Star Wars earns US$108.5m in first US weekend

LOS ANGELES - George Lucas' final Star Wars movie scored the second-best three-day weekend of all time on Sunday, but the Force was not strong enough to prevent overall ticket sales in North America from posting a year-on-year-decline for the 13th consecutive weekend.

Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith sold an estimated US$108.5 million ($154 million) worth of tickets for the Friday-to-Sunday period, taking its total to US$158.5 million since it opened after midnight on Thursday.

Its four-day haul sets a new record, surpassing the US$134.3 million tally of 2003's The Matrix Reloaded. Its Thursday tally of US$50 million also set a one-day record, beating the US$44.8 million sum for Shrek 2 last year.

The three-day weekend record is held by Spider-Man, which opened to almost US$115 million in 2002. Revenge of the Sith narrowly pipped Shrek 2, which opened with US$108 million. Rankings could change when final data are issued on Monday.

The new Star Wars film easily beat the opening weekends of its two most recent predecessors, all of which were released by Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones nabbed US$80 million during its first weekend three years ago, while 1999's Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace kick-started the 28-year-old franchise with a US$64.8 million bow. They ended up with US$311 million and US$431 million respectively.

Revenge of the Sith answers the age-old question of how the evil warlord Darth Vader crossed over to the dark side. The critics were generally kind, perhaps mindful that Sith marks the end of an era and was not as bad as the last two much-maligned films.

But Rolling Stone magazine lamented writer/director Lucas' "special knack ... of turning flesh-and-blood characters into cardboard cutouts".

According to box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, the top 12 films earned about US$156 million during the weekend, down 4.5 per cent from the year-ago period. The losing streak is expected to continue into the upcoming Memorial Day weekend since last year's holiday was a record.

"It's going to take a lot to reverse this trend," said Exhibitor Relations president Paul Dergarabedian.

New releases next weekend include the animated comedy Madagascar and the football comedy remake The Longest Yard.

Elsewhere at the box office, last weekend's champ Monster-in-Law, starring Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda, slipped to No 2 with US$14.4 million, followed by sports comedy Kicking & Screaming, starring Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall, with US$10.5 million.

Monster-in-Law was released by New Line Cinema, a unit of Time Warner Inc. Kicking & Screaming was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of NBC Universal, which is majority owned by General Electric Co.

- REUTERS