executives were rejoicing.

Anyway, Spiderman dropped around 37%, which is average for a smaller-time movie but remarkable for a humongous blockbuster that opened so hugely. Granted, its second weekend did not see much competition, whereas its third weekend most assuredly will. Still, its box office take seems to be ahead of The Phantom Menace, and I don't anticipate that Attack of the Clones will do substantially better than TPM, if even as well. But I could be wrong.